All the Fame of Lofty Deeds

Description
The storytelling doesn't quite live up to the music, culled from a decade's worth of Jon Langford's Bloodshot Records catalog, in playwright Mark Guarino's fantasia about a fading country & western star looking back on his career and “the death of country music.” Guarino's script often sounds like a word jumble of Old West tropes, all horizons and frontiers. Director Tommy Rapley's visually gorgeous production leaves us at arm's length emotionally, but there's enough invention here to suggest a possible rejuvenation of the House's old promise.—KV