Oil & Whiskey

Tweet

Oil & Whiskey is a new musical that won the “Sold Out Award” at the 2025 NYC Fringe Festival. The music by Kit Nolan, principal keyboardist and musical director for award-winning violinist Lindsey Stirling, is uniformly excellent, filled with great melodies and foot-stomping country delights. It compares well to the sadly closed Dead Outlaw. The book and lyrics by Dax Wiley are not quite on the same level but sometimes reach the highs of the music.

The show is fairly straightforward in structure. Zelda (the excellent Isabel Stewart) used to date Teddy (Jater Webb, doing double duty on vocals and guitar, which he handles with aplomb). They broke up when he went to Nashville to pursue his dreams of being a musician. Zelda’s roommate Bree (the big-voiced Tanner McIntyre) doesn’t approve. Ray the bartender (played by Mark Linn-Baker lookalike Levi Penley) is the comic relief. His jokes could use some punching up; the character is written to be hilarious and it doesn’t really come across.

The first song, “Let’s Be Honest,” is a banger, with Bree questioning why Zelda would want to get back together with Teddy. “Do you have amnesia? / Or some sort of mental block? / Are you having a seizure? / Or was it really that good of…cock?” It’s a little crude but it works. McIntyre tears the roof off the place; one wonders what she could do with “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.” She should do her own cabaret show.

Zelda doesn’t make the most credible case for her man (“You’re forgetting all the good / And fixating on the bad / He’s quite misunderstood / And yes, the best sex I’ve ever had!”). Then we meet Teddy at Ray’s bar, and he seems adorable and charming. (The guitar helps.) Webb has an excellent voice (the entire cast sings well) and you can understand the attraction. He and Stewart have terrific chemistry which makes the show work.

One standout is “Seein’ You’s Like Drinkin’ Whiskey,” a foot-stomper that could easily become a country hit in the right hands. (Are you listening, Carrie Underwood?)

Most of the songs are duets between Zelda and Teddy, which makes sense. Bree and Ray get their own numbers. Ray sings “A Lone Star Cowboy,” a hymn to toxic masculinity. “Don’t you like sleeping in late and leaving plates in the sink / Don’t you like going to bars and having too much to drink / You know who doesn’t like that, a partner in crime / Cause their main goal in is to make sure I don’t have a good time!” However has this character been divorced a bunch of times?

Bree’s character comes across like a killjoy even though in the end she’s right, Teddy is a bit of a man-child and he won’t apologize for doing something awful. It might work better if she was a tad more sympathetic, because let’s face it, she has a point. Zelda is easier to get behind. She just has a blind spot for this guy, despite his flaws. We all know someone like that, which speaks well to the show’s universal nature.

The Green Room 42 is a terrific venue. Primarily used for cabaret and comedy, director Justine Long and director/choreographer Adam Jepsen make good use of the space and you never feel cheated about not being in a theater. (The show moves to The Chain and also The Rat in the coming months.) No lighting designer is credited but the lighting is quite well done, especially considering the fact that they probably had to use whatever was hung and make it work. The sound was crisp and it wasn’t distracting to have the actors sing into handheld microphones.

If a musical is about the music, Oil & Whiskey is well worth your time. It’s not perfect but it’s an enjoyable way to spend 70 minutes. One of the tracks, “Jealous”, has been released on streaming. One hopes the rest of the songs follow.

Oil & Whiskey (through November 6, 2025 at various locations – see below)

September 5 & 6: The Green Room 42, 570 Tenth Avenue, in Manhattan

October 16 – 18: The Chain Theatre, 312 West 36^th Street, in Manhattan

December 10: The Delancey, 168 Delancey Street, in Manhattan

January  18 : Prohibition Bar, 503 Columbus Avenue, in Manhattan

January 26: Lucinda’s Bar, 169 Avenue A, in Manhattan

For tickets, visit https://www.oilandwhiskeymusical.com/

Running time: 70 minutes with no intermission