Review: On Theater: Roger Miller takes us down his bumpy road

Maybe you can’t roller skate through a buffalo herd, but you can take those nonsensical lyrics and spin them into gold — if, that is, you were singer-songwriter Roger Miller.

The entertainer’s widow, Mary, aided by Cort Casady, has turned the story of Miller’s alternately brilliant and bummed-out life into a bouncy and most entertaining and enlightening show – called, quite naturally, “King of the Road” after his biggest hit — and they’ve picked the stage of the Laguna Playhouse as the site of its world premiere.

Miller was no exemplary figure. He drank too much, abused drugs and caroused, all of which cost him his first two marriages. The third time was a charm, however, when he entered rehab and shed all his faults — except for cigarettes, which killed him at the age of 56.

Miller grew up “dirt poor,” as he put it, but was drawn to music by his cousin’s husband, “The Purple People Eater” creator Sheb Wooley, who taught Miller his first guitar chords and bought him a fiddle. That and Miller’s voluminous imagination started the career ball rolling.

Mary Miller presents her husband’s story, warts and all, with special emphasis on his hit songs. His most notable, “King of the Road,” both opens and closes this captivating venture, briskly directed by Andrew Barnicle, the playhouse’s artistic director for 19 years, who seems to drop back once a year to stage another show.

To inhabit the complicated country boy who scrambled out of rustic Erick, Okla., and put a significant stamp on the down-home music genre, Barnicle selected Jesse Johnson, who has both the voice and the acting chops for the assignment. Johnson also excels at the semi-yodel and gravelly falsetto that characterized Miller’s hit recordings.

Playing a sort of Jiminy Cricket to Miller’s Pinocchio is the singer’s teenage self, solidly enacted by Braxton Baker. Casually attired in T-shirt and jeans, Baker keeps Johnson’s Miller honest — or attempts to — pointing out his glaring faults to his older incarnation in no uncertain terms.

Mary, in the pretty personage of Brittney Bertier, shows up midway through the second act to provide a needed life purpose for the disheartened singer. Lindsey Alley plays the other ladies in his life – a cousin and his earlier amours – quite nicely.

Miller’s longtime pal Thumbs, a guitarist in his backup band, is warmly played by Trevor Wheetman. The other three musicians are Kevin F. Story (piano), musical director Omar D. Brancato (bass) and Matt Tucci (drums).

The basic scenic designs, revolving around a pair of recording studios, were fashioned by Jim Prodger. Sound and lighting effects are credited to Bradley Enochs and D. Martyn Bookwalter, respectively.

“King of the Road: The Roger Miller Story” undoubtedly will grow beyond Orange County, most probably into the Nashville and mid-America locales. Until then, it’s a most entertaining staged biography for music fans at Laguna Playhouse.

If You Go

What: “King of the Road: The Roger Miller Story”

When: Through May 14; 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays and 1 p.m. Sundays

Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach

Cost: $60-$75

Information: (949) 497-2787 or visit lagunaplayhouse.com

TOM TITUS reviews local theater.