Salvage

For the record, playwright Alderson is a first-time playwright, but a long-time lover of music whose day job is running a non-profit dedicated to battling food insecurity for low income households. Perhaps writing musicals is his dream no longer deferred. With Salvage, he makes a joyful noise.

Director Damian D. Lewis does a great job of integrating music into the story line. The haunting songs and great guitar playing move the action and keep the audience enthralled.

Alderson’s script may be a bit too threadbare at times, but he really displays a strong talent for picking the right song for the right moment to not only move the plot along but to enhance the characters. ..The title, Salvage, can have several meanings—the salvage of dreams, the salvage of friendships, the salvage of a lost soul. Salvage the play is worth salvaging in the landscape of local theatre. Seek it out.

With music and lyrics by Alderson, Mark Heard, Pat Terry and Randy VanWarmer, this new work has plenty to enjoy, including some down-home country wit that truly snaps (book by Alderson). Director Damian D. Lewis and music director Stephan Terry get the most of their strong cast in a well-paced and tuneful production.

Do yourselves a huge favor and see this show. It’s a world premiere of a show that I believe will play and play and play and this, the first-ever cast, is just superb.

Their voices and their musicality are extraordinary, and the story that links them all is quite beautiful…loved it!!!

With its themes of alcoholism, broken families, lost loves, shattered friendships, the struggle to be an artist, et al, I suspect that Salvage would have been a fine drama without the music. But it’s the songs and the live playing of them that enlivens and elevates this production.

GET YOUR SOUL SALVAGED
The minute I sat down at the Lounge theatre and saw the rundown bar on the stage equipped with a few tables, a jukebox and several guitars hanging on the walls along with a photograph of a famous country musician named Floyd Whitaker, I was transported to some small rural town which could exist anywhere in America. I also got a feeling that I was about to have a remarkable theater experience and that’s exactly what happened.

When Salvage opens there are two men in a bar. One is the bartender/owner Johnson (Leonard Earl Howze) and the other, a once-handsome bearded burnout named Preacher (David Atkinson). From his face and his gruff voice, we can tell that Preacher has been through a lot.

Salvage is the best original musical I’ve seen in some time. I was caught up in its spell and moved by its scintillating songs and performances. Don’t miss this one.

Damien D. Lewis directs with a sure hand and a certain touch, in a theatrical production grounded in an edgy reality.

The performances are uniformly splendid.

RECOMMENDED

Fine performances deserve an audience. This is a world premiere worth sitting in on.

If you’re a fan of great music, especially country, and love seeing other people’s angst, Salvage is the show for you!

The songs in Salvage are so well made; I only regretted that the individual songwriters were not given proper credit in the program. Spiritually they trace a slow path from the nihilistic opening number “I’m So Tired of It All” to the final “Rivers of Hope,” with its chorus “There’ll be rivers of hope when the love rains down.” It’s like a short-form course of psychoanalysis or Truth and Reconciliation, all in an hour and a half.

This single act play with book by Tim Alderson is self described as a “play with music”. To be more precise, it’s really a full fledged musical!  The songs...speak for the times in life where they can become hard, with the ever present sense of desire, hope, and fortune.

A treat for audiences. SALVAGE examines the role of choices we all make in life – and their sometimes unexpected consequences. Director Damian D. Lewis and music director Stephan Terry have worked together to create a musical which lets lyrics and spoken words combine to add a little something extra to each medium. Blends music and drama into a satisfying whole. A crowd pleaser.

Salvage is set in “a rundown, out-of-the-way bar” in real time, that in my mind conjures a place somewhere in the hinterlands of rural California between Barstow and Bakersfield, but could be anywhere across our vast country. The barkeep, Johnson (Earl Howze), is seated behind his bar and country music spins on the jukebox. Preacher (David Atkinson), a tall, slim, bearded guy with a handsome, weary face enters dangling an absurdly large metal lavatory key. He lurches over to the jukebox, yanks out the cord, gets his guitar, sits down next to a table and a half-filled bottle of whiskey and starts to sing a mournful song, “I’m So Tired of It All.” His guitar playing is impeccable; his unique voice matches his mien. His singing goes straight to the heart, drawing an audience in to share his woe. He is deep into his cups and drinks steadily throughout, calling for another bottle when he drains the present one. He is a not a falling-down, slurring drunk, but a rough, eloquent one like Dylan Thomas.

Whatever you call it–play, musical, or something in between–Salvage packs a powerful punch. It may not be traditional holiday entertainment per se, but you can expect it to fill your heart with hope and your ears with song this holiday season.