Local Theater Co. production a compelling exploration of the power of music and memory
More of this please: An original, local production that combines music, comedy, personal narrative and an enormous amount of warmth that makes you leave the theatre feeling all squishy inside.
GerRee Hinshaw had the audience firmly in the palm of her hand at opening night of her show Raised on Ronstadt — a one-woman show with a backing band that has her exploring her family history through the lens of her and her mother’s favorite singer, Linda Ronstadt.
Directed by Dee Covington as part of Local Theater Company’s new season, Raised on Ronstadt isn’t some jukebox musical with a thin plot line tying the songs together. In fact, there’s only a handful of the iconic singer’s songs performed in full. Mostly it’s Hinshaw taking us along for a trip through her own life and those of her family, with Ronstadt’s music and history serving as a touchstone throughout.
Both born to Mexican-American families in the West (Ronstadt in Arizona; Hinshaw in Texas), 30 years or so separates the two women. And while Ronstadt hasn’t recorded new music since the mid-2000s (she retired from singing in 2011 for medical reasons), for Hinshaw, who grew up listening to Ronstadt non-stop in her mother’s car, she’s as relevant as ever.
Most of us can relate to the imprint a particular musician has on us when we’re exposed to it at an early age by our parents. (This is why I still have much of the Neil Diamond/Barba Streisand canon lodged in my brain.) And while we might be able to articulate to some degree why this or that song means so much to us, Hinshaw does a deep dive into that dynamic and wrote a script that’s as much a love letter to Ronstadt as it is to her family.
The venue for this — Boulder’s e-Town Hall — couldn’t be better compared to Local Theater’s usual home at the Dairy Arts Center. The cozy, intimate space is made for live music, and the trio backing Hinshaw expertly rambles through a variety of musical genres with a tight mix of guitar, keys and percussion. All three are excellent musicians, but I have to call out Mari Meza-Burgos who, in addition to playing guitar and handling percussion, has a beautiful singing voice that was particularly striking when she sang in Spanish.
An intimate setting at Boulder’s e-Town Hall | Michael Ensminger Photography
A musical conversation
As a triple-threat writer, singer and actor, Hinshaw is clearly realizing a dream project that no doubt took endless hours of work while likely inspiring plenty of anxiety even for a seasoned performer such as herself. Kicking off the performance with Ronstadt’s version of the Stones’ “Tumbling Dice,” she quickly established a rapport with the audience that made the show more of a conversation than a one-sided performance.
It’s a minimal set, but what pieces there are — lamps, an easy chair — convey the idea that Hinshaw is perhaps in her living room, holding forth on these things that are dear to her. With a powerful voice that’s more than capable of handling Ronstadt songs, Hinshaw also takes on some other material she knew growing up. It’s against these musical remembrances that we meet the parents, the grandparents, some of the kids and various other family members who comprise the human landscape Hinshaw grew up in.
We also hear of some of the challenges, like when Hinshaw flopped at a high school talent show singing “When Will I Be Loved” when the crowd fell for a couple of her friends belting out some nauseating song about ’merica in the wake of 9-11.
And while she may not have reached the heights Ronstadt attained (11 Grammys, three American Music Awards, lots of gold and platinum albums, etc.), Hinshaw does something I think we’d all love to see around here: put together an original, heartfelt bit of musical theatre that will lodge in your heart and stand as a passion project pulled off beautifully. It’s not quite a one-woman show, but Raised on Ronstadt functions like one for much of the 90 minute runtime and Hinshaw keeps the audience fully engaged with a mix of music, memories and the ever-present maxim that, if you keep at the thing you love and don’t pay too much attention to what others think you should do, you’ll get there.
A final note: This is a limited run with only a handful of performances, so grab tickets soon!
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