BWW Reviews: SANDERS FAMILY CHRISTMAS at Cumberland County Playhouse

The first time I met the Sanders Family, those gospel-singing Southerners who people the Smoke on the Mountain trilogy of musicals from Alan Bailey and Connie Ray, was in 1995, a week after my father's funeral. When the cast of the show at Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre started to sing "Life is Like a Mountain Railway," I was completely surprised, my face flushed and my eyes filled with tears. I had heard the song only once before: at my daddy's funeral. That moment - and every one that has followed each time I've seen a Sanders Family show, whatever the producing theater company may be - pretty much typifies what happens to me every time I see one of the shows.

For a back-slidden (if there is such a word) Southern Baptist like myself, who oftentimes finds very little to believe in, it's during these encounters with the Sanders Family that I feel like I've been to church and I remember so vividly the years spent sitting next to my own dear mama every Sunday morning. And I am overcome, the memories flooding back and I'm taken over by a certain wistfulness that is hard to shake.

Now onstage at Crossville's Cumberland County Playhouse is Sanders Family Christmas, the second part of the trilogy, in which the gospel-singing family returns to Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church for a Christmas Eve singing in 1941, just two days before son Dennis ("He's the boy!") leaves to join the Marines and go off to the big adventure that is World War II. The Playhouse has been very good to the Sanders Family over the years (in fact, next year Smoke on the Mountain will start its 18^th annual season at the venue) and, in turn, the Sanders Family has been very good to the Playhouse, bringing in countless devoted and new fans for the theater. And it's easy to see why.

Like the other two entries in the trilogy, Sanders Family Christmas is a heartfelt evocation of simpler, earlier times that somehow ring so resoundingly true and relevant in the 21^st Century. No matter how much things may change, they will somehow remain the same, with the pull of home and family still as strong and vibrant as ever.

Wonderfully and evocatively directed by Bobby Taylor - who does double duty as family patriarch Burl Sanders in the close-knit family band - this edition of Sanders Family Christmas is focused on the effects of war on the homefront (coming as it does just two weeks after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor) and the need for the younger Sanderses to fully express their individuality as they make their initial strides into the larger world outside their North Carolina home. The obvious affection with which Alan Bailey and Connie Ray have created the richly drawn members of the Sanders Family is felt throughout the trilogy, and in this middle section, the action focuses more closely on the relationships between Dennis and the rest of the family (particularly his mother Vera) before he heads off to war. It's heady stuff for a 19-year-old boy (even if he is a newly ordained minister) and the realities of life and death are brought front and center by the family's confrontation of the realities of war itself. It's serious stuff, indeed, but it is leavened by a generous helping of the good humor that typifies the trilogy and the faith that sustains the family through its most trying times.

The cast of Sanders Family Christmas is amazing: they sing, they act, they make you laugh and they apparently can play any instrument you put in front of them. Playhouse favorite Jason Ross returns as the Rev. Mervin Oglethorpe, pastor of Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church who moonlights as a bookkeeper for Mt. Pleasant Pickles. Ross' portrayal is honed from years of experience and he gives a wonderfully nuanced performance that effectively skirts any suggestion of stereotype, giving the Rev. Oglethorpe a very genuine heart.

Patti Payne, a Playhouse veteran since she was a teenager (and as easily identifiable with the theater as anyone there), returns this season as June (now referred to as "Aunt June" in deference to Payne who is, well, not a teenager anymore) and shows why she may be the audience's favorite actress to claim the role. Her June is nicely underplayed, with Payne allowing her characters' foibles and somewhat clumsy nature to be displayed naturally and in completely endearing fashion.

Taylor gives a winning performance as Burl, always completely in control and yet completely generous with the rest of the actors in the ensemble. As a director, Taylor is completely unselfish and he stages the show with a knowledge of what works best onstage - to the audience's great benefit. Daniel Black is understatedly warm and charming as the family's black sheep, Burl's brother Stanley, the man with a past (he did some hard time in prison and is just now recently returned from Hollywood, where he made some western movies with Gene Autry) and he delivers his character's testimony with eloquence. The gorgeous Leila Nelson, who looks as if she stepped out of the pages of a 1940s-era magazine, is perfectly cast as Denise ("She's the girl!"), singing beautifully while giving a performance that is at once sincere and vapid - which is just right for Denise.

Austin Price gives a particularly effective reading of Dennis, managing to capture the boy's ascent into manhood, while giving a performance that brims with barely restrained emotion.

Finally, there is the lovely Lauren Marshall, whose performance as Vera gives Sanders Family Christmas its very heart and soul. Not much older than the actors playing her children, Marshall's performance is all the more impressive as a result and her voice on "Beautiful Star of Bethlehem" gives the production one of its musical highlights. And it is during that particular sequence that gives the show it's most moving moment: As Vera sings, Dennis' eyes fill with tears and reaches for his mother's hand. The emotion expressed during that moment is palpable and just goes to show you how a sweet little play about a family of Southerners in the 1940s can pack such a wallop today.

It doesn't go unnoticed, of course, that the superbly talented cast members play all their own instruments (which includes handbells, mandolin, stand-up bass, piano and guitar - heck, for all I know there may have been a tuba onstage, too - and I guarantee you had there been someone would have played it like a pro!) and that five of the seven members had, earlier in the day, performed in a stellar matinee of Brigadoon. That they so seamlessly were able to transform themselves in a matter of two hours and to give such stunning performances in both shows is nothing short of spectacular and worthy of praise.

- Sanders Family Christmas. Written by Connie Ray. Conceived by Alan Bailey. Musical arrangements by John Foley and Gary Fagin. Directed by Bobby Taylor. Presented by Cumberland County Playhouse, Crossville. Through December 18. For details, visit www.ccplayhouse.com; for reservations, call (931) 484-5000.

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