Don Smith said it best: RMT's Where the Great Ones Run is like a country song.
It actually does contain a country song, which is sweet and perfectly timed, but the whole play feels like a country song: substance abuse, struggling with inner demons, abandoned or neglected families, women who love men that don't deserve it, and men who are begrudgingly beguiling.
Add in the Bible Belt mindset of smalltown folk, and you've got yourself a delightful portrayal of reality. So real that you feel you're in the diner where it takes place, sitting at a faraway table.
The story is predictable - which is actually fitting because that's part of the point. It not really about the plot, but about everyday interactions and relationships and finding the blissful moments within family dysfunction.
Save for one actress's performance, the acting is wonderful and believable, with the right amount of comic relief moments. The acting in general is so good that you don't realize how many people are in the cast until the final bow. Why do I say that? Because we're in smalltown Americana, and the performances of most of the cast - the diner's patrons - have to be equally small, mundane, simple. It's difficult to believe that Jeff Kober is not actually Sonny Burl because the part fits him like a glove.
It actually does contain a country song, which is sweet and perfectly timed, but the whole play feels like a country song: substance abuse, struggling with inner demons, abandoned or neglected families, women who love men that don't deserve it, and men who are begrudgingly beguiling.
Add in the Bible Belt mindset of smalltown folk, and you've got yourself a delightful portrayal of reality. So real that you feel you're in the diner where it takes place, sitting at a faraway table.
The story is predictable - which is actually fitting because that's part of the point. It not really about the plot, but about everyday interactions and relationships and finding the blissful moments within family dysfunction.
Save for one actress's performance, the acting is wonderful and believable, with the right amount of comic relief moments. The acting in general is so good that you don't realize how many people are in the cast until the final bow. Why do I say that? Because we're in smalltown Americana, and the performances of most of the cast - the diner's patrons - have to be equally small, mundane, simple. It's difficult to believe that Jeff Kober is not actually Sonny Burl because the part fits him like a glove.
