If the Alley Theatre and its myriad producers think that their world premiere musical Cowboy Bob will ever see the lights of Broadway, I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell them.
Bob’s been in production hell for seven years, riding the range between New York’s Ars Nova Project and the Adelphi Residency at NY Theatre Workshop, to Yale’s Binger Center for New Theatre, Philadelphia’s Brind School of Theatre Arts, Washington State’s Village Theater in Issaquah, and Illinois’ Northwestern University’s American Music Theatre Project. Let’s just say Bob’s been around the block. He’s been rode hard and put away wet.
After all this wranglin’ and finaglin’ you’d think the final product would be lean and sinewy, like Paul Newman’s Hud or Steve McQueen’s Nevada Smith, but, no. What we get is Howdy Doody’s Buffalo Bob, soft and a bit squishy and fey. What the hell happened to hardscrabble Peggy Jo Tallas?
A Texas legend for 15 minutes between 1991 and 1992, and then 2004 and 2005, Tallas, in the male guise of “Cowboy Bob,” robbed banks with a finesse and chutzpah that baffled both the Texas Rangers and the FBI. A stout bearded man in brown leather jacket, cowboy hat worn backward, boots, large sunglasses, gloves, would stroll up to the teller’s window, put a large leather satchel on the counter, and hand a note that demanded, “This is a bank robbery. Give me your money. No marked bills or dye packs.” The robber never spoke, had no gun, and was always described as nice and polite. The man would take his leather satchel and calmly stroll out of the bank and into his car and drive away. The heist was so smooth and orderly, lasting no more than 60 seconds, that he was long gone when the police arrived.
Tallas was stealing money to buy medicine for her invalid mother. To her, she had no other option. The pair couldn’t survive on social security and Peggy Jo’s odd-jobs’ meager salary, and Peggy was too proud to ask friends or family for help. Butch and Sundance from her favorite movie inspired her. Why not rob banks? She was 46 years old. After a spate of five robberies, she was caught and sent to federal prison for three years.
Nothing was heard of her until after her mother died, and then Cowboy Bob struck again. Then she became brazen. Without her drag disguise, Peggy Jo robbed the Guaranty Bank in Tyler, Texas. But then she made a fatal second mistake; she didn’t check the wads of cash for dye packs. When she exited the bank the wireless alarm exploded her satchel, covering her in hot dye. She dashed to her RV, trailing red smoke, and the old van barely made it up the hill before the police surrounded her vehicle. She coolly closed the curtains, smoked a cigarette, and decided her next move. When she exited her van, she pointed a gun at the officers and they fired, killing her instantly. She was holding a toy pistol. Her dream was to go to Mexico and live on the beach. During the search of the RV, the police found her Magnum under her bedroom pillow. Even at the end, she didn’t want to hurt anybody. But she went out like her heroes Butch and Sundance.
This is the stuff that Broadway musicals are made on. Instead, the authors (Molly Beach Murphy, Jeanna Phillips, and Annie Tippe – book, music and lyrics, direction and choreography) cover us with red dye. They obfuscate the story and muddy the waters.
Peggy Jo (Jackie Burns) is drowned, overshadowed, by other characters who are just like her, hapless wannabes trapped in low-paying jobs, who watch their American dream evaporate. Rena (Ashley Pérez Flanagan), a waitress at Peppers restaurant; exasperated comic manager Bill (Brandon Hearnsberger), who struggles to keep Peppers in the black; Rena’s friend Tanya (Jamila Sabares-Klemm), another waitress without hope who skims the till; Stan (Nathaniel Tenenbaum), Rena’s best buddy who’s elated to finally make shift manager but who dreams of a can’t-lose scheme to make T-shirts; Roy and Hank (Camryn Nunley and Adam Gibbs), two Keystone Kops trailing Peggy Jo; Kathy (Julia Krohn), Peggy Jo’s sister, a Housewife of Dallas, who’s convinced she has married beneath her; and Peggy Jo’s mom Jerry (Susan Koozin), addled and blind who’s obsessed with game show Jeopardy.
A cast of losers – all the same type, all with the same wants. Peggy Jo’s the only one who actually goes out and does something, one of the many mantras this show professes, like slogans seen on a Buckee’s sweatshirt.
The show dissipates while you watch it. It seems stuffed yet undernourished. Why the doppelgangers Rena and Tanya? This isn’t their show; they’re supporting players, not vying for Peggy Jo’s place in the spotlight. Peggy Jo gets pushed aside for someone else’s power anthem, another “wanting” song for a character who’s superfluous. It’s no surprise set designer Diggle uses a turntable, Cowboy Bob hardly moves forward, it just goes round and round.
Phillips’ songs, with additional music by Alex Thrailkill, are easy on the ear yet instantly forgettable. The sextet band swings but the overall mixing is poor, and while everyone wears mics the sound levels vary almost song to song so we can’t hear the actors. The songs stop just when they start to get exciting: singing interruptus. What we hear are second-rate Broadway tunes that would have been dropped in New Haven. The songs aren’t listed in the playbill, but there’s one about “circles” that was catching, and Jerry has a ballad near the end about “lightning,” I think, that was somewhat memorable. But, see, I’ve already forgotten it. That’s what this score is, bland with a country twang but a Broadway belt.
The whole show needs more work. And, please, cut that fiasco of a “Jeopardy” sequence. That’s just wrong – in tone, meaning, placement, subtlety.
The biggest error of all is not using Jackie Burns to her fullest. She was the longest-playing Elphaba in mega-hit Wicked. The authors don’t even give her a “Defying Gravity” number to knock our socks off. They bury her while others get their star turn. Under-served and cast aside, she does look fetching in a mustache, though.
Based on a true story, Cowboy Bob is replete with unnecessary inaccuracies. (Peggy Jo’s mother was named Helen, not Jerry.) Surely the authors read Skip Hollandsworth’s iconic 2005 portrait “The Last Ride of Cowboy Bob” in Texas Monthly? There’s drama and music aplenty in her quasi-Robin Hood story. It’s just not to be found here. Not yet anyway.
Broadway’s no stranger to under-powered musicals. Most last about four weeks. Out-of-town tryouts, even at the august Alley Theatre, are worthwhile…if people listen.
Cowboy Bob continues through March 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays and Sundays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays at the Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $44-$92.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2023.
