Performing Arts

If you don't expect it to make too much sense, Greendale is an overwhelming experience, musically and theatrically.

BRANDON THIBODEAUX/Special Contributor

Actors rehearse musician Neil Young's Greendale, at the Undermain Theatre.

Undermain Theatre opened the world premiere of Bruce DuBose's fully staged adaptation of the Neil Young concept album on Saturday. All the songs tell stories, set in a mythical small-town America.

A pleasant young man turns to violence in a moment of weakness. An elderly man revolts against the media storm that follows. An aging painter sells out and becomes famous. All this precedes an idealistic political finale. But where does all the environmentalist rhetoric come from? The lyrics identify a lot of ills in our society – but none of them has much to do with threats to the ecology.

Director Katherine Owens has taken these disjointed narrative elements and italicized the symbolic and mythological motifs that unify them. The show begins in an Eden of innocence, the radiant actors basking in lighting designer Steve Woods' golden glow. Before long, though, the devil – in the person of former Undermain regular Newton Pittman, recently returned from New York – starts his subtle process of corruption.

Mr. DuBose begins the narration and plays Earl, the painter and ranch owner. He plays a lot of harmonica, too, but he originally planned just to lead the band. He reconsidered when three of Deep Ellum's best-known musicians volunteered to join the project.

The singing actors all have stunning moments, but the three instrumentalists are the real stars here. Kenny Withrow of New Bohemians leads from the guitar; Paul Semrad of Course of Empire plays bass; and Alan Emert of Brave Combo is on drums. The music drives this show like the rolling river mentioned in one of the songs.

They're calling this Greendale a rock opera, but it's really a fresh form of its own. The musicians are on the greatly expanded Undermain stage the whole time, sometimes stepping forward into the central spotlight. The actors, too, sit or move around, pantomiming some clarifying action when they're not singing, breaking into dance that looks spontaneous but is carefully integrated.

Maybe you won't exactly know why, but this bunch will have you leaving the theater rarin' to go and determined to save the planet.

PLAN YOUR LIFE Performances run through May 3 at Undermain Theatre. 105 mins. $15 to $25. 214-747-5515; www.undermain.org.

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