THUNDER BAY — Magnus Theatre is transporting audiences to the golden age of country crossover hits with a return staging of Mama’s Country Record Collection.
The production, opening Friday, co-stars Danny Johnson as Bruce, and Samantha Piper as his daughter Caitlin, as they navigate the death of the family’s matriarch while sorting through her record collection.
The story has the characters reliving old memories and processing loss, grief, and family ties as they reel through songs by the likes of Dolly Parton, John Denver, John Prine, Roger Miller, Loretta Lynn, and Louden Wainwright.
The songs, interpreted by Johnson and Piper, are brought fully to life by a backing band consisting of seasoned local musicians Dan Zadkovich, Robert Jardine, and Kevin Palmer.
Thom Currie, Magnus’s artistic director, wrote and directs the play. He said the return staging was brought back by audience demand after the success of previous outdoor musicals like A Closer Walk with Patsy Cline.
“I wanted to do a show that encompassed all the great crossover country music from the late ‘60s into the ‘70s,” he said. “I always describe this show as, these are all the songs you didn’t know you knew.”
He drew on his own family history and childhood memories in penning the script, which he finished in 2010 shortly after the death of his own mother.
“I literally did go to my dad’s house and was like, what are we going to do with all these records?” he recounted.
“There were thousands of records… We just started going through them and going, remember this one? Oh, this one’s cool — Oh, she used to make us listen to this garbage every couple of days.”
The show was first produced in 2010 in Port Colborne, and has since been staged across the country and in locations in the U.S.
Currie said seeing audiences swept away by the tunes, and the memories they can evoke, sometimes singing along, is one of the biggest rewards of the show.
He suggested the show is appropriate for audiences from around eight years old and up.
Johnson, a well-known Thunder Bay musician, reprises the role of Bruce after performing it in 2017, when Magnus previously staged the play, also serving as musical director.
Piper hails from Guelph, where she works as an actor and music teacher.
She was previously seen by local audiences as Crystal in Back in ‘59, and Judy in Perfect Wedding, and has performed in such shows as Kinky Boots with Mirvish Productions in Southern Ontario.
She called the production a chance she couldn’t pass up.
“This is a really fun one for me, because it’s something I’ve never been able to do before, which is get the opportunity to play instruments while acting in a musical, which is so much fun and a real challenge,” she said. “When I heard that was part of the shtick, I instantly really, really wanted to be involved.”
“Being able to sing a Dolly Parton medley — it’s a dream come true to do that, and all of the songs are such bangers.”
Mama’s Country Record Collection runs through July 29. Tickets and further details are available at Magnus’s website.
The show has a runtime of around two hours, with one 15-minute intermission.
