Spartanburg Little Theatre to present ‘Hank Williams: Lost Highway’

By DAN ARMONAITIS

On New Year’s Day 1953, the life of one of the most important figures in country music history came to a tragic end. The legendary Hank Williams died in the backseat of a baby blue Cadillac in Oak Hill, West Virginia, as he was being driven to a show in Canton, Ohio. The Alabama native was only 29 years old.

“Hank Williams: Lost Highway,” which will be presented by Spartanburg Little Theatre Friday, Jan. 10 through Sunday, Jan. 19 at the Chapman Cultural Center, tells the compelling life story that led to Williams’ demise, offering an intimate portrait of the passionate and troubled man whose music continues to resonate well into the 21st century.

“It’s the classic story of a life of incredible accomplishment and talent ending too soon,” said Kevin Treu, a Greenville resident who is directing SLT’s production of the acclaimed musical. “This is like an early version of one of those ‘Behind the Music’ stories on VH1, which I’ve always loved watching. … There’s the self-destructive tendencies that (led to him) essentially killing himself and just a lot of drama.”

Of course, there’s also plenty of music. The show features more than 20 of Williams’ best-known songs, including such timeless classics as “Move It On Over,” “Jambalaya” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” performed live by a band representing Hank and the Drifting Cowboys.

“The music is toe-tapping, and it is so clearly a forerunner of the popular music that we have today,” Treu said. “You can see sort of directly where it came from, starting with kind of hillbilly music and then transforming into what we would call country and then on into current popular music.”

The role of Hank is being played by Mitchell Smith, a Greenville resident making his SLT debut in a show that details not only Williams’ music but also his turbulent relationship with his wife Audrey and his constant battles with addiction to alcohol and painkillers.

“It’s unreal that in such a short span of life, he wrote and recorded so many songs,” Smith said of Williams. “I think what has been particularly interesting has been seeing his growth as a songwriter throughout his life story.

“He started in gospel and church music and started moving into a hillbilly/country direction and then started moving into a blues direction that ended up influencing rock ‘n’ roll music.”

The blues influence can be traced to Rufus Payne, an African-American street musician known as Tee-Tot whose mentoring relationship with Williams is prominently featured in “Lost Highway.”

“I’m a big fan of any of (Williams’) songs that have the word ‘blues’ in the title,” Smith said. “All of those like ‘Lovesick Blues,’ ‘Long Gone Lonesome Blues’ (and) ‘Honky Tonk Blues.’ And anything that he was experimenting with his yodeling in, I just think it’s a fun challenge as a vocalist.”

Smith said he’s particularly impressed with the lyrical prowess of Williams, who was known to many as “The Hillbilly Shakespeare.”

“His lyrics are so much deeper than maybe you’ll catch the first time you listen to it,” Smith said. “He didn’t just state it like it was, he went into full contextual detail, and that’s what made him so great.”

Unlike a typical musical, “Lost Highway” doesn’t have musicians performing in an orchestra pit. Instead, the musicians appear on stage, also serving double-duty as actors portraying actual characters in the show.

“They’ve got to play all the music and make it sound good, but they’ve also got to think about acting and lines and everything else that goes along with the production, so it’s very challenging,” said Inman resident Joy Finch, who serves as the show’s musical director.

“This show is really wild because it’s the first one I’ve ever done where I’m not going to be playing for the production. It’s just going to be ‘let them go’ and watch these great musicians onstage.”

Finch, unlike Treu and Smith, needed no introduction to Williams’ music legacy, having worked as a hostess at the Grand Ole Opry in the 1970s.

“I think Hank Williams’ music really transcends the country genre,” Finch said. “You have musicians from all different types of genres that have done, and continue to do, Hank Williams songs. For example, Norah Jones did ‘Cold Cold Heart’ on her first album.

“He was such an incredible songwriter in addition to being one of the first really big stars of country music. … The man could really, really sing in a unique vocal style, and when you put the whole package together, it’s not (like the audience) will be just listening to country music when they come to this show. They’ll be seeing someone who had a pretty huge effect on the whole American music scene.”

Smith said audiences can expect to laugh and cry during the show.

“Even if you’re not a Hank Williams fan or you’re not familiar with his music, I think it’s an important story to come out and see,” he said. “I think it’s still pretty relevant to the experiences we see in music today and with the people we hail as stars and celebrities.

“At the end of the day, they’re just regular people trying to make it through like everybody else, and I feel like this show is a really good example of humanizing someone who maybe we’ve put up on display as an idol but was basically just a broken man with problems like everybody else.”