BWW Reviews: Heartfelt Transgender Musical SOUTHERN COMFORT at Barrington Stage

We have seen families torn apart by the differences they have over politics, money, and religion but those things can pale in comparison to what can happen when a son or daughter is born into the wrong body. Being someone wrestling with gender identity issues is a challenge even in the more liberal urban northeast, but in the American South, like rural Georgia, it is simply unthinkable, the work of the devil (or worse) and often dangerous to let small minds think about.

It is hard for anyone comfortable with their gender to understand how disturbing it is for someone else to feel forced to live in the wrong body. Of course, many people jump to conclusions letting their own anxieties or unfamiliarity with people who are transgendered, leading them to condemn, dismiss or ignore thinking about them as human beings with hearts and souls.

SOUTHERN COMFORT is a new musical that explores the challenging relationships of transgendered people who just want to be who they know they are. Having been workshopped back in 2011, the LGBT magazine The Advocate named SOUTHERN COMFORT as one of the top ten theater experiences of 2011.

Here it is 2013 and there is still nothing on the horizon that comes anywhere close to being as uplifting and devastating at the same time, a folk-bluegrass musical by Julianne Wick Davis and Dan Collins - based on Kate Davis's 2001 documentary - that shows, tells and sings about what it's like when you are born different and have to chart your own course through life. This means constantly fighting your way upstream against family, community and even those who are supposed to be in the "helping" professions.

In a series of 25 emotionally tinged songs, the three couples of this story pour out their hearts and open us to the most important question of their lives: is gender just in the head or strictly between the legs, or some unusual blend of these and many other unfathomable factors.

SOUTHERN COMFORT details the life of Robert Eads (Annette O'Toole) a trans man denied care for ovarian cancer, and Lola Cola (Jeff McCarthy) whose identity began with uncertainly and shyness as she worked to transform herself into her true identity.

A sprawling and magnificent set enables us to travel to the back hills of 'Bubba Land' Georgia where Robert Eads had his Taccoa home. In SOUTHERN COMFORT we see the glory of a very different American family being constructed from what some call misfits. Meeting on Sundays, their differences are both argued and celebrated openly, honestly and courageously in the community they have created for themselves. Despite pervasive predjudice surrounding them, here is the good earth in which they have planted trees, and each other in an effort to grow and survive.

The book and lyrics by Dan Collins does not shy away from the complicated and often thorny relationships between the members of this impromptu family. Sadly many of their real ones have rejected them.

The musical makeup of SOUTHERN COMFORT uses a combination of contemporary country and Appalachian infused Bluegrass ny Julianne Wick Davis. Her 25 tunes range from celebration to lament, and one," Two Hundred Miles," - which is about the search for a doctor who will help someone who is trans - hardly leaves a dry eye in the house.

The three couples take turns telling their stories, pouring out their hearts about the stinging questions that comprise their unusual lives. In so doing those of us witnessing their ordeals come to recognize that their problems aren't that much different from ours, just different. And sometimes, as with their relationships with their birth parents, seemingly intractable. Bob, Lola, Jackson, Carly, Sam and Melanie are all living transformative lives in which they search for love, family and acceptance.

SOUTHERN COMFORT has had many changes and rewrites since it was presented in a workshop production at CAP 21 in the fall of 2011 and at the National Alliance for Musical Theatre's 24th Festival of New Musicals in October 2012. New musicals are not that unusual, but try to find one more dense and detailed than this. With three couples whose stories are carefully interwoven, there is almost more character development than any one play should have to deal with. Yet the very Shakespearean sweep of SOUTHERN COMFORT engages the mind in a way that few musicals - especially the new ones - ever succeed in doing.

There really are three directors for SOUTHERN COMFORT, the music director Emily Otto who kept the music and singing on a marvelously high level with a five piece band sheltered in one corner of the stage. Shea Sullivan takes the credit for the musical staging which was essential for musicians who are fully visible to the audience so that they blend rather than distract, as well as stepping into other roles as doctors and parents to fill out the story's sweeping vista.

Making his BSC debut as director, Thomas Caruso weaves the threads of this human tapestry to render visible the little details of each characters life choices to their best advantage. The first act involves an incredible amount of audience education to make sure everyone is up to speed, but that is the foundation that makes the second half of the show grab you by the heart and cause you to develop a lump in your throat as SOUTHERN COMFORT unfolds.

I won't try to unravel the details of the relationships - and gender progress - beyond a quick snapshot. Robert (O'Toole) is of course is facing cancer and Lola (McCarthy) ultimately drops her successful business to be with him, providing both with the most joyous period of their lives. Bob tries to tell his parents about his condition, but the parents are so set on calling him Barbara and greet him with a shower of disappointment and condemnation that he retreats in frustration. We also meet Sam (Todd Cerveris), who was born as Debbie, whose affections belong to Melanie (Robin Skye) and their duet, "I'm With You" is one of many touching songs that light up the performance.

Then there is Jackson (Jeffrey Kuhn) who is ready for to undergo the real deal of final gender reassignment, and his Carly (Natalie Joy Johnson) who is perhaps the most at ease with her transgender life.

Together with the musicians in the band the story sweeps across the stage as the days in their lives fly by and those in the audience are swept up with them. Over the course of the show some two dozen songs are performed, each as different and original as the vivid characters who sing them on stage.

In the end there can be little doubt that this is both the most original and unusual story ever told in the musical format. Even the Lola of SOUTHERN COMFORT, Jeff McCarthy - who played Sweeney Todd not that long ago , has immersed himself in his role, dug down deep and come up with a performance that is so original it surprised me. And the diminutive Annette O'Toole so completely reversed my expectations that it is hard to believe she played the sweet mother of Clark Kent on Smallville. Best of all, SOUTHERN COMFORT breaks the convention that audiences won't venture out of their comfort zone to see something truly new and different.

The funny thing is that transgendered people have been with us through the eons, and we are just getting around to acknowledging, and celebrating, their existence. With SOUTHERN COMFORT you can meet some damned interesting people and be entertained by one of the most human musicals in ages.

Barrington Stage Company presents Southern Comfort, Book and Lyrics by Dan Collins, Music by Julianne Wick Davis, Conceived by Robert DuSold and Thomas Caruso; Scenic Designer - James J. Fenton; Costume Designer - Patricia E. Doherty; Lighting Designer - Ed McCarthy; Sound Designer - Patrick Calhoun; Wig Designer - David BrIan Brown; Music Direction by Emily Otto; Directed by Thomas Caruso; Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Lab - William Finn. Cast: Storytellers and Musicians: David Lutken, Lizzie Hagstedt, Joel Waggoner, Elizabeth Ward Land; Jackson - Jeffrey Kuhn; Carly - Natalie Joy Johnson; Sam - Todd Cerverus; Melanie - Robin Skye; Robert - Annette O'Toole; Lola - Jeff McCarthy. Two Acts with one 15 minute intermission. July 19 - August 10, 2013, St.Germain Stage, Linden Street, Pittsfield, MA barringtonstageco.org Box Office 413-236-8888.

Photo by Scott Barrow