The Doyle & Debbie Show

continued

And what a mistake that would be.

I caught TDADS a couple of weeks ago at Nashville's venerable Station Inn, where they pack in crowds of tourists and locals alike every Tuesday night. It's a bit like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, with fans who've seen it dozens of times and know what's coming shouting stuff out. It's also great theater, wrapped around a gooey banana-pudding center of brilliantly god-awful country songs that somehow retain some dignity due to the humanity of the bizarre, fully realized characters who sing them. This is satire, of course--full-on skewering of iconic country music duos--but it's also layered and complex, and it is capable of making your face freeze into the Grecian mask of comedy for uncomfortable lengths of time.

Here's the premise: "Doyle" (Bruce Arntson) is a B-level country crooner on tour with "Debbie" (Jenny Littleton), the latest of his sequined sidekicks. Dressed in matching, entirely overwrought appliqued western wear, they deliver up such chestnuts as "When You're Screwing Other Women, Think of Me," "Fat Women in Trailers," "Stock Car Love," and the beautiful, artery-clogging ballad "Be Still, My Heart"--in which body parts (including some you never really thought about) are commanded to behave in certain ways, perform tricks, etc. For all their cleverness, these are well-crafted songs, tight as a drum and nattily arranged.