Tickets for Playhouse 395’s upcoming fall production of “The Doyle and Debbie Show” in Bishop, Calif., are on sale now.
The Doyle and Debbie Show is sublime parody, simultaneously lampooning and idolizing country music’s tradition of iconic duos and their subsequent battle of the sexes.
Fallon’s Steven Christie, Patricia Barton and Roger Fearer wield the vocals of vintage country stars and take audiences on a freewheeling joyride through a wickedly funny script and slew of equally outrageous original songs.
“Three years ago while playing a gig at one of the bars in Bishop, I auditioned for ‘Chicago: The Musical,’ and was cast as Amos, a supporting role,” Christie said. “This was with Playhouse 395, and they got ahold of me to be the lead in this role about six months ago. I flew out to Nashville and got to meet Bruce Arnston, who wrote it, and watch the musical itself. It’s hilarious.”
Christie said he’s been pursuing the arts for almost 15 years now, and he’s happy to have a lead role in a musical.
“I’ve been to 35 countries, thus far, all the continents except Antarctica, volunteering on farms and playing music gigs at bars,” Chistie said. “I’m still farming veggies and an orchard south of Fallon.”
Over the past eight years, Doyle and Debbie have developed a rabid cult following in Nashville and Playhouse 395’s performance is one of the few ever done on the west coast.
Doyle Mayfield is an old-guard country star in the Porter Wagoner/George Jones mold, who had a handful of regional hits with his duet partner Debbie, back in the ’70s and ’80s.
Thirty years, four wives, and three Debbie’s later, he finds himself back in Nashville at a Lower Broadway honky-tonk for one final attempt to regain his former “glory.” Doyle has just discovered his new (third) Debbie singing at the VFW Hall in his hometown of Mooney’s Gap in East Tennessee, and immediately saw her as his ticket back to the big-time.
Debbie, a single mother of three, sees Doyle as her last chance to make it to Nashville and make a record, but she is gradually realizing what a terrible mistake she’s made in hitching her star to this loose cannon.
“The Doyle and Debbie Show,” a parody of country music, is hilarious and drop-dead funny. After a long, hard day, this washed-up pair will tickle your funny bone with such original spoofs as the jocular “Stock Car Love” (“I miss the pole position”) or the moralizing power ballad “For the Children” (“They’re gonna grow up thinking Darwin’s cool / While God can’t even show his face in school”) and even, “Just Keep Me Barefoot and Pregnant,” (“I won’t gibber / Like a silly women’s libber / When your ball games’ on TV.”)
Performances will be held at 7 p.m. Oct. 26, Oct. 27 and Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 at the Bishop Elks Lodge, 151 E. Line St. Doors to the lounge will open 6:15 p.m. with a no-host bar.
Tickets are $20 each and are available at www.playhouse395.com or https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3595165 or by calling 760-920-9100.