Laughing Daughter Review

At a party recently, I heard of a new local play called Laughing Daughter, which was billed as a "country-rock musical." That sounded intriguing, so I went to see the show last night. It was worth seeing. Laughing Daughter is playing through Sept. 20, 2009, at the Black Box Theater in Indian Head, MD.

Laughing Daughter starts on an indian reservation in the southwest, as tourists shuffle into a roadside store to shop for indian trinkets. Sales aren't too brisk, but we get to meet Storm Heart (Jeff Barehand) and his daughter Little Bird (KJ Jacks). Little Bird is 19 and wants to see the world off the reservation, and thinks that her singing/songwriting skills are her ticket out. Little Bird leaves Storm Heart and her boyfriend Sleeping Raven (Adam Curtis) behind to become a star in the big city.

At the same time, businesswoman Jolene (Crystal Mosser) is slumming around in honky-tonk dives looking for her favorite performer, Junior Johnson (Draper Carter). She finds him soon enough and quickly becomes Junior's main squeeze. Junior is a little down on his luck (and deep in a bottle), but he's got a song called Buddy that's gonna take him to the top. Buddy eventually catches the ear of big star Bubbalou Burns (Tom Cauler), who records the song and takes if straight to the top. (Well, to #3 on the country charts.)

Meanwhile, back in the big city, Little Bird (who now calls herself Laughing Daughter) is having trouble finding stardom. Auditions aren't going as well as she planned, she gets mugged and a pair of streetwalkers try to lure her into prostitution. Back home, Sleeping Raven pines for Little Bird/Laughing Daughter, and has lost his cell phone and missed all her messages. When Laughing Daughter is at her lowest, Jolene and Junior find her and take her under their wing. Soon, her life is improving and success is just around the corner.

Laughing Daughter is a story that's been told many times, including on stage. This new musical was amiable and had some good music, but most of the performances were ordinary. A standout was Crystal Mosser as Jolene, who has a lovely voice and knows how to project to the back row. Several of the other actors didn't have the projection technique, and it was not always easy to understand the dialog and lyrics, even in the small Black Box Theater. As for the singers, the best of the men was Jeff Barehand. KJ Jacks sounded fine as Laughing Bird, er... Little Daughter. Although the story begins and initially revolves around an indian reservation, there's nothing that's particularly Native American about the story or songs. Laughing Daughter could be redone with the setting being a high school without any change in the concept. And with a name like Laughing Daughter, there should be more humor. There's some but the daughter in Laughing Daughter is surprisingly serious.

The music in Laughing Daughter was pretty good, certainly as good as lots of other stage music. Although I didn't leave the theater whistling any of the tunes, Keeping the Faith and Buddy were fine, toe-tapping songs. The four-piece orchestra sounded good, and they were augmented occasionally by one of the actors strumming a guitar. One thing lacking in this musical was dancing -- other than a brief sway by Jolene and Junior, there was no dancing. A little bit of dancing would have notched up the entertainment value, although it would be tough to choreograph on the small stage at the Black Box Theater.

Laughing Daughter is not cutting any new territory, and the performance standards aren't up to what you expect for theater in a big city, but it is an enjoyable show. The story is easy to follow and the music was good. The actors could use some work on their projection and... well, acting. But you don't need Brando's skills in a musical. Mostly, you need good songs and strong voices, and Laughing Daughter had a good dose of both.

If Laughing Daughter was a movie, I'd give it a rating of PG. It's fine for kids 10 and older, although there are a couple of mild adult situations and some booze drinking.

I give a mild recommendation and three stars to Laughing Daughter.