STAGE WEST: "Bottle Shock! The Musical" from CCAE Theatricals

The fanciful world of "Bottle Shock! The Musical."                              Photo courtesy of CCAE Theatricals

            Let me begin with a promise: I will attempt NO wine/alcohol/drinking puns in this discussion of “Bottle Shock! The Musical.”
            Glad I got that out of the way.
          Now. Just two years into its existence, CCAE Theatricals in Escondido has demonstrated its artfulness for staging musicals both urgent (last year’s world-premiere “Witnesses”) and opulent (its production of “Sunday in the Park with George” earlier this year).
         Another CCAE-produced world premiere, “Bottle Shock! The Musical,” is winding up the company’s 2022-23 season. It’s an adaptation by Charles Vincent Burwell (music and lyrics) and James D. Sasser (books, lyrics, additional music) of the popular cult film “Bottle Shock” from 2008, a somewhat apocryphal telling of the “Judgement of Paris” of 1976. That blind-tasting event is considered a tipping point in the world of wine, when two California vineyards won top honors over the until-then-unsurpassable French.
            The film is quirky and a little corny, but I liked it a lot. Two performances stood out: Bill Pullman as hard-nosed Jim Barrett, owner of Napa’s Chateau Montelena winery, and Alan Rickman as haughty British wine expert Steven Spurrier. The Napa and Sonoma shooting locations provide escapism and spectacular local color.
               No theatrical production can approximate that scenery, of course, but credit Jo Winiarski and her team at CCAE Theatricals for some gorgeous backdrops that honor these NorCal wine regions and give “Bottle Shock! The Musical” mood and atmosphere when called for.
                From a narrative standpoint, Burwell and Sasser’s musical directed by J. Scott Lapp runs very much along the lines of the film that preceded it, which was written by Randall Miller (who also directed), Jody Savin and Ross Schwartz. Chateau Montelena’s Barrett (T.J. Mannix) operates his winery with an iron hand, a strategy that only distances and disengages his directionless son Bo (Will Riddle), who just likes to have a good time. Also in the elder Barrett’s employ but more fiery and fully committed to wine making is young Gustavo Brambilla (Patrick Ortiz). Both Bo and Gustavo have their heads predictably turned by the arrival of an intern from UC Davis, Sam Fulton (Emma Degerstedt), there to learn the business but hardly dressed the part.
               Barrett and company are visited by the veddy British Spurrier (Louis Pardo), established at the outset of the story as a supreme know-it-all when it comes to wine. He’s curious about what’s being bottled in California and entertaining the thought of bringing something back to his Paris base to compete in the July “Judgement” tasting. Pardo is every bit as snooty and exasperated and comical as Rickman was in the “Bottle Shock” film. It’s a rich character performance, making an unlikable figure highly likable, that rises above all others in this CCAE Theatricals production.
             Anyway, Jim Barrett is not receptive to Spurrier’s overtures, suspecting that the visitor’s motive is to try to embarrass his winery (and possibly all California wineries) at the Paris wine-tasting.
              As with the film, the “Bottle Shock” musical version’s story has a built-in challenge when it comes to stakes. Audiences today, like movie watchers then, already know how things turned out: The Americans pulled off an upset in Paris and California wines achieved overdue respect. That leaves for digestion the personal complications of the tale: Will Bo, likewise, win respect from his father and find a way forward in life? Who will Sam choose – Gustavo or Bo? Can Sam reconcile herself with the personal losses of her past? Will Gustavo set out on his own or remain with Jim?
            Resultantly, many of the musical’s original songs address these questions: Bo’s anguished “Dyin’ On The Vine”; Sam’s wistful “Summer in a Bottle”; Sam’s “You-can-do-it, Bo!” ballad “The Journey of You”; Gustavo’s passionate “In the Blood,” the exciting Act One closer with choreography by Toranika Washington.
          While beautifully sung, Degerstedt’s numbers are 11 out of 10 on the sincerity scale.  Either would qualify for “Spamalot’s” deprecating “The Song That Goes Like This.”
             Say this for composers Burwell and Sasser: While few of their songs are instantly memorable, they’re altogether more welcome than the film soundtrack’s employment of “China Grove” or “Drivin’ Wheel,” reflective though they may have been of the 1970s.
            Musically and otherwise, this “Bottle Shock” rocks when it’s simply having fun rather than striving for sincerity. A lot of this goes on at Jo’s Bar, operated by – who else? – Jo (a delightful Taylor Renee Henderson). There, the gang indulges in a tasting (and drinking) competition (“The Contest”); Jo teaches an overworked Sam the restorative power of suds (“It Takes a lot of Beer To Make Good Wine”); and Bo and Gus confront their troubles not with angst but philosophically (“The Bad with the Good”).
           Moreover, the scenes with Pardo are the most entertaining of all: the airport wine-bottle gambit (if you know the film, you’ll remember how Spurrier, thanks to Bo, manages to transport his case of wine bottles in spite of rules about how many a passenger can carry); and the climactic “Judgement of Paris” sequence, overseen by Spurrier and co-starring four snooty tasters.
             Next to Pardo, Ortiz is the production’s most engaging character, whether singing  or dancing. Ironically, the real-life Gustavo Brambilla, NapaValley.com explains, didn’t join Chateau Montelena until AFTER the “Judgement in Paris” had gone down.
          This is CCAE Theatricals’ second original musical (after “Witnesses”). It’s a lush and likable production, tamer than the “Bottle Shock” film and a little more earnest. The emotional catharses are familiar. Some of the name-dropped wine vintages are not.
             So yes, there’s an educational component should you happen to be an aspiring oenophile.

         “Bottle Shock! The Musical” runs through July 23 at the California Center for the Arts in Escondido.