“You Don’t Know Me: The Cindy Walker Songbook” is one of several musicals appearing recently in our area in this commemorative year that would have been the songwriter’s 100th birthday. Created by Fairfield’s own Jeff Harrison, this show is a beautiful, comprehensive story of Walker’s life and career told through narrative, drama and song.
When it was suggested about a year ago by Trinity Star Arts Council that Harrison help produce a tribute to Cindy Walker, it was discovered that there was no existing packaged syndicated show to purchase or lease. No plays about Cindy Walker had been written and published. Director George Boyd suggested that Harrison create one himself.
Harrison recalls, “George asked me to go ahead with the project on a Friday; by the next Monday I had submitted a tentative script for consideration. It was a go! Honestly, Cindy actually wrote her own life story in various interviews over the years. She was a private person, granting few interviews, but the stories that she shared defined the various phases of her career. My job was to digest these stories, place them in chronological order, then write out the imagined interactions she had in the important people and events that she had described. When I was done and had paired the songs with their respective eras, we had a play!” And an amateur playwright was born.
Harrison envisioned showcasing several selections from Walker’s vast array of titles and decided that seemed too much fun to pass up. So he assembled a stage band and began lovingly duplicating Walker’s songs, including well-known pieces such as “Cherokee Maiden,” “In the Misty Moonlight,” “Dream Baby” and “You Don’t Know Me.”
With a full cast, talented vocalists, colorful costumes and an expanded live band, the show has grown into a spectacular production. “You Don’t Know Me: The Cindy Walker Songbook” will be presented on the evening of May 19 at 7:00 and in a 2:00 matinee on May 20 at the Theatre at Teague High. Tickets are $10 each and are available at Armadillo Emporium, LaDonna’s Yoakum Place, Flatt’s and online at www.trinitystarartscouncil.org.
