MORRISBURG – I Beg Your Parton, a musical documentary concert written and performed by Leisa Way, packed the Upper Canada Playhouse for all four of the limited run shows May 8-10.
It was my first opportunity to attend a Leisa Way show and whatever preconceived notions I had about what I was about to see soon vanished.
I knew that it wasn’t a Dolly Parton tribute show, but what I expected to hear were all of Dolly Parton’s greatest hits.
While those were part of the narrative and the entertainment, the show was so much more.
I Beg Your Parton was not Dolly Parton’s greatest hits, it was actually Leisa Way through the character of Dolly Parton delivering the greatest hits of music.
Backed by and in some cases featuring the exceptional vocal and musical talents of the Wayward Wind Band, Way successfully spun a yarn that took audiences on a journey through hit after hit with the common shimmering thread being each of the hits’ connection to the shining star of Dolly Parton.
This, the updated version of Way’s first concert, delivered the expected by including A Coat of Many Colours, 9 to 5 and even replicated the chemistry and magic of Kenny and Dolly in the musical montage of their hits including Islands in the Stream.
But where this concert soared was in the delivery of the unexpected like an audience sing-a-long to Linda Perry’s What’s Going On and the inclusion of more contemporary hits like Miley Cyrus’ Wrecking Ball.
Given the exceptional entertainment value of this show, we can hardly wait to see Way’s take on the music of the seventies, which will be featured when she returns to the Upper Canada Playhouse this fall with Get Down Tonight a high energy concert of the greatest hits of seventies disco, folk and rock.
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