Gaslight Dinner Theatre show celebrates women of country music

Release Date: 5/6/2005. Expired: 6/25/2005

The woman’s voice in the evolution of country music is celebrated in The Honky Tonk Angels, a new musical revue written by the author of the extremely popular Always... Patsy Cline.

The Gaslight Dinner Theatre at The Renaissance Center in Dickson presents The Honky Tonk Angels June 2-25. Performances are Fridays and Saturdays beginning with a buffet meal at 6:30 p.m. and the show at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $27 and include dinner, drink, dessert and the performance. Reservations are required by noon the day of each show.

To meet the growing demand of The Renaissance Center’s popular Senior Matinees, midday shows will be presented on Thursdays and Fridays, beginning with the buffet lunch at noon and the show at 1 p.m. Tickets for patrons 55 and older are $17 and reservations are required by noon the day before each show.

Tickets for The Honky Tonk Angels went on sale May 2 and Senior Matinees normally sell out quickly.

“Beginning with this show, we are doubling the number of senior matinees offered for each production,” said Pacer Harp, managing director of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre. “Since we introduced the matinees, they have become one of the most popular activities at The Renaissance Center and the matinees usually sell out the day tickets go on sale.”

The Honky Tonk Angels is written by Ted Swindley, who also wrote Always... Patsy Cline, which enjoyed a tremendously successful run when presented by the Gaslight Dinner Theatre in the summer of 2003. The new musical comedy is a rollicking and touching journey that follows three very different women with the same dream: to make it in Nashville as a country singer.

Darlene, Sue Ellen and Angela meet on a bus on their way to Nashville and team up to become The Honky Tonk Angels, country music’s hottest new female group. Along the way, they present the songs of country music’s top female singers through the years, from Kitty Wells and Loretta Lynn to Reba McEntire and Pam Tillis. Romance, husband problems, independence and a little gospel thrown in for good measure result in a thrilling theatrical mixture of laughter, friendship and maybe a tear or two.

More than 30 country standards by female artists are presented through the musical revue with a live band. Favorites like Stand By Your Man, Delta Dawn, Harper Valley PTA, 9-5, Coal Miner’s Daughter, Cleopatra, Queen of Denial and many more weave their way through the story.

For more than 20 years, Swindley has directed and produced over 200 plays. He is nationally know for creating Always... Patsy Cline, which opened in New York in 1997 and continues to draw audiences around the world. He received the Los Angeles Dramalogue Award for Outstanding Direction and was nominated for the prestigious Los Angeles Critics Award for his work at the Pasadena Playhouse.

Swindley is the founding artistic director of Stages Repertory Theatre, the second largest theatre in Houston, Texas. His other writing credits include Step Into My Parlor, Bye Bye Love: The Everly Brothers Musical, Summer of ’66 and The Honky Tonk Angels Holiday Spectacular.

He holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree from the University of Houston, a Master of Arts from Baylor University and a Bachelor of Arts from Furman University in South Carolina. He has studied at the Lincoln Center Institute and the Institute of European Studies in Vienna.

“Always... Patsy Cline was so popular two years ago that we had to move it into the 450-seat Performance Hall to accommodate demand for tickets,” Harp said. “We hope that by increasing the number of shows each week and extending the run of the show, we will be able to keep The Honky Tonk Angels in the intimate surroundings of the Gaslight Dinner Theatre and still be able to give everyone a chance to see it.”

For more information on the Gaslight Dinner Theatre production of The Honky Tonk Angels, call (615)740-5600. To purchase tickets when they go on sale May 3, call (615)740-5570.

The Renaissance Center is an arts and technology education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles west of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

Visit the Theatre page for more about community and professional theatre.

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