Plays

Troubadour - World Premiere Musical – Alliance Theatre 2017
Story by Janece Shaffer with original music by Kristian Bush

Synopsis

It’s Nashville 1951 and Billy Mason, the king of country music, is days away from his farewell concert, when crowds will pack the Ryman Auditorium to wish him well and to see if his only son, Joe, has the talent and the guts to continue the Mason legacy – to step out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Days before the concert, Joe challenges his father’s conservative notions for the first time ever by singing a salacious duo with a pretty girl at a singing competition. All hell breaks loose, and Joe is literally left behind in the dust… of his father’s tour bus. To further punish his son, Billy sees that Joe is no longer included in the farewell concert or welcomed in Nashville.

Feeling abandoned and alone, Joe meets an unlikely pair – a Russian Jewish tailor with his own American dream of a boldly bedazzled country music and a young songwriter from Tuscaloosa, Ala., who arrives too terrified to speak, but toting a notebook of songs she’s penned for Joe. The three spend a handful of unforgettable days writing songs, falling in love, building rhinestone studded suits and helping Joe Mason become the man and the musician he was meant to be.