The pictures adorning the Five & Dime store’s dingy walls in far-west Texas showcase James Dean in all his brooding hotness — the white T-shirt, popped collar, and signature chiseled jawline beneath wavy blonde follicles. These are the attributes that made him a film legend at age 24 before a 1955 car wreck ripped him away from the masses.
While the store lives in perpetual stasis, the day at hand in this brand new musical features a critical anniversary: the 20th anniversary gathering of high school girlfriends who are part of the The Disciples of James Dean. It’s a group born of a tragic circumstance, but a pull of nostalgia overtakes each of these women who occupy their own stasis, folks whose spiritual deaths parallel Dean’s own tragedy.
With the source material of “Come Back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean,” which includes Ed Graczyk’s original 1976 play and Robert Altman’s 1982 film, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley’s world premiere adaptation is a gobsmacker, a well-balanced artistic opus that examines a group of women and their arrested development, with one returning to soar past all the others.
The crass charmer Loretta (Judith Miller) is spit-shining her establishment, known for its knick-knacks alongside an Orange Crush machine that spins the sugary libation. The ladies include the delusional Mona (Lauren Marcus), who spends her time convincing herself that one interaction with Dean — as an extra in his final film, the 1956 “Giant” — led to her birthing his child. There’s also Latina Edna Louise (Ashley Cowl), who avoided Jim Crow laws due to her light skin; sultry singer Sissy (Stephanie Gibson) and her painful past; and the Texas-loving country crooner Stella Mae (Hayley Lovgren), who had big city dreams only to be thrown back to the dusty, drought-infested land of her past.
Lives that simply march towards a mortal end are not ready for the mysterious Joanne (television actor Shakina), a trans woman bursting onto the scene who seems to know a lot about the group’s past, known 20 years ago to the group as Joe.
Each of the disciples have their own secrets to bear, life taking them on some brutal pathways, the piece leaning into powerful introspection. Sadly, current realities that see the attempted erasure of the transgender community, even brutal reminders of the country’s painful past when it comes to the languages we speak infuse the play with prescient tension. The issues of these women are societal issues we continue to wrestle with.
Dan Gillespie Sells’ music with Shakina’s lyrics are all kinds of wonderful, a varied steely sound that is fierce, twangy and playful. There is not just devastation inside the sentiments that replace the play’s epic monologues with singing soliloquies, but also piercing joy and emphatic defiance. Ashley Robinson’s book builds off the source material beautifully, a harmonic jaunt through spacine within the team’s unified sounds.
Director Giovanna Sardelli is a terrific storyteller, and in this case, her artistry works hand-to-glove with Nina Ball’s beautifully rustic scenic design. The store itself is a title character, the place that invites the reveals. That scenery also lends itself to a powerful transition in the dramatic arc that leads to even more painful lessons being revealed, further textured by Alina Bokovikova (costumes) and Y. Sharon Peng (wigs and hair)
These are characters fully realized, each desiring to resolve the problematic secrets they’ve dealt with in the past 20 years. Their ditties are delightful, poignant and powerful. Gibson’s Sissy leans into her massive talents as one who could have played the Grand Ol’ Opry; Marcus shines in her numbers as one who yearns for one more glance at Dean; and both Cowl and Lovgren sparkle in the talent show number, which infuriates with the jingoistic nature of a horribly racist elementary educator. Miller’s Loretta is a terrific caretaker, carrying her own shame while others remind her of the foul man she staked her life around. And the further texture of actor Ellie Van Amerongen in multiple roles creates beautiful tableaus.
Shakina’s Joanne is stupendously lovely in an all-white leisure suit. While other women had to merely walk into the store, Joanne had to survive to be seen, clawing her own way unapologetically to the top. Her number “Survival” demands the audience’s attention, serving as an anthem in today’s infuriating zeitgeist.
David John Chávez is chair of the American Theatre Critics/Journalists Association and a two-time juror for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (‘22-‘23); @davidjchavez.bsky.social.
‘COME BACK TO THE 5 & DIME, JIMMY DEAN, JIMMY DEAN’
World premiere, book by Ashley Robinson, music by Dan Gillespie Sells, lyrics by Shakina; presented by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley
Through: July 13
Where: Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View
Running time: 100 minutes, no intermission
Tickets: $44-$94; theatreworks.org
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( Review: Here’s how TheatreWorks made a classic story even better )
Also on site :