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Theater

Memphis tears down the house at PPAC

And so it goes, as the young DJ sets forth on a one-man crusade to get black music accepted by white radio audiences; he even urges them to check out black churches ("Make Me Stronger") and take in some of that pounding gospel energy. Huey's white trash mother (Julie Johnson) gets inspired. In an effective comparison, she recites her everyday tribulations in her home as a black choir in church rocks the house with gospel song parallels. After her son is successful, she wows the audience, ripping into "Change Don't Come Easy" with two other characters transformed by music: Gator (Rhett George), previously traumatized by life, and Bobby (Will Mann), as shy as he is large, until he puts himself in charge.

While the cranked-up hillbilly Huey sounds like Gomer Pyle on speed, Fenkart conveys his personality with convincing energy. And that voice certainly doesn't get in the way with an inspiring crowdpleaser toward the end, "Memphis Lives In Me."

Indeed. The whole experience with Memphis is a captivating reminder that the spirit of the city's musical heritage lives in all of us.