Texarkana Waltz

The world premiere of Louis Broome's Texarkana Waltz at the Los Angeles Playhouse in 1998 was met with unanimous critical acclaim. From the Los Angeles Times: "Singing cowboys, inflatable cactuses and echoes of Hamlet-the unlikely counterpoint of Wild West parody and Elizabethan revenge tragedy-propel [...] Texarkana Waltz to dazzling lunacy at the Los Angeles Playhouse. One of those rare works that manages to tickle the funny bone while plucking the heartstrings, Louis Broome's well-crafted, semi-autobiographical play employs modern and classical sensibilities to examine the troubled Wicketts, an Oklahoma clan coping with its violent past."

Eddie Wickett murders his wife, Emma, in front of their two young children. Years later, Eddie receives visitors while strapped into the electric chair, waiting to be executed. He believes he doesn't have a soul until his last visitor, country music legend Cowboy Bob, reveals that he does. Meanwhile, their son, Houston, lives in an Oklahoma mental hospital, inhabiting an imaginary Wild West where he avenges his mother's murder. Their daughter, Dallas, is making a new life for herself in Seattle until her mother, Emma, haunts her dreams and demands that Dallas return to Oklahoma to scatter her ashes. The family is drawn back together to confront its tragic past and find its way to forgiveness.

The L.A. production received four Ovation Award nominations, including Best Writing for a World Premiere Play or Musical. L.A. Weekly wrote, "Louis Broome's exhilarating script meets its match in Allison Narver's highly imaginative yet starkly efficient staging." The Stranger found that "Everything has worked to turn Broome's broad, wistful saga into something warm and rewarding." Texarkana Waltz has since been produced professionally in Los Angeles, Seattle, New York, and Tulsa, as well as at the University of Oklahoma and Shoreline College.