If you go
› What: “The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers.”› When: April 1-May 28 (various showtimes).› Where: Cumberland County Playhouse, 200 Tennessee Ave., Crossville, Tenn.› Admission: $25 adults, $23 seniors, $20 military and groups, $12 students.› Phone: 931-484-5000.› Website: www.ccplayhouse.com.› Note: Rated PG.
About the playwright
In addition to “The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers,” Lori Fischer’s stage projects include “Is This Heaven, Evan,” “Petie, “The Water Knows My Name,” “The Burning,” “Thoughts of Rome” and the critically acclaimed musical “Barbara’s Blue Kitchen,” which played off-Broadway in 2006.Her film credits include the short film “Dottie’s Thanksgiving Pickle,” starring Olympia Dukakis, and the feature film “Chasing Taste,” the feature comedy award winner at the 2013 Burbank International Film Festival.Her book of children’s stories is titled “Babbaganoosh, the Big Silly Goose.”
"The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers," a new musical comedy from Lori Fischer and Don Chaffer, will make its Southern debut with a two-month run at Cumberland County Playhouse. Fischer even has a starring role in the Crossville, Tenn., production, which opens Friday, April 1.
CCP producing director Bryce McDonald will direct the show, which had its world premiere at the Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany, N.Y., in 2013.
"Lori has been working nonstop on rewrites for our new production," says McDonald. "This new version is even funnier - and more touching - than the original and is literally tailor-made for our wonderful cast."
"The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers" centers on the Lashley Sisters, a country-singing duo whose star was on the rise (with hit tunes like "Big Boned Dreams, Tiny Tambourines") until the publicity surrounding an accident brought their careers to a screeching halt. It seems Lashley Lee Lashley (Weslie Webster) was driving the band's tour bus while she was under the influence.
Now the girls are back in their hometown of Ashland City, where sister Junie (Fischer) has taken over the family business, Sparkley Clean Dry Cleaners. She also takes care of her father, Lyle (Bill Frey), who's been having trouble remembering things lately.
With Lashley fresh out of rehab and Junie up to her elbows in laundry, a professional comeback for the Lashley Sisters seems unlikely. That is until Pastor Phil (Britt Hancock) of the Third United Separated Harmony Church informs them that Bindy Moss, the church's funeral singer, has gone to her eternal rest and asks them to take over the job.
Junie pens the unforgettable tune "Bindy, Take a Seat at the Banquet Table (Cause There's No Need for Food Drives in Heaven)" starting her and a reluctant Lashley on a new career path: performing personalized sendoffs for the dearly departed.
Will Lashley stay clean and sober? Can Junie juggle taking care of the business and her father while writing her funeral songs? Will the Lashley Sisters make it back to Nashville?
"The Sparkley Clean Funeral Singers" will provide the hilarious and heartwarming answers.