It was a killing spree that shocked the nation in 1958. Charles Starkweather, a 19-year-old garbage truck driver in Lincoln, Neb., and his 14-year-old girl friend, Caril Ann Fugate, went off on a killing spree, starting with her family and continuing until 11 bodies were found here and there in a number of midwestern states.
Honored in a number of movies,especially Terrence Malick's brilliant "Badlands," of 1973, with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as the anti-heroes, it's a musical now, with New Line Theatre opening a hard-rock version, "Love Kills," at the economically named Washington University South Campus Theatre, once CBC High School. The brief (95 minutes, no intermission) drama looks at one jailhouse night in the lives of the killers, with flashbacks setting the action, discussing the past and looking toward the future. It opened on Friday, and will run through Oct. 24.
Kyle Jarrow wrote book, music and lyrics, describing the music as "emo-rock." The prefix is pronounced "eee-mow," with a long "e," and it's short for emotional rock, a style that came up in the 80s, as a variant of punk.
Philip Leveling is Charlie and Taylor Pietz is Caril, with Zachary Allen Farmer and Alison Helmer as Sheriff Merle Karnopp and his wife, Gertrude. All four show nice voices that meet the demands of the music, but there's a banality to the lyrics that is off-putting. The book allows all to show some power, and Helmer displays a loving warmth, added at her husband's request as she tries to extract a false confession from Fugate. He's stern and dour, but it's a good portrayal of a Nebraska lawman.
Pietz shows an especially nice voice, and Leveling bounces back and forth between being the world's baddest killer and a small boy in search of his mother. Scott Miller directed effectively on what is almost a bare stage, and the trio of Mike Renard on guitar, Dave Hall on base and Mike Schurk on drums was first-rate. An interesting evening and a look at what came out from under a Nebraska rock. Starkweather was executed on Sept. 25, 1959, just a week more than 50 years ago. Fugate was paroled in 1976, moved to Lansing Mich., and has lived there since.
A New Line Theatre presentation at the Washington U. South Campus (nee CBC) through Oct. 24
–Joe
Comments
2 responses
It’s pronounced Ee-mow, not Moo. Just like your favorite St. Louis pizza place 🙂
Thanks. That’s what happens when you’re writing in the small hours of the morning: Typos.