"I'm generally a 'Sweeney Todd,' 'Les Mis\érables,' 'Man of La Mancha' kind of guy when it comes to musical theater," Lowe said.
It didn't take many rehearsals at the Benicia Old Town Theatre production to swing Lowe.
"Hats off to the BOTTG for doing a cutting-edge musical," Lowe said. "All the numbers in 'Trailer Park' are wonderfully and thoughtfully composed of the greatest music I have heard in a very long time. So don't let the title fool you."
The play, which runs April 16 to May 15, is definitely not a "country western" show, Lowe said.
"While there are a couple of beautiful, soulful country ballads, you'll find blues, jazz, soul, and the kind of music I grew up with," he said, with an ear tuned to "Lynyrd Skynyrd," "The Allman Brothers Band" and "The Outlaws."
The duties of vocal director falls on Lynne Smith, a Louisiana transplant who came to Benicia two years ago.
"The songs tell the story," Smith said of "Trailer Park."
"In the old '50s musicals, there was a script with songs plugged in," Smith said. "In modern musicals, the songs are the story. So, there's an awful lot of details to work out. I love details."
Lowe, co-founder of Bay Area Stage, finished directing "Buried Child" in Vallejo on March 12 and had a three day breather before starting rehearsals for "Trailer Park."
Still, he's been listening to the "Trailer Park" music since January "and I'm into it with both feet," he said.
In so many words, "The Great American Trailer Park Musical" is about agoraphobia, adultery, the 1980s nostalgia, spray cheese, road kill, hysterical pregnancy, a broken electric chair, kleptomania, flan and disco.
"I'm blown away by the talent of this cast," Smith said. "Their blend is wonderful."
The spotlight's on Norbert and his wife, the young stripper, Pippi. The trailer park also plays home to a a Greek-chorus-like trio of women: Linoleum, Betty and Pickles, "each dysfunctional in her own right," Lowe said.
The casts for "Buried Children" and "Trailer Park" have made the transition easy, Lowe said.
"Both are a real pleasure to work with," he said. "When actors are committed and fun to work with, it's always a pleasure to start a new directorial project."
The challenge in directing any musical, Lowe continued, "is assuring the cast ample rehearsal time with the music-director, choreographer and orchestra (or tracked music, as the case may be). In community theater, it is often quite difficult to find volunteers to run sound boards, lighting or serve as tech support and stage crew. A musical requires a tight team that understands, going into the project, the enormous amount of effort needed to put the show together successfully."
