EMAIL ME. Set designer: Christine Jones Ordered 14th July , turned up in UK 24th July. But along the way, the musical introduces Keegan Theatre audiences to an appealing mix of characters, whose problems aren’t always the fodder of Broadway material. Glad it has been remastered. The show was based on a documentary of the same name, had a brief Broadway run in 2013 and is known for helping launch the career of “The Greatest Showman” star Keala Settle.

The score is more pleasant than memorable, but even the lesser numbers serve to tell micro-stories that contribute to the broader-canvas picture of a struggling community. Her weakness for clunky rhymes aside, Amanda Green’s lyrics take a similar tack, often building directly upon the flavorful dialogue of the screen contestants, as in songs like “Human Drama Kind of Thing,” “Hunt With the Big Dogs” or “Keep Your Hands On It.” If the numbers appear to be ticking off a laundry list of real-people problems – financial worries, healthcare, immigrant stigma, PTSD, marital fatigue – the melodies have plenty of variety. That makes this gently appealing show a welcome change of pace, even if its folksy simplicity makes it a commercial challenge. You need to see this movie about what some people will do to win a (hardbody) truck! Reviewed in the United States on September 26, 2019, My wife and I love this documentary. try{s('F10834_sb');}catch(e){};

Among its most infectiously charming individuals is Norma (Shayla Lowe), a religious woman who has entire churches praying for her victory. Your recently viewed items and featured recommendations, Select the department you want to search in, Reviewed in the United States on May 9, 2014. I was surprised at the cost a little but I needed it. F10834_sb_requiredFields.push('F10834_sb_feedid'); TWITTER In HANDS ON A HARDBODY, now making its Chicago premiere with Refuge Theatre Project, the mobility offered by that titular hardbody truck is not just of the wheeled variety. But even if Broadway ends up being only a branding stop, this tender collection of hard-luck heartland stories should go on to become a popular regional entry. Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2015. Sunny but prickly self-proclaimed redneck Janis (Valerie Adams Rigsbee) has six kids to feed. Hands on a Hardbody. The eponymous contest was an annual event run by a Nissan dealership in Longview, Texas, where selected entrants vied to see who could remain upright with one hand planted on the prize for the longest time. Sound Design: Gordon Nimmo-Smith. It's a real story about real people and their individual needs -- why they want to spend hours on their feet, in the heat, to win a truck. Sound designer: Steve Canyon Kennedy Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2020. Think about its premise: the contest offers the opportunity to throw a group of semi-desperate souls from rural Texas together to share their life stories and the circumstances that drove them to spend days standing around in pain and in hunger, all for the possibility of taking home a brand new truck.

fbz_FitForm('F10834_sb'); © 2020 The Hollywood Reporter She lives in Falls Church, Va. with her husband, John. This page works best with JavaScript. The film is a kinder, less downbeat modern-day equivalent of Sydney Pollack’s 1969 Depression-era dance marathon drama, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? Having resourcefully reimagined Grey Gardens as a musical, he sticks closer to the original mold on his book for this project, updating it to the present to tap into current economic unease. The key characters are represented accurately and without condescension, albeit some of them as composite figures, expanding on traits and back-stories only suggested in the movie. var F10834_sb_wait=setInterval(F10834_sb_wait_fn,100); Reprint Policy: Our articles may not be reprinted in full but only as excerpts and those portions may only be used if a credit and link is provided to our website. But this fact-based endurance contest is actually a sincere story of blue-collar Middle Americans living paycheck to paycheck while striving for a reprieve that’s as much symbolic as material. “Oh, it’s a musical about one of those contests where people stand around a truck and the last person who takes their hands off it wins the truck,” I said. Top subscription boxes – right to your door, © 1996-2020, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. To do so, they must keep their hands … Predating the epidemic of reality-contest television, the movie is both heartbreaking and quietly uplifting. The unpretentious integrity of the material, the straight-up presentation of the characters and the likable cast encourage you to root for them, yielding many affecting moments. With Andres Alejandro Ponce, Caroline Dubberly, Duane Richards II, John Loughney, Shayla Lowe, Willie Garner, Patrick M. Doneghy, Katie McManus, Valerie Adams Rigsbee, Gary DuBreuil, Josh Sticklin, Kari Ginsburg, Dana Nearing, Maggie Leigh Walker, Oscar Ceville, and Selena Clyne-Galindo. Orchestrations: Trey Anastasio, Don Hart At the time of his death, Robert Altman had been planning a dramatic feature based on Bindler’s doc. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. The Hollywood Reporter, LLC is a subsidiary of Prometheus Global Media, LLC. Seems to be difficult to obtain or stream currently so I was happy to find a DVD. They each deserve their own “I Want” song, right? var F10834_sb_wait_img=fbz_formMetrics(10834,1);

Staged by Keegan Theatre. Bindler, Hands on a Hardbody seems an equally unlikely candidate for musicalization. Lighting designer: Kevin Adams Just saw the musical for this and wanted to see the documentary. fbz$('F10834_sb_wait_img').innerHTML=F10834_sb_wait_img; The last person to remain standing with his or her hand on the truck wins.

