In \u201cMusic City,\u201d a musical about struggling county singer-songwriters, we\u2019re supposed to feel immersed in a cramped and crowded honky-tonk, but I felt transported to \u201cNashville,\u201d not the town so much as the old TV series, a primetime soap opera with some really catchy country music.\u00a0\u00a0The stage show even has some of the same storylines, such as a mama whose addiction is holding her talented daughter back!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
What\u2019s different is that \u201cMusic City,\u201d which has transferred to Theater at St. Luke\u2019s after an acclaimed 2024 run, is a jukebox musical using only songs composed by JT Harding, several of which have been number one hits for such country music stars as\u00a0Keith Urban (\u201cSomewhere In My Car\u201d), Blake Shelton (\u201cSangria\u201d) and Uncle Kracker (\u201cSmile.\u201d) A word of assurance to those theatergoers who have never heard any of those names or titles before: You don\u2019t have to be a country music fan to enjoy \u201cMusic City.\u201d\u00a0A terrific seven-member cast puts over Harding\u2019s songs in lively musical numbers that are well-integrated into a coherent (if soapy) work of theater by book writer Peter Zinn.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Set in a fictional East Nashville bar known as the Wicked Tickle, \u201cMusic City\u201d focuses on TJ and his brother Drew (Stephen Michael Spencer and Jonathan Judge-Russo), orphaned foster kids who are now hungry to make it into the cut-throat Nashville music industry. At open mic night, TJ meets another singer-songwriter who goes by the name 23 (Lauren Lolo Pritchard, who is the only newcomer to the cast, and all the more impressive for\u00a0having stepped in for Casey Shuler only a week ago.) There is an instant attraction between TJ and 23, but there is a complication: In order\u00a0\u00a0to finance a demo of their songs, the brothers went to the only person they know who has any money, the nefarious Bakerman (Andrew Rothenberg), a drug dealer. He gives them the money but only if they start working for him as drug couriers. One of his clients happens to be Tammy (Leenya Rideout), 23\u2019s strung-out mother.<\/p>\n Rothenberg serves as a delicious villain, both as the gregarious albeit menacing drug dealer and as the grandly self-admiring older country music star named\u00a0Stucky Stiles, who has designs on 23.<\/p>\n Tammy was once an aspiring singer-songwriter herself, and Rideout,\u00a0who also doubles as the record executive Leeanne, sings a song \u201cFor This Town\u201d (which was a major hit for singer Jason Aldean) that more or less sums up the various story strands in a single couplet:<\/p>\n \u201cBut what they don\u2019t tell you bout Nashville, Tennessee But that\u2019s only at first. I probably need a spoiler alert here to reveal that, while things are touchy and tense throughout, it all works out happily at the end especially, for TJ and 23. <\/p>\n So that a more accurate summary would be the duet that TJ and 23 sing, \u201cMy Masterpiece\u201d (which was originally sung by\u00a0Darius Rucker)<\/p>\n I can\u2019t play piano like Ray Charles To be clear: Everybody in the cast\u00a0gets their own song to sing and instrument to play; each of them shine. I was especially struck the rendition of \u201cAlone With You\u201d (originally recorded by Jake Owen)\u00a0\u00a0by Julianne B. Merrill as Wyn, the bar owner, who is also the music director.<\/p>\n The design team is diligent in re-creating a honky-tonk, maybe to a fault. There is the kind of tiny stage that such a bar would have, but much of the action occurs throughout the theater, meaning audience members have to twist around if they want to follow what\u2019s going on. Not everybody bothers. There is pleasure enough just in listening.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorktheater.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Andrew-Rothenberg-as-Stucky-Stiles-in-Music-City.-%C2%A9Jeremy-Daniel.jpeg?resize=870%2C580&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n
is heartbreak\u2019s the only thing they hand out for free.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorktheater.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Leenya-Rideout-as-Tammy-in-Music-City.-%C2%A9Jeremy-Daniel.jpeg?resize=870%2C580&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorktheater.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Lauren-_LOLO_-Pritchard-Stephen-Michael-Spencer-2-photo-by-Jeremy-Daniel.jpeg?resize=870%2C580&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n
But, baby, when my life is through
I hope they say my masterpiece is lovin\u2019 you<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newyorktheater.me\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Julianne-B.-Merrill-as-Wyn-in-Music-City.-%C2%A9Jeremy-Daniel.jpeg?resize=683%2C1024&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n