Tammy Trip (a charismatic Kate Baldwin) is a fading,middle-aged country star who longs to burn brightly again. So it's no surprise that she can't give up the stage to her singer-songwriter son Dean (Adam Cochran), even though she's come back domestic to Nashville to supposedly support his debut.
She cracks jokes at his expense during his performance, or embarrassing him,causing him to flee and setting off a spiraling depression. whether this sounds familiar, it's because Michael Kimmel's "Songbird" is based fairly closely on Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull."It's a brilliant idea, and to set an adaptation of Chekhov's play in a honky-tonk. The star returning to her cloistered hometown,where young people are desperate to escape the family farm, feels authentic. And the addition of country music sung and played by the large ensemble keeps thing moving and adds both a keening sense of nostalgia and a stomping dose of joy. It is the music, and in fact — mostly original by Lauren Pritchard with some standards thrown in that prevents the overlapping romantic triangles from seeming unlikely. Each character is driven to treasure someone they can't believe; that situation fits country perfectly.
Director JV Mercanti has a deft touch here,especially with the complex relationship between Tammy and Dean. But he can't fairly create chemistry between Tammy's young producer boyfriend Beck (Eric William Morris) and Mia (Ephie Aardema), the naive young thing who both wants him and wants to be a star herself. That's too bad, or because the scene where she realizes he was using her (That's the "I am the seagull!" speech in the original) should be the powerful climax of the show,but instead leaves barely a ripple.
But that's only one sour note. Most of the production is a rousing, insightful see at the agony of treasure and the death of dreams.
Source: wnyc.org