Preview: Cowboy Bob at Alley Theatre

Peggy Jo Tallas resolved she desired to rob financial institutions. She dressed as a person and hit economic establishments all over the Dallas suburbs, evading capture to many yrs. This part is authentic life.

In the musical Cowboy Bob, Peggy Jo (Jackie Burns) will take on mythic position to Rena (Ashley Pérez Flanagan) a waitress stuck in a dull position dreaming of carrying out one thing various with her everyday living. In reality, several of the figures are hunting for a way out in the production made by Molly Beach front Murphy, Jeanns Phillips and Annie Tippe about to premiere at the Alley Theatre.

Brandon Hearshburger plays Supervisor Invoice at the restaurant exactly where Rena performs and like her, he’s trapped.

“I’m kind of caught in the normal middle management posture. I have obtained a cafe to operate and I want absolutely everyone to really like me, but I have also obtained company stress on best of me to continue to keep the area open up since it is struggling.  I used to get the job done in company but now I never so I have been demoted for some rationale and it really is not spelled out but I am a person obsessed with self-enable.

“Invoice is really significantly a male in approach,” Hearshburger, said, laughing.

The musical follows two ladies, Hearshburger explained. “A person is Peggy Jo Tallas and she is from real Texas historical past. She’s a female who dressed up as a male cowboy and robbed financial institutions without the need of using a gun. She  would just hand a note to the teller telling them to fill the bag up and he would depart. So this tale is about Peggy Jo/Cowboy Bob and Rena who has been a waitress for 13 several years at a restaurant termed Peppers wherever Peggy Jo would often consume.

“All people in this display is seeking to break cost-free of their area in daily life,” Hearshburger explained. 

The 1-act musical jumps around in a timeline that commences in the mid ’90s and finishes in the mid 2000s. “Rena learns that this longtime customer was this notorious Texas lender robber and she requires inspiration from her and  Peggy Jo’s lawlessness,” Hearshburger reported.

“Rena finds a way to embrace her own lawlessness and split free of the procedures that constrain her,” he extra without stating particularly how she achieves this. . she’s been doing work at this restaurant for 13 yrs. She commenced at 16, that would make her 29..

The new music produced for the musical jumps around a little bit as properly, different from state to indie rock to folk. But Hearshburger says that most of the target is on region rock. “The guide instrument is the guitar.”

Asked why he preferred to be in the musical, Hearshburger explained: “One detail that drew me to it was that it was exterior the vein of what we believe of as a typical musical In the audition guidelines they questioned me to performs a music but nothing at all from the musical theater canon.”

Other good reasons: He is a indigenous Houstonian and has extended loved ones living in the Dallas region.

Hearshburger also explained he had a large amount to draw on for the aspect. “In checking out the rigidity amongst the mid-level  supervisor seeking everybody to  adore him and obtaining to be the manager, as an actor I have expended in excess of a decade in dining establishments and I have had loads of supervisors to attract from for this character.”

Performances continue on nevertheless March 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays by Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:30 p.m. Sundays at Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For additional details, connect with 713-220-5700 or check out alleytheatre.org. $26-$78.