And, in case you actually wanted to read it:
FORT WORTH -- William Inge was still a relatively happy man by the time his play Bus Stop hit Broadway in 1955. It was the third of his four major plays from the '50s (which are the four best-known works of his entire career), when he was as popular as Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller.
Sure enough, in regards to the central relationship in Bus Stop, a revival of which closes Circle Theatre's 25th season, there is a happy ending. After learning lessons about respect and life, the naive young cowboy Bo (Andrew Milbourn) gets to sweep away the more sexually experienced aspiring chanteuse Cherie (Jessica Lynn Broadaway).It certainly doesn't seem like the work of a man who would, years later, become severely depressed and commit suicide.
But at this bus stop -- a diner in rural Kansas were several passengers have to stay overnight in a blizzard -- there's more about love and relationships than just the boy-gets-girl plot. How people express, or learn to repress, affection is the big theme.
Diner owner Grace (Lana K. Hoover) and bus driver Carl (Jon R. Kruse) share about 20 minutes together every few days when his bus breaks at the eatery. The literature-loving Gerald Lyman (Bill Jenkins), one of the passengers, is an alcoholic with a thing for much younger girls, as he proves with his affection for waitress Elma (Laura Campbell) -- which might be as much about her intelligence as it is her charming, down-home beauty. As for Bo's friend Virgil (Gary Moody), his affections aren't really revealed until the play's end. Ah, that's where the more heartbreaking side of Inge comes in.
Texas Christian University's Harry Parker directs this co-production with Theatre TCU.
Milbourn, Broadaway and Campbell are all students, and although all have a certain amount of charm, their inexperience in comparison to the other performers shows.
Campbell comes closest to creating a believable character. Milbourn lets Bo's uneducated, cowboy speech and physical swagger get in the way of making Bo a real human being, and both he and Broadaway are frequently guilty of facial expressions that seem formed from the realization that there needs to be one, not because it's the natural reaction.
It's no surprise that the more experienced actors -- especially Kruse, Moody and Lem White as the not-surprised-by-anything sheriff Will -- are the most polished and natural performers.
It's a good effort that will at least give the students valuable instruction -- onstage and, if they listen to Inge's memorable characters, in life.
EDIT: And another, from the Dallas Morning News on Sunday.
Theater: Actors lend vibrancy to Circle Theatre's 'Bus Stop'
Seasoned talents and prize students make show pulse with life
11:35 AM CST on Sunday, November 5, 2006
By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH – After 50 years, Bus Stop feels old-fashioned, but it's still an enjoyable two hours in the theater, especially when it's done as well as the new production at Circle Theatre, in association with Theatre TCU.
Texas Christian University professor Harry Parker has teamed seasoned professionals with a few prize students to create a Bus Stop as good as you are ever likely to see.
Playwright William Inge used a time-tested device to set up his play: A group of travelers stop awhile to tell their stories. In this case, they're stranded during the wee hours in a blizzard in eastern Kansas.
In the first scene, the diner's proprietor, Grace (Lana K. Hoover), is talking with her young waitress, Elma (Laura Campbell), as they set up for the Kansas City bus. The advantages of the town-and-gown production were immediate in the performance reviewed Saturday. Ms. Hoover strikes just the right note of crusty sass, and Ms. Campbell combines rosebud freshness with a precociously serious intelligence.
Both sides of Elma's character, the virginal innocence and the school smarts, appeal to one of the travelers, the boozy, Shakespeare-quoting ex-professor (Bill Jenkins). This is the sort of role Mr. Jenkins can toss off in his sleep, and sometimes he does seem to be on autopilot. But at one moment of pensive self-recognition, he expands the character into tragic dimensions.
The real romance in Bus Stop falls to the hillbilly chanteuse Cherie (Jessica Lynn Broadaway) and a rodeo rider, Bo (Andrew Milbourn), who became obsessed with her at a stockyards nightclub. Bo grew up virtually alone on a Montana ranch, and he's determined to marry Cherie and take her back there, whether she wants to go or not.
Mr. Milbourn and Ms. Broadaway are closer in age to the characters they play than you'd usually see in a professional production, and that helps them embody the innocence hiding under the facades of bully boy Bo and temptress Cherie. If anything, you might ideally want a Cherie who looks a little more the worse for wear. Ms. Broadaway also leans a little too hard on Cherie's ineptness as a singer; even the lowliest bar would require more talent than this.
Lem White as the masterful sheriff, Gary Moody as Bo's mentor of a sidekick and Jon R. Kruse as the bus driver are all wonderfully believable. Bus Stop's construction might seem artificial at this distance, but when you fill it with actors like these, it definitely pulses with life. | 
