Encores! Off-Center has done a bang-up job reviving obscurish off-Broadway musicals, some of which, on the strength of these productions, later made it to Broadway.
“Pump Boys and Dinettes” actually played Broadway in 1982, when it was nominated for a Tony on the strength of its country-music score and DIY charm: The cast wrote the songs and played their own instruments, a very down-home touch when big British imports ruled the roost.
The charm, sadly, doesn’t entirely come through in the show that opened Wednesday.
The six actor/musicians in Lear deBessonet’s production are all likable and game, even if Hunter Foster (“Hands on a Hardbody,” “Bridges of Madison County”) should ease up on the “good ol’ boy” parts — this is his third in a row.
At the same time, the ensemble lacks star power and can’t lift the pleasant but innocuous material.
Originally billed as a “country music revue,” the plotless evening simply stitches together tunes about fishing, pies and the joys of a farmer tan. Some, like “Be Good or Be Gone,” are fun rabble-rousers, even if their appeal wears out quickly. Donyale Werle’s elaborate, tchotchke-filled set — a combo of diner and gas station — holds our attention more than the songs do.