On the Road Again

Jason Heller March 18, 2010 4:00AM

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For more casual fans, trucker music begins and ends with “Convoy,” C. W. McCall's 1975 country hit. But Colorado playwrights Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman have scratched that satirical stereotype and interviewed many real-life big-rig drivers about the hurdles and sorrows of the highways for their new musical, Mama Hated Diesels. “The problem with the trucker myth is that it often plays on the truckers-are-all-ignorant-white-Southerners stereotype," says Myler, who also directs the play. "The truckers that we’ve met are hardworking, honest, blue-collar workers out there on the highways right now, hauling all of our shit.”

Full of lonesome, dust-choked songs penned by Wheetman — a onetime member of John Denver's band — the show aims to celebrate, humanize and make palpable a unique and overlooked piece of the American dream. A preview performance of Mama Hated Diesels takes place tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Stage Theatre, in the Denver Performing Arts Complex; a complimentary pre-show discussion with the play's creators will be held at 6 p.m. at the adjacent Jones Theatre.

Mama Hated Diesels will have its official world premiere on March 25, then continue running through May 9. Seats start at $18; for showtimes and ticket information, call 303-893-4100 or visit www.denvercenter.org.
Fridays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, Sundays, 1:30 & 7:30 p.m.; Tuesdays-Thursdays, 6:30 p.m. Starts: March 19. Continues through May 9, 2010

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Jason Heller

Contact: Jason Heller

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