How do you pay tribute to Dolly Parton? Her songwriting lacks the gravity of Cash or the lyricism of Parsons or Harris and she tends to lay on country and western melodrama with a trowel. In the Parton song "Me and Little Andy", not only does a homeless orphan die, so too does her dog. Authors Bruce Vilanch and husband-wife team Gabriel Barre and Tricia Paoluccio find the key to success in Here You Come Again, a show that is both respectful and irreverent.
We all went a bit weird during the COVID lockdown. Although he has not descended into the full depravity of baking his own banana bread, wannabe comedian Kevin (Steven Webb) has retreated into adolescence, licking his wounds after romantic and professional setbacks by returning to his parental home to wallow in self-pity. However, his idol, Dolly Parton (Tricia Paoluccio who also contributed to the writing), has other ideas and appears in full fairy godmother mode to help Kevin sort out his problems.
The authors have grasped that the real-life Dolly Parton is playing a role—an exaggerated version of herself—and she is perfectly happy to poke fun at the persona, acknowledging it takes a lot of money to look so cheap. Co-author and director Gabriel Barre carries this sense of affectionate self-mockery through the show. Daringly, act one closes on a gentle lullaby before one of Richard Pinner’s discrete illusions brings down the curtain.
The stage set by Paul Willis is a ramshackle thing of wonder—the bedroom of a teenager who never achieved maturity or chucked anything away. It looks just like my front room, although I might not have kept the flamingo.
Although promoted as a musical, Here You Come Again is more a play with music and has a subtle difference in the two acts. The first half concentrates on Kevin’s angst-ridden anxieties cataloguing his misadventures from launching his comedy career by following Peter Kay on stage to the exertions caused by lip-synching to Dolly Parton songs. The second act is closer to a crowd-pleaser, with Parton’s greatest hits performed in ecstatic style. Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the show is the willingness to challenge audience expectations. The melodrama of "Jolene" is pushed to the point of parody, with Steven Webb illustrating the overwrought lyrics in high camp style.
Although Charlotte Yorke and Aidan Cutler provide backup, the show is essentially a two-hander. Tricia Paoluccio plays Dolly Parton as if in a live concert, interacting with the audience with a knowing twinkle. Paoluccio is top of the bill, but Steven Webb steals the show. Webb builds Kevin into a wonderful character—self-aware but needy and over-anxious but observant. Much of the humour in the play comes from Kevin pointing out the absurdity of a four-piece band popping up in his bedroom. Webb’s superfan persona allows the script to drip-feed biographical information on Parton and express incredulity at fun facts—The Bee Gees wrote "Islands in the Stream".
It is unclear how much additional material Jonathan Harvey contributed to the script, but one assumes much of the character of Kevin and the opening sequence acknowledging the silliness of responses to the pandemic are among his work. Kevin is compelled to enter his bedroom via a ladder to avoid contamination and carries a supply of toilet paper. The cast are adaptable enough to ad-lib a reference to the recent offensive remarks by a comedian at a Donald Trump rally.
Here You Come Again is completely ridiculous and the most fun an audience is likely to have for some time—and the vocals are great.