A Ride with Bob, Asleep at the Wheel at the Zach Theatre, February 20 - 24, 2013

by Michael Meigs


This was my first time to see this comical-historical-pastoral concert piece by Ann Rapp and Texas music star big Ray Benson. You might well have seen early stagings in 2005 and later; the public message is that this four-night-and-two-matinee celebration is happening this week, February 20 - 24, as a farewell to Austin.

Jason Roberts (image: www.zachtheatre.org)

We may well hope that's a marketing ploy and not a definitive retirement decision, because the boys and girls in the band and in the cast are in fine form, and Ray Benson anchors the show with cheer and confidence. In any case we can take heart from the theme of A Ride with Bob: Texas swing music belongs to us all and Bob won't ever go away. Right there on stage we can see the fiddling tradition passing, alive and well, down through the generations -- not only in the narrated story of Bob Wills himself but also in the enthusiastic participation (in declining order of chronological age) of Walt Roberts, Jason Roberts as the fiddlin' Bob Wills, the delightful 16-year-old Ruby Jane Smith and the solemn and promising fifth grader Colby Sheppard.

Ray Benson, Marco Perrera (image: www.zachtheatre.org)

This jovial and tuneful evening is a cross between a good news mega-church service, a dance hall concert, serious biography and a comedy routines of the sort that Homer and Jethro used to do for RCA and the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Benson is always himself and the fiction is that he's tired of Interstate bus riding ("an hour and a half just to Round Rock"); he wants the tour bus to take the same North Texas two-lane roads that Bob Wills and his Playboys used to take. He's surprised to find that he has an unannounced substitute driver -- and even more surprised when that driver turns out to be the spirit of the great Bob himself. Marco Perella is droll and energetic in that role. As he relates his life to the astonished Ray (who inevitably addresses him by his full name, "Bob Wills!" complete with the exclamation point), the large cast takes us through scenes from Bob's life.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

A RIDE WITH BOB, Zach Theatre, February 20 - 24, 2013

hosts the Austin farewell performances of

A RIDE WITH BOB

A musical drama chronicling the life of Bob Wills

Feb. 20-24, 2013

 

Co-written by ANNE RAPP (author of Cookie’s Fortune and Dr. T and the Women) and RAY BENSON (nine-time GRAMMY award winner)

Starring RAY BENSON and ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL
at ZACH’s new Topfer Theatre, 202 South Lamar Blvd., (corner of Riverside Drive and South Lamar Blvd.)
Performances begin Wednesday, Feb. 20 and continue through Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013.
Wednesday-Friday: 7:30 p.m. -- Saturday and Sunday: 7:30 p.m. and 2 p.m.

To order tickets call 512-476-0541 ext. 1 or visit www.zachtheatre.org. Tickets range from $35 - $75. Bar opens one hour before showtime and remains open.


The play that started as a commemoration of Bob Wills’ 100^th birthday in 2005 is coming back to Austin for one final week of shows in February 2013. This first-ever musical drama about the legendary Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys debuted in Austin in 2005 and has since enjoyed great success in more than 70 performances in 19 cities.

“Every true-blue Texan needs to see this musical!” —PegasusNews.com

In 1973, just after the release of Asleep at the Wheel’s first album, young bandleader Ray Benson was invited to Dallas to meet the great Bob Wills. Upon his arrival, he learned Wills was not feeling well, and the meeting was postponed for the next morning. But the conversation Benson was so eager to have with his idol never happened; that same night Wills had a stroke and went into a life-ending coma. In A RIDE WITH BOB, Benson finally gets to have his long-anticipated conversation, albeit with the Spirit of Bob, who visits him on the Asleep at the Wheel bus late one night.


The fascinating and sometimes outrageous stories of Wills’ career, his contribution to American music, and his raucous personal life unfold in thrilling theatrical detail, and through the process Benson rediscovers his own passion and commitment as a bandleader and standard-bearer for Western swing music. The drama includes live performances of 15 of Wills’ most famous songs, including “San Antonio Rose,” “Faded Love,” “Cherokee Maiden,” “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” and many more.


 Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .