Produced Off-Broadway at the Lamb's Theatre
BBK Synopsis
Set in a small town just outside of Nashville, this slice-of-life comedic play with music is a genuine look into the hearts of everyday people. As the proprietor, Barbara Jean, tries to figure out “When is it courageous and when is it just plain crazy to hang on to love,” her customers come in and take a load off by sharing their funny, heartbreaking humanity. There’s Miss Morris a nurse who’s planning a Pyramid prayer-time, Miss Tessie, a senior citizen who’s gonna make you laugh and steal your heart, a Tupperware brandishing, plate-dropping waitress named Jeanette, Lombardo—a country-singing hairdresser, Tommy Lee, who is recovering from a dog-bite and Melissa a mixed-up Mother of three. Throughout it all, the wacky DJ from WATR, the local radio station, breaks in with local news, commercials about baldness and whole slew of quirky, unforgettable toe-tapping songs.
BBK Reviews
- “In fact, it’s a perfectly judged balance of flavors—exactly what you’d hope for in theatrical comfort food.” Time Out New York, Helen Shaw
- “Winsome and winning…alive with homespun charm. In short, this countrified pocket musical is a little miracle of art and heart.” TheatreMania, Barbara & Scott Siegel
- “Funny stuff! Wonderful! You got to go see this show!” WOR Radio, Joey Reynolds
- “A slice of theatre as tasty and tangy as a piece of peach pie…Barbara’s Blue Kitchen: this is a place where people actually eat together in community, rather than in their own separate worlds.” Show Business, Amy Krivohlavek
- “Sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, it’s a pleasure to spend time in Barbara’s Blue Kitchen.” Traveler’s USA Notebook, Fern Siegel
- “…A charming, whimsical look at the denizens of small southern town…makes for an entertaining evening.” Chelsea Clinton News/The Westsider,
- D.L. Lepidus “It’s a tasty down-home dish…” BACKSTAGE.
BBK Credits:
Barbara’s Blue Kitchen
Book, music and lyrics by Lori Fischer
- A slice-of-life musical comedy produced Off-Broadway at the Lamb’s Theatre in 2006
- Published by Samuel French, Inc. in 2007
- Produced and starred in regionally:
- At Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, Spring 2002
- The Adirondack Theatre Festival, Summer 2000
- Bongo Java Upstairs Theater, Summer 2014
- Also included in the 2000 ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, E.S.T Octoberfest, York Theatre Developmental Play Reading Series, Florida Studio Theatre Playwriting Festival
- Produced at Cumberland County Playhouse, January, 2015
- Bartlett Performing Arts & Conference Center, October, 2015
- Pipeline Collective, Album Release performance, 2019
The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers
Capital Repertory Theatre Production
Synopsis:
"The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers” is a four-character musical comedy about a quirky country singing duo who lost their recording contract when the lead singing alcoholic sister crashed their tour bus into a pet store, sending many a goldfish to an early fish tank heaven. Now, the back-up singing sister, Junie, has gotten them a gig as funeral singers with the hope that this unexpected career move will jump start their musical comeback. The problem is, Lashley, the just out of rehab lead singer, does her best singing drunk. Set in Ashland City, Tennessee, it’s a comedy about two disparate sisters who sing funeral songs that are tailor-made for each dead person. The two sisters, their aging father, who is having trouble remembering things, but still deeply in love with the mother who left them all long ago, and the compulsive gambling Pastor Phil, sing blues, roots rock and quirky country tunes.
- The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers
- Book by Lori Fischer, Music and lyrics by Lori Fischer and Don Chaffer
- 2017 Nominated for Outstanding Original Work, Midwinter’s First Night Awards
- 2017 Nominated for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a Musical, Midwinter’s First Night Awards
- 2016 Published by Samuel French
- 2016 Produced and starred in at Cumberland County Playhouse
- 2015 Included in the Florida Studio Theatre Richard and Betty Burdick Play Reading Series
- 2013 Produced and starred in regionally at Capitol Repertory Theatre
- 2012 Richard Rogers Award Finalist
- 2012 Semi-finalist Eugene O’Neill Musical Theatre Conference
- 2012 Included in The York Theatre Reading Series, February and September
The Cumberland County Playhouse Production
Broadway World Review: CCP's SPARKLEY CLEAN FUNERAL SINGERS
April 2, 2016
by Jeffrey Ellis
- Lori Fischer’s The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers does what so many shows before it have attempted: To create a completely new world out of whole cloth and set it down amid the already existing world (in which we mere mortals ply our collective trade), peopled by characters who are easy to love…and fun to watch. Where Fischer's new musical succeeds so impressively is in its refreshing storytelling structure that invites audiences into the fictionalized version of Ashland City, Tennessee, where people care deeply about their neighbors and are likely to sing songs displaying their affection and which are bound to make you guffaw (probably more than once)…awesome work by the playwright and her songwriting partner Don Chaffer, who have crafted a story that is eminently accessible and enormously likable. The show is never mawkish, its histrionics are relatable on a human scale, and yet somehow it is larger than life in the way every musical should be in order to fit the theatrical mold set forth as far back as the days of Romberg, Friml and Herbert, Kern and Hammerstein, Rodgers and Hammerstein, and Hammerstein accompanied by a whole cadre of other collaborators.
- The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers, a new musical that entertains supremely and makes you laugh out loud in abundance, the creative team - along with their onstage and backstage crews- have assembled the requisite elements that equal a hit-in-the-making while revealing something even more exciting and impressive: a new voice in musical theater that is quite possibly unlike anything you've heard before.
- You're certain to love The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers. Well, that and the show's musical score, which is replete with clever lyrics and delightful internal rhymes...Yet while The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers will certainly make you laugh, the show can turn on a dime and you will just as easily find yourself becoming more emotional, your eyes filled with tears as memories of your own family members and other loved ones who have made your life a unique musical in its own right flood your heart.
Book by Lori Fischer
Music & Lyrics by Lori Fischer
& Don Chaffer