Review: THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA McBRIDE Is Uplifting Feel-Good Fun

A little bit VIVA LAS VEGAS, a smidgen of VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and a whole lot of GYPSY, Matthew Lopez's fluffy charmer, The Legend of Georgia McBride is a terrific night out with a lot of laughs, some lovely sentiment and a few good reasons to get up and cheer.

Irresistibly likeable Dave Thomas Brown plays Casey, a young Elvis impersonator who puts his heart into his work, but can't seem to draw a crowd at the Florida panhandle dive bar that's his regular gig.

His very supportive wife, Jo (sweet and funny Afton Williamson), is the adult in their relationship, trying to keep their meager finances in order as she encourages him to follow his dream.

When they discover a baby is on the way, the naïve Casey thinks he convince his good ol' boy boss, Eddie (gruff and gravelly Wayne Duvall) to schedule more shows, but he doesn't know that Eddie has already called in his nephew, Tracy, a profession drag lip-sync performer (wise and cat-tongued Matt McGrath), to replace The King with some Judy, Liza and Piaf.

It's nothing personal and Eddie lets Casey stay and tend bar, but when Tracy's self-destructive co-star, Rexy (cranky Keith Nobbs).get too out of whack to go on, the diva slaps a dress and a wig on Casey, gives him a 2-minute seminar on Edith Piaf, and pushes him onstage to lip-sync in French.

Casey has no idea what he's doing, but he does get some tips from the crowd so he tries again the next night. In a sequence that mimic's Louise's growth as a strip-teaser in GYPSY, we see the novice begin to grow into a seasoned pro, and when he comes up with the idea to go back to his Elvis roots to invent a new cross-dressing persona, a star is born.

Lopez does stretch credibility a bit. Jo doesn't know Casey is performing in drag until she accidentally discovers it several months later, and the issue of her thinking her husband may be gay is suggested, but never fully explored. The playwright fares much better in a scene where Rexy admonishes Casey for appropriating a part of gay culture.

But it all ends happily with a healthy mixture of glitter and sass. While the dive bar setting demands the glitz to be kept on a low budget, director Mike Donahue and choreographer Paul McGill keep the evening bubbly and bright. There may little that's new about The Legend of Georgia McBride, but it's uplifting, feel-good fun.

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