May We All at HCT

Last night I had a chance to see May We All, a new jukebox musical featuring songs by Brooks & Dunn, Chris Stapleton, Dolly Parton, Florida Georgia Line, Johnny Cash, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Little Big Town, Loretta Lynn, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Sara Evans, Tim McGraw, and Zac Brown Band, and, despite a really cheesy story, some exaggerated performances that feel more like caricatures than real people, and a genre of music that I usually dislike, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would (I almost didn't go because I thought I would hate it). Jenna Coates (Dawn Deitlein) returns to her hometown of Harmony, Tennessee after struggling to pursue her dream of becoming a country music star in Nashville for two years.  However, going home again is not as easy as she expected because Harmony is facing a hard economic future, her parents Crystal (Adrien Swenson) and Harley (Brock Harris) and her sister Kylie (Savannah Carrasco) are hurt that she has seemingly abandoned them for fame and fortune, her best friend Liz (Libby Ferguson) is struggling with the loss of her brother, and her ex-boyfriend Dustin (Nathan Bowser) is seeing someone new (Teaira Burge) who just happens to want to bring a big box store to Harmony. She eventually realizes how important her friends and family, and Dustin, are to her and that the best way to help Harmony is to bring the music back. However, what will happen when her biggest Nashville dream suddenly comes true? The story follows the plot of every Hallmark movie ever made (which is not necessarily a bad thing but I am not a fan) so I didn't find it very compelling. I also didn't like the portrayal of some of the characters because the performances (especially those of Swenson and Harris), the costumes, and the hair really lean into stereotypes (to be fair I don't really know many people from this area of the country but it seemed a bit overdone for laughs to me). I am not a big fan of country music but, to my surprise, the musical performances are what I enjoyed the most. An insanely talented band, including Kelly DeHaan on keyboards, Eric Noyes on keyboards, Memphis Hennesy on guitar, Bryan Hague on guitar, Davin Tayler on bass guitar, Julie Beistline on fiddle, and Todd Mitchell on drums, are located on stage in the wings and they sound great! The female leads are also outstanding, particularly Deitlein and Ferguson. I loved Deitlein's performance of "Born to Fly," "Play Something Country" with Ferguson, "Can't Go Back" with Bowser, "Rainbow" with Carrasco, and "Back to My Boots" (an original song by Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard) with the company.  As always, the set is phenomenal and I loved the use of large wooden panels suspended from the rafters for projections and live feeds during the musical numbers. This wasn't really my cup of tea but I'm glad I saw it and I'm sure fans of country music will absolutely love it! This runs on the Young Living Centre Stage through June 8 with lots of tickets (go here) available.