Review: Hands on a Hardbody. Gotta have that truck!

My sister asked me what play I was going to see as we wrapped up our phone call. “Oh, it’s a musical about one of those contests where people stand around a truck and the last person who takes their hands off it wins the truck,” I said. “Wait…that’s a musical?” was her response.

Sure, it might not immediately resonate as stereotypical Broadway fodder, but Hands on a Hardbody actually makes a lot of sense as an idea for a musical. The show was based on a documentary of the same name, had a brief Broadway run in 2013 and is known for helping launch the career of “The Greatest Showman” star Keala Settle.

Think about its premise: the contest offers the opportunity to throw a group of semi-desperate souls from rural Texas together to share their life stories and the circumstances that drove them to spend days standing around in pain and in hunger, all for the possibility of taking home a brand new truck. They each deserve their own “I Want” song, right?[ezcol_1third]
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Hands on a Hardbody

closes April 6, 2019
Details and tickets
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And they each get one (and sometimes even more than that) — at two and a half hours, Hands on a Hardbody’s composers Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green could probably stand to drop a reprise or two. But along the way, the musical introduces Keegan Theatre audiences to an appealing mix of characters, whose problems aren’t always the fodder of Broadway material.

There’s JD (Patrick M. Doneghy), approaching retirement age but recently injured and laid off from his dangerous job site. There’s a shell-shocked marine veteran (Duane Richards II) recently home from war. Sunny but prickly self-proclaimed redneck Janis (Valerie Adams Rigsbee) has six kids to feed. And there’s a pair of wistful dreamers in Kelli (Beatrice Owens) and Greg (Daniel Rodriguez), who get misty-eyed at the premise of change and warmth in California in the country-tinged tear-jerker “Gone”.

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The cast isn’t entirely glued to the gleaming red truck at center stage (every six hours brings a convenient 15-minute reprieve for the players, and suspension of disbelief allows them to occasionally wander away from the vehicle during musical numbers). But the show continually finds creative ways to choreograph around the set centerpiece.

Conflicts can occasionally feel a little ham-fisted (like a racial confrontation between car dealership owner Cindy and a contestant of Mexican descent, Jesus), though sadly not entirely unrealistic given today’s depressing state of race relations. Similarly, the staging from co-directors Elena Velasco and Mark A Rhea sometimes lacks subtlety, whether it be the ensemble pantomiming war poses during Richards’ plaintive solo, “Stronger” or cast members lifting up Owens and Rodriguez to the sky, as if they’re flying, during their dreamy duet. And the show is perhaps a little too easy on its pseudo-villain, Benny (soulfully captured by John Loughney), who has a tragic story behind his competitive malice and casual prejudice.

But overall, it’s a pleasure to get to know each contestant briefly during Hands on a Hardbody. Among its most infectiously charming individuals is Norma (Shayla Lowe), a religious woman who has entire churches praying for her victory. Prone to fits of uncontrollable laughter, she also gets swept away by spirituals. Like Norma, Keegan audiences will undoubtedly “feel the joy” as they’re swept up into the trying but ultimately uplifting life stories of Hands on a Hardbody’s hearty competitors.

Hands on a Hardbody. Book by Doug Wright, music by Trey Anastasio and Amanda Green, lyrics by Amanda Green . Directed by Elena Velasco and Mark A. Rhea. With Andres Alejandro Ponce, Caroline Dubberly, Duane Richards II, John Loughney, Shayla Lowe, Willie Garner, Patrick M. Doneghy, Katie McManus, Valerie Adams Rigsbee, Gary DuBreuil, Josh Sticklin, Kari Ginsburg, Dana Nearing, Maggie Leigh Walker, Oscar Ceville, and Selena Clyne-Galindo. Music Direction by Jake Null. Choreography by Elena Velasco. Set Design: Matthew Keenan. Sound Design: Gordon Nimmo-Smith. Lighting Design: Jason Arnold.  Staged by Keegan Theatre.