Sundown
Reviews
“A GREAT MUSICAL PLAY”
-- Bristol Herald Courier (Virginia)
"Shootout makes bang-up musical.”
--Dallas Morning News
"Western hits the mark as musical."
--Fort Worth Star-Telegram
“Magical theatre at its finest!”
-- The Column (Dallas)
“A rollicking good time.”
--Washington County News (Virginia)
"Beautiful songs. ‘Sundown’ is haunting."
-Rupert Holms,Tony Award Winning Composer
Ascap Musical Theatre Workshop
"The music is terrific. A tuneful show."
--Stephen Schwartz, Academy Award-winning coomposer
ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop
"A melodic and engrossing musical
Unexpected in its subject and treatment."
--Jim Morgan, Artistic Director, York Theatrre Company
"The score and book are excellent."
--Ted Tulchin, Producer of Pulitzer Prize wiinning play Dinner with Friends
“Wonderful. Put me on the
mailing list.”
-- Jim Vagias,
Executive Producer American Stage Company
ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop
"A quintessential
American musical about a
quintessential American story.”
-- Charles Towers, Artistic Director, Merrimmack Repertory Company
BARTER THEATRE
PRODUCTION
Sundown Combines Grit and Beauty
Barter Theatre has been selected for the East Coast premier of Sundown, a wonderful new musical drama that recounts the events leading up to the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral...
This show stands head and shoulders above any western-type musical I can remember, including such a favorite as Oklahoma. Actually, to compare Sundown to other western musicals is probably unfair to all. Sundown, although containing singing, dancing, and some pretty funny bits, has a gritty, almost morbid reality to it that befits its subject, a shootout that resulted in the immediate deaths of three men, the severe wounding of two more, and, probably, the final curtain on what we today know as the Old West.
It is through the viewpoint of Doc Holliday that we see the escalation of violence. The truth about who was in the right… has long ago been blown away in the dusty Arizona wind… This is not a story about saints.
This play has several fantastic songs, probably the best of which is the first: “Arizona Morning” sung by Holliday and the male ensemble. Other notable numbers include “We Ain’t Never Had It So Good,” “Politickin’,” “Bridges,” and “Another Time."A great musical play.
- Robert McKinney, Bristol Herald Courier
Sundown, a Rollicking Success
Sundown is a rollicking, tuneful re-telling of the Old-West tale of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. The challenge of this enterprise is to bring a fresh and engaging approach to a story so well known as to have become a part of mythic Americana. Joe Bravaco and Larry Rosler’s script, Peter Link and Rosler’s songs, and Richard Rose’s staging succeed in doing so by borrowing from several models in roughly equal parts: the traditional stage musical, the ancient Greek myth, the Western movie, and a Bud Light commercial.
As in all good traditional musicals, the songs consistently entertain, illuminate character, and advance the story.
Sundown retells the events, which occurred in Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881, not as history, but as myth, and that with an original twist. Wyatt Earp becomes a largely comic figure – drunken and infantile, while Sundown’s hero is the multi-dimensional character of Doc Holliday, who finds himself, like a Wild-West Sisyphus, caught in a cruelly ironic situation.
From the Western movie, Sundown borrows several supporting characters. Each of the bad-guy members of the Clanton gang has his shtick -- one is wily, one is naïve, one is hot headed.
Finally, by my reference to the model of a Bud Light commercial, I mean that a sly, roguish humor energizes the dialogue and action of most scenes.
Sundown is highly theatrical and an enjoyable musical variation on an archetypal story.
- Warren M. Harris, Washington County News
LYRIC STAGE PRODUCTION
Great Tale, Tunes Fly at Ok Corral
On Saturday, Irving’s company, devoted to new or seldom-performed musicals, opened Sundown, its ninth premier in the last six years. Sundown corrals some great songs. In fact, Peter Link’s score may be Lyric Stage’s strongest discovery yet. Fortunately, it also has one of the best stories from the Old West, the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
-- Lawson Taitte, The Dallas Morning News
Western Classic Hits the Mark as Musical
Ah, the joys of live theatre: the roar of the crowd, the smell of the greasepaint and the gun smoke.
