Boston Globe: New musical ‘Small Town,’ Based On The Music Of John Mellencamp, Prepares To Open At Ogunquit Playhouse

Oct 01, 2026

Boston Globe By Terry Bryne

“Small Town,” the musical having its world premiere at Ogunquit Playhouse Oct. 1-Nov. 1, features more than two dozen John Mellencamp songs and a book by Naomi Wallace. But don’t call it a jukebox musical.

“Many of Mellencamp’s songs are driven by strong narratives that often consider what it means to be a hard-working American,” says director Lisa Peterson. “Naomi Wallace’s plays also explore tough economic realities with a kind of working class magical realism.”

Mellencamp and Wallace both grew up in “Kentuckiana,” an area on both sides of the Ohio River, with Mellencamp from Indiana, and Wallace from Kentucky.

“I felt a close affinity to John Mellencamp’s music and the stories he tells through his songs,” says Wallace (“One Flea Spare,” “Slaughter City,” “Birdy”), who began working on “Small Town” nearly seven years ago. “We had long conversations in the beginning about the story, and Mr. Mellencamp had very strong feelings, but he was also open to my ideas.”

The new musical, Peterson says, “taps the characters, ideas, and themes of these two artists. I like to say it’s a fable, a concert, and a poem.

This is not, she says, a musical where the action stops for a song. “We integrate the musical moments in dramatic ways,” she says. “For example, snippets of ‘Pink Houses’ is woven throughout, and every once in a while two or three songs overlay each other.” In addition to the title song and “Pink Houses,” other Mellencamp songs include well-known hits like “Crumblin’ Down,” “Cherry Bomb,” “Paper in Fire,” and “Hurt So Good,” as well as deeper dives into his catalog.

Set in a fictionalized “Kentuckiana,” “Small Town” is loosely set in the ‘80s and offers a “Romeo and Juliet” style story of star-crossed lovers from two very different families in a struggling farm community. The lovers are named Jack and Diane, referencing Mellencamp’s 1982 hit song, but within Wallace’s story, Jack and Diane are also two pivotal members of a diverse community at a crossroads, facing dying farms and a toxic chemical plant. In addition to the tension of two different families — one privileged and one working class — the story, says Wallace, “is about all of us who have felt left behind from the American Dream. And what can happen when we all help each other rather than just helping ourselves.

Wallace says she and Mellencamp have both confronted small-town stereotypes and baggage, and that she sometimes includes a note in her scripts that says “no overalls.”

“Small-town people are not ignorant and stupid, nor are they all white, and some of the farms in this country, when I was growing up, were run solely by women,” she says. “I think it’s important to show the complexity of these individuals: why someone may have to leave their land and how few alternatives there are, and how they often find community through laboring and struggling together.”

Director Peterson says Mellencamp is both a musical artist and a visual artist, and she and her production team are using his paintings as inspiration for the set.

“Although the story is grounded in a community, our set is sort of ‘rural-industrial,’ and with its light open sky and fields, it will feel recognizably Mellencampian,” she says. “We want to create the feel of both a small town and a community. That gives us the freedom to be abstract but truthful — on a porch, outside, within an evocative landscape that is minimally designed.

”In addition, three members of the John Mellencamp Band — Andy York (guitar), Dane Clark (drums, percussion), and Troye Kinnett (keyboards) — perform in “Small Town” as part of the onstage band.

“I think that has helped him feel comfortable and allowed us to take liberties with his music, like turning a solo into a duet, or re-arranging songs to accommodate an 18-member cast,” says Peterson. “They can easily check in with him if they have questions or want him to review.”

Members of the cast also pick up instruments and play during the musical.

“We want to have a sense of heightened realism and deliver a sense of magic,” says Wallace. “But the truth is, people in small towns often come together to play and share music. Coming together as a community and what a community can accomplish, is an important theme.

”Although Wallace says she wishes there were room for more songs, Peterson says her job has been to tighten the show. At the moment, the musical includes 30 Mellencamp songs.“

We are taking a great playwright and a great songwriter and bringing these two powerful streams together to make one musical,” says Peterson.

SMALL TOWN: A JOHN MELLENCAMP MUSICALMusic and lyrics by John Mellencamp, book by Naomi Wallace, directed by Lisa Peterson. At Ogunquit Playhouse, Oct. 1-Nov. 1. Tickets $60-$180. 207-646-5511, www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/show/small-town.