REVIEW: Circa Female Trio Excels in Heavenly, Comforting ‘Honky Tonk Angels’
Because of scheduling conflicts, I was relatively late to see the latest show at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, in its 49th season, but the utterly delightful, foot-stomping good time “Honky Tonk Angels” was worth the wait.
The revue of 30 classic country songs (including reprises and one appropriate REO Speedwagon hit) has a paper-thin plot, but is gloriously entertaining, comforting and inspiring. Like many Circa shows, it offers a familiar, lovely home away from home – a place where (unlike much of our crazy real world) decency, compassion and empathy reign supreme. “Honky Tonk Angels” is a celebration of female country music stars, telling the story of three fictional women who leave their mundane lives behind to pursue their dreams of singing in Nashville.
Angela (Syd Richardson) is a housewife, weary of standing by her man and his coming home a-drinkin’ with lovin’ on his mind, who decides that her boots were made for walking. Sue Ellen (Marion Stenfort) has abandoned working nine-to-five to reconnect with her childhood home, and Darlene was born a coal miner’s daughter, but after Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchee Bridge, she packed up her guitar and set out to fulfill the dream they shared.
The cast of “Honky Tonk Angels,” now playing at Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse through April 25.
Unlike most Circa musicals, the dinner theater features a top-notch, tight live band on stage – Emmett Boedeker on keyboard, Steve Lasiter on guitar, Tom Pickett on steel guitar, Brad Hauskins on bass and Scott Pauley on drums. The show is made extra special with its true-life couple: Lasiter, returning to the Rock Island stage after a 14-year hiatus, with his wife Jennifer Barnaba (my favorite of the three singers, most magnetic and mesmerizing) as Darlene, last seen at Circa in “Saturday Night Fever” in 2021.
For the past eight years, Lasiter (who has several credits at Circa and the former District Theatre and Harrison Hilltop on his resume) has toured North America with Barnaba, with over 850 performances logged as Johnny Cash in “Million Dollar Quartet,” and 200 as the title role in “The Buddy Holly Story.” The husband-and-wife team while here will also bring their country cabaret “Cash, Carter & Co.” to the Circa ’21 Speakeasy on Thursday night, April 16.
The show’s live band includes Steven Lasiter, left, and Brad Hauskins, with Jennifer Barnaba.
Directing Circa’s new production – with confidence and affection — is frequent dinner theater performer Tristan Tapscott, recently seen in such musicals as “Come from Away,” “Mary Poppins” and “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas.” “Honky Tonk Angels” marks his 75th Circa show, but his directing debut here. A wrench in the works before opening thrust Circa Bootlegger Hanna Marie Felver into the bountiful blonde wig as Sue Ellen for the first week of the run; she is the show understudy for Darlene and Sue Ellen, and had to go on after Stenfort was injured on her way to her Circa debut.
The New York City-based Stenfort (graduate of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy) came back to her part this past Friday night and it looks like she never missed a beat. Among her “Honky Tonk” highlights – where the super talented, gregarious women occasionally drift into the audience – are invigorating versions of “9 to 5,” “These Boots Are Made for Walking,” and the cute hoot “Cornell Crawford” (in shorts and pig tails), where Sue Ellen recalls the joy of her first true love.
Circa veteran Richardson has the strongest, most enthusiastic personality of the trio, which consistently displays gorgeous, smooth three-part harmonies, in over a third of all the songs, starting with “I’ll Fly Away” at the top of the show. The fitting flying theme of the story – where the women pursue their dreams, their heavenly voices soaring – includes closers to the first and second acts incorporating REO’s “Time for Me to Fly.”
Jennifer Barnaba, left, Syd Richardson, and Hanna Marie Felver (an understudy who played Sue Ellen the first week of the run).
Richardson most often interacts with the audience, including asking where someone is from and when the response was Coal Valley, she quipped, “I spent a week there one night.” Local country music icon Suzy Bogguss (an Aledo native) also gets a shoutout from the stage.
The spectacular Circa costume designer Bradley Robert Jensen again expertly outfits the female cast from a full closet of widely varying outfits and wigs. Richardson has some of the most impressive costume changes in the second act – a leopard-print mini-skirt and red heels for “Harper Valley PTA”; bathrobe and nightgown for “Barroom Habits” and the pinnacle of sophistication in long red hair, and striking long red, sparkly gown for the bewitching waltz, “Almost Persuaded,” and Syd is absolutely stunning and statuesque in that number.
In the second half, Richardson also has fun introducing a special male guest star (rotating every performance) from the audience to the stage. Tapscott said that mention of that character — Bar Manager Billy Joe Walker — is in the script and most of what Sydney says is in the script in that way. “We simply added her welcoming an actual person on stage with a quip about them. We then added them into the finale so they can jam with the band and take a bow. It’s just a way to PLUS the experience!” the director said recently. (Full disclosure: I am scheduled to be guest star on April 8.)
Sydney Richardson as Angela in “Almost Persuaded in Act II of “Honky Tonk Angels.”
The true star of the “Honky Tonk” trio, in the story and on stage, is Barnaba as Darlene, who also sometimes accompanies herself on acoustic guitar. She absolutely shines in “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “Ode to Billy Joe,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night,” “Rocky Top” and “Angels Among Us.” Imploring all of us to follow our dreams and treat each other with kindness, she epitomizes the selfless model of the show, appealing to our better angels. “Help Me Make It” is an especially beautiful ballad, and Barnaba unfurls angelic high notes, modulates even higher at the end with a stupendous finish.
The show takes its title from one number, “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” the 1952 song recorded by Kitty Wells, the first No. 1 country hit by a solo woman. While there’s very little interaction between the great band and singers, the band alone gets to be featured in its own number at the top of Act II, the rollicking “Trashy Woman,” with vocals by Lasiter and Hauskins.
The close harmonies among the women are even more impressive in several instances they sing without accompaniment. The Act I “I Will Always Love You” is a clear three-part highlight, flawless and perfectly meshed with the gentle, hypnotic band, faithful to the 1974 roots of the Dolly Parton original. I also love the huge guitar replica as set piece, whose hole the ladies enter and exit. (Becky Meissen is set designer.)
“Honky Tonk Angels” will be presented through April 25, with performances on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday matinées at 1:15 p.m. Pre-show entertainment featuring the theatre’s wait staff, the Bootleggers, also will precede all performances. Ticket prices are $70 for the Friday-Sunday performances and $63 for the Wednesday matinee and evening productions.
Reservations are available through the Circa ’21 ticket office, 1828 3rd Ave., Rock Island, by calling 309-786-7733 ext. 2, or visiting circa21.com.
Marion Stenfort plays Sue Ellen the remainder of the run of Circa’s “Honky Tonk Angels,” through April 25, 2026.
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