Lone Star Love -- "It ain't over 'til it's overdone"

Last night, in the face of too-cold-too-soon autumn weather, we corralled our friend (and friend of the Slog) Carollani into her badass newish car and headed over to the 5th Avenue Theater for the official opening night of Lone Star Love--a Broadway-bound musical playing now through Sept. 30.

We'll just cut to the chase. Lone Star Love has everything it needs to be a huge, raucous Broadway hit. There's the ballsy black woman, the unattractive drunk guy who thinks he's the bomb, the bluegrass band, the hot blonde, the smart older woman, the jealous husband, the gay character who kind of reminds Seattlest of Buster from Arrested Development, and a trio of gay-acting straight cowboy dancers.

Let's take a moment to pay tribute to the exceptional band that not only plays all of the music in the show, but also makes up part of the cast. The Red Clay Ramblers are an exquisitely tight crew of pickers, and their role in the show is a big part of what makes the whole thing roll so smoothly.

In the interest of not giving away all the play's secrets, we'll refrain from sharing most of the quotable moments, but we will mention the impressive sets and the humorous way things like campfires just slide onto the stage. Regardless of what Clarke Thorell told us in our interview a few weeks ago, there are a few rather blatant stabs at current world events (the smart older woman character at one point exclaims, "Just because you own a ranch in Texas doesn't make you qualified to be a politician, George!"). It was these moments that brought the crowd from their constant din of chuckles to all-out "Oh Snap!"-style laughter.

As the gentleman said when he announced the show, the company still has a few kinks to iron out. We started to agree during a few of the more sentimental songs about love and all that gooey crap. They started to feel a little out of place in a play that otherwise seemed to be written by a bunch of goofballs. Then some ridiculous remark would be made, phantom dogs would bark offstage, something would happen to remind us nothing's worth taking that seriously.

Of course, Lone Star Love isn't all silliness for silliness' sake. Now and then, a line from the original Shakespeare sneaks its way in, proving some literary value. When it does, it happens so smoothly you probably wouldn't notice unless you're a Shakespeare freak like Seattlest.

Let's face it: musicals are a little corny. The bad ones are so corny, it makes us cringe. Then there are great musicals like Lone Star Love, corny enough that we want to be corny, too. So corny, we clap and stomp along with a big, corny grin on our face, our mouth slightly open, our head bobbing all the way through the curtain call. Deliciously, fabulously, "Oh no you di'in't" kind of corny. As Carollani noted, and we paraphrase, the show was like Oklahoma with balls.

(As an aside, we were hanging out in the lobby while she ducked into the bathroom with her vodka, when lo and behold! We spotted Mindy Cohn--Natalie from The Facts of Life. We briefly thought about walking up to Cohn and singing the Facts of Life theme song, but decided against it because neither of us knew the lyrics and that would've been really awkward.)

Thanks to Molly at 5th Ave Theater for the newer, better photo! Photo © Michael Powers