Yes, the gun smoke. The actors at Lyric Stage are packing real six-shooters. That’s only fitting for a musical that climaxes with the gunfight at the OK Corral.
Sundown authors Joe Bravaco and Larry Rosler focus on John "Doc" Holliday, the Baltimore dentist, who moved to Arizona for his health and became a legendary gunfighter. His story woks well as a musical, Doc himself being worthy of an opera. The best singers in producer Steve Jones’ premiere are Kevin Varner as Doc and Gina Biancardi as a version of Katie Elder.
Recall Biancardi’s material figure in Allegro and you’ll appreciate her acting stretch here as a bawdy belle always ready for "One More Drink." That number leads to a hangover of Olympian scope, and Biancardi plays it down and dirty. She fires the show’s first big solo salvo with "Bridges," tops herself with "Prisoner," then joins Varner on the soaring "Another Time."
--Perry Stewart, Forth Worth Star-Telegram
Sundown at Lyric Stage
One of the best elements of the production is the score itself. There are nineteen songs interspersed within the book, and they are both powerful and beautifully written. The score’s best moments come from Link’s majestic solos . . . Some of my favorite arias included "Arizona Morning", "The Rest of My Life”, "Bridges”, "Sundown”, "You Ain’t No Prisoner”, and the haunting "Another Time." All are gold nuggets! The music is moving, with an air of country western mixed with a light dusting of pop/rock overtones.
From the opening number of foreshadowing, to the cryptic and dark ending of Act One, to the tour de force Act Two . . . .it is magical theatre at its finest! The end result is another artistic gem of a production.
--John Garcia, The Column
ASCAP MUSICAL THEATRE WORKSHOP
"We are accustomed in westerns to having good guys and bad guys. There’s Marshall Dillon, who’s keeping law in town, and then there are the bad guys. Here you have a show where everybody’s behavior is extremely morally ambiguous. They are all bad guys. The guy who’s the sheriff two seconds ago is planning to hit the stage. There is something interesting about that. It’s an asset because it makes it more true to life, more adult. Moral ambiguity is very interesting. The music is terrific. It’s nice to hear theatre music written around a guitar. It’s very refreshing. What you have here is something that is clearly a tuneful show in a place and time. It’s a fresh thing to do for the musical theatre. It feels fresh, musically, for the genre. You have compelling characters. You are already far ahead of the game. You guys are skilled at doing this."
--Stephen Schwartz
"First of all, I can tell you that I’m delighted with what I heard. However, I’m sitting here really teed-off that I don’t get to hear act two. So, I can’t give you any stronger recommendation than I’m sitting here teed-off, denied. I’m really intrigued by what you’re doing. I happen to be immensely fond of westerns. Like the musical, this is an American art form. There’s something very exciting about any musical that’s a western. You have many elements in place. You have beautiful songs. ‘Sundown’ is haunting. ‘Bridges,’ the same."
--Rupert Holmes
"I want to echo what Rupert said. I thoroughly enjoyed it. There are some delicious moments. ‘Politickin’" is terrific. It sets up characters, sets up conflict, and does it economically and enjoyably. ‘One More Drink’ has a great feel; the lyrics felt great, rousing, not down and dirty, but just fun. There is a bit of dialogue, ‘more stalls than a stable.’ It’s wonderful, and a wonderful setup for a gorgeous song. ‘Bridges’ is a lovely, lovely song. Sometimes you get a song that lays out the character. That’s what ‘Bridges’ does. Kudos on that one. The card scene: I liked the dialogue and the tension. I like a card cheat being caught, and you did it theatrically. I really thought this was wonderful. Put me on the mailing list. I want to be there."
--Jim Vagias
