Entertainment
'Bob' comes riding into Texarkana's historic Perot Theatre!
By Nita Fran Hutcheson, Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council
Jan 21, 2008

Nine-time Grammy®-award winners RAY BENSON and ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL are proud to announce the first-ever musical drama about the legendary Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys is rolling into Texarkana for a stop at the Historic Perot Theatre.
 
A RIDE WITH BOB: The Bob Wills Musical is scheduled for TWO performances: Saturday, January 26 at 7:30pm and a SPECIAL Sunday, January 27 Matinee at 2:00pm.  Tickets range from $48 to $6 with group and half-price student discounts available (and make great Christmas presents, stocking stuffers, gifts for the boss, co-worker, bunko-buddies/Red Hatters, or that "person-who-already-has-everything!").

 
Twenty-five actors and musicians bring to life one of the most flamboyant figures in Texas music, complete with several dozen costume changes and a colorful theatrical set. Fifteen of Wills' most popular songs are combined with a plot that interweaves Benson's present day with various stages in Wills' storied career (among the characters you'll meet are "Minnie Pearl," "Bing Crosby," and another king - "Elvis!").
 
In 1973 after the release of the band’s first album (which paid tribute to the music of Bob Wills), Benson was invited by his idol to Dallas for a meeting. On arrival, he learned Wills was not feeling well and the meeting was postponed to the next morning. That same night the legendary musician had a stroke and went into a life-ending coma.

The one and only Bob Wills

 
In A Ride with Bob, Benson finally gets to have his conversation late one night - with the "Spirit" of Bob (who starts out as the driver of the Asleep at the Wheel bus, then convinces Benson he IS Bob Wills by taking Benson back in time). As the fascinating and sometimes outrageous stories of Wills’ career, his contribution to American music, and his raucous personal life unfold, the drama includes performances of Wills’ most famous songs, including “San Antonio Rose,” “Faded Love,” “Cherokee Maiden,” “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” "Route 66," and many more.  Finally, the bus trip concludes in Tulsa with an awestruck Benson, having gotten to know his hero, re-energized and determined to keep the band and Wills' music on the road forever.
 
A Ride with Bob debuted in the spring of 2005 with six sold-out shows at the State Theater in Austin.  It was an instant hit with audiences and critics, garnering several nominations from Austin Circle of Theaters Awards and fueling a four-city tour of Texas and Oklahoma that fall. In 2006, the show rode high coast-to-coast:  San Antonio, Ft. Worth, San Francisco then Washington, DC where President and Mrs. Bush were in attendance at the renowned Kennedy Center.  

Ray Benson and First Lady Laura Bush

Response to the play has been glowing. Liz Smith of the New York Post said A Ride With Bob is "The most entertaining night in Texas.” And John Wooley of the Tulsa World wrote that the play is  “…as raucous, spirited and joyous as the music that inspired it.”   
 
This two-act play features Ray Benson (as himself), Asleep at the Wheel members including fiddler Jason Roberts (as Young Bob Wills), and actor Marco Perella (as the Spirit of Bob Wills). The play was co-written by Benson and Hollywood screenwriter Anne Rapp (Cookie’s Fortune and Dr. T & the Women).  Production credits also include Robert Tolaro (Production Stage Manager), Christopher McCollum (Set Designer) and Jane Clarke (Costume Designer).
 
Biographies of Bob Wills abound and although he did not invent Western Swing, he did popularize the genre and changed the rules!  

In the process, he also re-invented popular music, with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys becoming a dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers.  

Their arrangements expanded, erasing boundaries and becoming some of the most popular music of the 1940s with the musicians in the Playboys heralded as among the finest of the era. Even when the popularity of Western Swing declined, generations of country artists owe Wills a significant debt as do certain rock and jazz musicians.  

Wills was a maverick and his spirit greatly influenced American popular music of the early 20th century with a renegade, virtuosic flair.
 
Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel have done much the same thing.  For 36 years, stellar musicians have defied the fickle lures of mainstream music, and thrived, by sticking to their noble cause of keeping that distinctly American art form, Western Swing, alive and kicking.  

Along the way, these post-modern "kings" have won nine Grammys, entertained thousands, and won praise and admiration from other luminaries such as Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, George Strait, and Van Morrison.  Asleep at the Wheel has become an institution, an ever-shifting lineup (over 80 members to date) of like-minded musicians united under Benson's crusade to carry the torch of big band Western Swing music into the 21st Century.  This is what Texas sounds like - with roots as eclectic as the population it boasts.
 
Tickets for the January 26-27 performances of A RIDE WITH BOB: The Bob Wills Musical featuring Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel are $48, $40, $30, $20*, and $6 with group and half-price* student discounts.  Call the Perot Theatre Box Office Monday-Friday from 10am-5pm at 903.792.4992 or buy online anytime at trahc.org.  Visa, MasterCard, and now Discover Card are accepted.
 
This presentation is supported by Mid-American Arts Alliance with generous underwriting by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Arkansas Arts Council, and foundations, corporations, and individuals throughout Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
 
Support for Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council is provided, in part, by the Arkansas Arts Council, an Agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and the National Endowment for the Arts; the Texas Commission on the Arts; the Cities of Texarkana, Texas and Texarkana, Arkansas; Women for the Arts; and the many generous individual and corporate TRAHC Members, Community Business Partners and program sponsors.

“...crisp and rousing.”      --    Washington Post  

“About a MAN and a BAND that changed American MUSIC forever!”   -- Liz Smith, New York Post

WHAT:
A RIDE WITH BOB: The Bob Wills Musical
Featuring RAY BENSON and ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL 
 
WHERE:
Historic Perot Theatre • Downtown Texarkana
219 Main Street (Corner of Third & Main Streets)
 
WHEN:
Saturday, January 26 • 7:30pm
Sunday, January 27 • SPECIAL MATINEE - 2:00pm

TICKETS:
$48, $40, $30, $20*, $6
Group and Half-Price* Student Discounts
 
CONTACT:            
Perot Theatre Box Office
221 Main Street (Corner of 3rd and Main) • Downtown Texarkana
(903) 792-4992     Monday-Friday   10am – 5pm
INFO:  www.trahc.org  or artsinfo@trahc.org

© Copyright 2002-2005 by North Texas e-News, llc.