With Almost Heaven: Songs of John Denver -- a tribute in the form of a musical revue to the man once called "the Jimmy Stewart of folk music" -- Off-Broadway gets a little bit of Branson, Mo.
Conceived by Harold Thau, Heaven in its first half consists primarily of songs that relate to the events of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Projections underscore these songs with photographs of soldiers in Vietnam and student protesters stateside. Here the material takes on a certain power and timeliness, particularly when "Take Me Home, Country Roads" is delivered as an anthem for soldiers longing to return from a seemingly unending war.
This piquancy leaves after intermission, however, when the artist's love songs (delivered in tandem with a cursory outline, taken from Denver's autobiography, of his ill-fated first marriage) come to the fore. Following these tunes is a coda summing up Denver's love of America's heartland (his nature photography is seen throughout Act II, making the proceedings feel like a greeting card come to life). As Heaven winds down, audiences see a video of Denver performing his last song, "Yellowstone, Coming Home," for a group of children. For those devoted to his work -- like the fans whose letters are part of the show's text -- it's a rousing finale.
While the show's six-person company -- Jennifer Allen, Terry Burrell, Valisia Lekae Little, Lee Morgan, Jim Newman, and Nicholas Rodriguez -- performs Jeff Waxman's vocal arrangements ably, wailing out with his orchestrations filled with countrified bombast, they've been directed by Randal Myler to sell the material shamelessly, smiling cheery or blissfully contented smiles and illustrating the lyrics with broad gestures.
For the Denver faithful in New York, Almost Heaven will be a welcome addition to the theatrical landscape. And once their numbers have been depleted, it looks as if Kelly Tighe's decklike set backed by the silhouette of a mountain lake (lit adeptly by Don Darnutzer) will travel admirably.
