Bright Star is the story of one woman at two different points in her life: the first, when she is a wild young thing growing up barefoot and carefree in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina; the second, when she is a well-to-do magazine editor in Asheville, 22 years later. Her story is inevitably woven with that of an idealistic young man named Billy, with whom she shares a mysterious connection. As a young teen in Zebulon, North Carolina, Alice Murphy is hopelessly in love with small town heartthrob Jimmy Ray, the mayor’s son. Although their love was pure, it falls victim to the interference of ambitious parents, and their infant son is whisked away before their happy ending could ever begin. More than two decades later, Alice is the successful editor of The Asheville Southern Journal, and meets a promising young writer named Billy. Eventually they realize that they share a hometown, and when Alice sees the handmade sweater she knitted for her baby 20 years before in his personal belongings, she realizes that he is the son she lost so long ago. Their happiness is compounded at the end of the story with a Shakespeare-esque double wedding. Bright Star opened to generally positive reviews and closed after 139 performances. The cast recording was nominated for the 2017 Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album.

A Twisted Christmas Carol is a Texas spoof of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. It’s Christmas Eve in a small west Texas town, and cantankerous barbecue joint owner Buford Johnson gets in an argument with his wife Darla, tells her he’s skipping Christmas, storms out of the restaurant, goes four-wheeling in his pickup, gets hit by a twister, rolls his truck, and goes into a coma. He comes back in his dream where he’s visited by ex-business partner, Hank Walker, who plays the ghost of Christmas past, present, and future. Hank takes Buford on a journey similar to Scrooge’s in A Christmas Carol, only Texas-style.