Bindler. If you have an opportunity to see the musical -- under the same name -- you will enjoy it. Terms of Use | The cast isn’t entirely glued to the gleaming red truck at center stage (every six hours brings a convenient 15-minute reprieve for the players, and suspension of disbelief allows them to occasionally wander away from the vehicle during musical numbers). Theater and food are her two main passions, and she spends her days working as associate cities editor for the national restaurant news publication, Eater. Disabling it will result in some disabled or missing features. Examining hardscrabble lives rooted in today’s bleak economic reality is hardly the usual domain of the Broadway musical.

Choreography by Elena Velasco. Prime members enjoy FREE Delivery and exclusive access to music, movies, TV shows, original audio series, and Kindle books. Book by Doug Wright, music by Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green, lyrics by Amanda Green . . F10834_sb_requiredFields.push('F10834_sb_cids'); THR Staff Perhaps not the most sophisticated musical ever to reach Broadway, but refreshing in its depiction of ordinary people facing ordinary struggles. Two notable exceptions are Grey Gardens, based on the 1975 Maysles Brothers film about the eccentric Bouvier Beale women of East Hampton; and Southern Comfort, taken from Kate Davis’ 2001 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner about a surrogate transgender family in backwoods Georgia. It weaves together the individual stories of a disparate group of characters whose collective goal in this case is not to win a part in a Broadway ensemble but to take home a brand-new pickup truck. Based on a 1997 documentary, Hands is … Directed by S.R. Green shared composing duties with Phish frontman Trey Anastasio; their songs speak primarily in a twangy country-flavored blues-rock vernacular, with detours into roots, gospel and even mariachi. by Missy Frederick has been a theater critic in greater Washington since 2005, when she began as the founding critic for DCist.com. try{ Privacy | Why would the costume designer not get listed in the credits with all the rest of the designers? My sister asked me what play I was going to see as we wrapped up our phone call. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umeyXYToV7A, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkNqvlC2JuA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJstIEx6EnU, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgwrQMrknQQ&fbclid=IwAR0VLNdQm9GXjK3wKWwLny320SfqqXToZHLnPKxLPvX4xMWE0cwwexUqoEA, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXKUgjYh7lo. var F10834_sb_requiredFields=new Array();var F10834_sb_validateFields=new Array(); Book: Doug Wright, based on the film by S. R. Bindler So it’s a serendipitous connection that JD, one of the central roles of this ensemble piece, is played by Keith Carradine, whose voice still has that same warm crackle it had back when he sang “I’m Easy” in Nashville. Quentin Tarantino said this is the best doc ever made. Theater review: ‘Hands on a Hardbody’ at ACT. All rights reserved. There’s JD (Patrick M. Doneghy), approaching retirement age but recently injured and laid off from his dangerous job site. ... in the musical Hands on a Hardbody. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. So I bought it . She has contributed arts and theater coverage to such publications as DCist, Washingtonian, the Washington Business Journal, and the Washington Examiner. The show runs through Sunday, June 30. Given the static nature of the premise, director Neil Pepe and choreographer Sergio Trujillo do a remarkable job of injecting motion into the production as the contestants drop out one by one due to physical or mental exhaustion. Sitemap | Filed Under: Our Reviews Tagged With: keegan. Doug Wright has honored the source material’s approach in his adaptation, originally seen last year at La Jolla Playhouse. And they each get one (and sometimes even more than that) — at two and a half hours, Hands on a Hardbody’s composers Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green could probably stand to drop a reprise or two. But overall, it’s a pleasure to get to know each contestant briefly during Hands on a Hardbody. Lyrics: Amanda Green Musical staging: Sergio Trujillo clearInterval(F10834_sb_wait); FACEBOOK var F10834_sb_fieldcol='#000000';

F10834_sb_validateFields.push('F10834_sb_Name'); Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Music director, vocal arrangements: Carmel Dean When the original movie was discontinued, I was so sad. The music is awesome and the stories about the individuals are unbelievable! Twenty-four people congregate at a Longview car dealership with the same goal: winning a new, option-packed Nissan Hardbody pickup. Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2014. I'm glad I was able to purchase the remastered copy! Her arts writing has earned her awards with the Virginia Press Association, as well as a fellowship with the National Endowment for the Arts.