Country & Western star Hank Williams, one of our country's most dynamic and influential singer/songwriters, established his reputation and influence in only five years. He cut his first single, "Move It On Over," in 1946, at the age of 23, had his first of many hits "Lovesick Blues" and his spectacular Grand Ole Opry debut two years later. Death claimed him, the victim of painkillers and alcohol, in the back seat of his car en route to a concert New Year's Eve, at the age of 29.
He started life with a painful congenital spinal defect, got his first guitar when he was eight, started drinking at 10, played on the streets at 11 and in local honky tonks at 16. His life ended in 1952 along with the demise of the Romantic South, where many still had no electricity, just before the Elvis phenomenon and Civil Rights Movement. It was the intimate, honest, direct-from-the-gut quality of his pain/love/loneliness-inspired songs that resonated with major artists in other arenas of the music world. Successfully incorporating his music into their repertoire were such stars as George Jones, Alan Jackson, Ray Charles, Dinah Washington, Linda Ronstadt, Rosemary Clooney, Tony Bennett and even Beck. His legacy continues in the hands of Hank Williams, Jr. and Hank Williams, III. His numerous posthumous awards continue. As recently as 2000, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Die" was listed as "one of the 100 Most Important Musical Works of the 20th Century."
In their biomusical homage Randal Myler and Mark Harelik have elected to let the wall-to-wall music to speak for itself, the script a thin thread connecting song to song. We meet Williams as a young performer in the church choir his mother organized. He soon neglected school to play in his little band and drink hooch. His significant relationship with a down-and-out Black man, Tee Tot, taught him the blues that colored his music. While on the road with Mama Lilly and his band, he met and soon married Audrey, who initially prodded his career towards his first guest appearance, in 1949, at the prized Grand Ole Opry, which catapulted him and the group to fame. Success as a regular on that show led to road tours. But the marital tension that comes from long separations fueled increased drinking and drugs (prescription painkillers washed down with alcohol) and the rapid decline in his career till his tragic, untimely death.
The star of the show, of course, is its music as served up in crackerjack form by actor/writer/musician Jason Petty who originated his role as Williams (and resembles the lanky young man) in 1996 in Nashville. Multi-talented Stephen Anthony, Myk Watford, Drew Perkins and Russ Wever are his buddies in their shit-kicking, honky-tonk bluesy band, The Drifting Cowboys.
The authentic replication of the music and the many recognizable song titles ("Jambalaya," "I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You," "'Long Gone Lonesome Blues," "Your Cheatin' Heart," "I Saw The Light," "Hey, Good Lookin'," among the 20-plus offerings) certainly surprises and delights the audience of young and old alike, who are already devoted fans.
Margaret Bowman and Tertia Lynch offer cartoon-y characterizations of Williams' strong Mama Lilly and his self-centered wife, Audrey. More interesting are the minor, tandem roles of the magnificent voiced Michael Howell as Tee Tot, who taught young Williams the meaning of the blues and then became a Greek chorus-type mentor singing ominous musical phrases from the side, setting the tone for the scenes. The other member of the Greek chorus is the waitress, Juliet Smith who, behind the counter throughout the show, comments on life in that part of the country, responds to William's songs on the radio and reflects his varying impact on the people, until she is beckoned from her post for a brief encounter with a drugged, drunk, despondent Williams on a stoned spree which almost kills him. The reprise of Williams' songs at the end of the story abandons the slim attempt at a play and turns the show into what it really is, a musical tribute.
At his eulogy, Dr. Henry Lyons summed it up: Hank had a message. It was written in the language of all people. It was the message of the things everyone feels. Life itself!
