San Diego Reader

This spunky musical functions just like its subject. It's set at a filling station/diner on Highway 57, between Smyrna and Frog Level, North Carolina. While tourists make pit stops to replenish themselves for the road ahead, the musical encourages its audience to make the theater a rest area, where the world slows down, the "pump rock" music can be raucous or soothing, and - except for the owner of the Winnebago on the blocks awaiting overdue repairs - everyone's a forgiving soul. Lamb's Players director Deborah Gilmour Smyth has coaxed just the right spirit from her cast of six, each doing a standout number: among them Leonard Patton's "Mona," Jim Mooney's "Serve Yourself" ("I may be a retread but I ain't no spare"), Marci Anne Wuebben's "Be Good or Be Gone," and Season Duffy's "Best Man (I Never Had)." Led by Nick Spear, and backed by Oliver Shirley's steady bass, the band's as adept at country as at rock. They perform on Mike Buckley's set, a combination of realistic details and, as lit by Buckley, a mite larger than life glow. 619-437-0600. (Due to popular demand, Lamb's has extended the run of this show.)

January 28 through March 28