Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean: A New Musical
This Cult Success as a Play and Movie Now a Musical
By: Victor Cordell - Jun 23, 2025
World premieres are always a crap shoot, but the risk is reduced when the material is taken from a known source. In this case, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has produced a musical version of a successful play and movie, the new variation being Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean: A New Musical. Akin to its cult-like predecessors, it is a true delight in every respect, with an ensemble of fine actors and great creative design.
Desolate far west Texas desert, between Odessa and El Paso, equals South Carolina in size but has many times more rattlesnakes, scorpions, and horny toads than people. One of its towns, Marfa, has blossomed into a small artist colony in recent times, but previously was best known for the filming of the movie Giant, released in 1956. Before the movie’s opening, icon and idol James Dean would die in a car accident, having played the antihero Jedd Rink. He would earn outsized respect based on acting in only three movies, for which he received two posthumous Oscar nominations.
The central character in 5 & Dime is Mona, from the even smaller fictional town of McCarthy. She’s a focused and slightly condescending type aptly portrayed by Lauren Marcus. Her life is indicative of how a random event can induce promise of a brighter future to go off the rails. An extra in the film Giant, she became pregnant ostensibly by James Dean. As a single mother to a boy she named Jimmy Dean, she dedicated her emotional life to the memory of the actor, starting the “Disciples of James Dean” club. Now, in 1975, it celebrates the 20th anniversary of the actor’s death. The action of the play also flashes back to 1955.
Although the play seems shallow at first, it achieves uncommon depth in time, despite having characters that are cardboard thin. Its messages are as relevant today as they were then. The celebration takes place at the Kress 5 & Dime in McCarthy, and before long, the other three members of the club appear. Sissy (a vivacious Stephanie Gibson) has a big sexual appetite and dreams of being a country singing star. Stella Mae (Hayley Lovgren, whose singing pipes raise the roof, as in her anthem “God damn, I love Texas”) is an emigree to Dallas, childless, but has 100 oil wells with children’s names instead. And Edna Louise (Ashley Cowl, who is clearly not an ugly duckling) is a Chicana who was ridiculed for her looks and ethnicity.
A legitimate small-town Texas vibe can be felt, which this reviewer can verify from personal history. Loretta (the distinguished Judith Miller) manages the 5 & Dime and represents the rural way of life. A bible beater who is either ignorant or hypocritical, yet good hearted, she’s even tolerant enough to allow the other women to drink booze in the store, even though she’s a teetotaler. At the other extreme, Jimmy Dean (played by the androgynous trans guy Ellie van Amerongen), who is anything but typical Texan, drifts in and out of the action.
The soundtrack comprises country-rock songs that are 100% listenable melodies and with thoughtful lyrics that drive the story. Music is by Dan Gillespie Sells, with lyrics by award winning Shakina, who is notable as the first trans performer ever with a regular part on network television. She also plays Joanne, a mysterious traveler who just happens upon the action, though McCarthy is on the road to nowhere.
The narrative brims with denouements, big and small. We learn secrets about husbands, wayward and worse, and about resentments among the women themselves. Some key disclosures occur in songs, personal “secrets” some of which were known by everyone.
After the pregnant Edna Louise is ridiculed for how her party dress looks (I thought she looked great), she and Joanne share a touching duet in the bathroom as each tells of how she has suffered scorn throughout her life. In another clever but sad number, Edna Louise sings (in Spanish, with Stella Mae translating!) how an Anglo teacher made the Mexican-American kids “bury” their language in an elaborate procedure and refrain from ever speaking it at school.
Something interesting happened opening night that is more common in opera than in musicals. Sissy exposed herself with raw emotion in her sincere reveal song. At its end, the audience couldn’t tell whether the song was over, or whether it was a long pregnant pause. But perhaps more respectful than hardy applause was the absolute dead, focused silence from the audience. What’s more, Mona then sang her reveal, and, who would have thunk it, it was déjà vu all over again with unwavering silence.
5 & Dime is full of comic moments and considerable discussion of sex, but it provokes thoughts about friendship in a layered manner. We first see friends sharing bonding experiences as the women yak and laugh. But scratching beneath the surface, we see the expressed and hidden clashes. Yet, scratching further, we sense their warm feeling of communion, despite differences.
The play also examines self-perception and self-delusion. Our self-evaluation is often based not just on what we think of ourselves, but how we perceive that other people see us. As these women find, their long-time friends are often privy to what each concealer thought were her own secrets. Fessing up to some of these embarrassments actually breaks down walls and helps create more sincere relationships.
Favored with a well-crafted and heartwarming musical, Director Giovanna Sardelli pulls the pieces together, extracting sympathy and laughter, each in good measure. Frequent design collaborators, Nina Ball with scenic, Kurt Landisman with lighting, and Cliff Carruthers with sound all contribute to a top-notch production.
Come Back to the 5 & Dime Jimmy Dean Jimmy Dean: A New Musical is written by Ashley Robinson, based on the play by Ed Graczyk, with music by Dan Gillespie Sells and lyrics by Shakina, is produced by TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and plays at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View, CA through July 13, 2025.