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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Mark Fisher

Wild Rose review – Glasgow meets Nashville in big-hearted country musical

Women in cowboy hats sing on a stage under the sign  Glasgow's grand ole opry
Glorious singing … Dawn Sievewright (centre) in Wild Rose. Photograph: Mihaela Bodlovic

If you can’t be sentimental in a show about country music, when can you be? The most affecting moments in this big-hearted musical come when tough talking gives way to tenderness. Like the genre itself, Wild Rose is forthright, vibrant and emotionally raw.

Wittily adapted by Nicole Taylor from her 2018 film of the same name and staged with elan by John Tiffany, it is the story of ex-con Rose-Lynn Harlan as she tries to reconcile the need to care for her children with her ambitions to make it as a singer. Believing no country star ever came out of Glasgow, she sets her sights on Nashville. That is, after she has dealt with the cleaning job, ankle tag and night-time curfew.

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