Dust off your leather duster, strap on your six-shooter, and saddle up for one more ride into Deadwood — the infamous outlaw outpost immortalized in the eponymous HBO series — for a hard-hitting hour of 1970s FM radio hits woven with a weird tale from the Wild West. Staged within an old-time saloon (designed by Joey Coombs and Bryan De Souza for Renaissance Theater Co.’s Boots revue) that evokes the glory days of Church Street Station’s Rosie O’Grady’s, this threequel to the hit Bullock and the Bandits immediately envelops audiences in its storm-drenched supernatural atmosphere, before proceeding to tear the roof off the venue with country-fried rock & roll.
For their third outing, this talented ensemble is again led by Orlando Fringe legend David Lee, who writes, directs and stars as Sheriff Seth Bullock, legendary lawman turned hotel proprietor in a lawless town. He’s accompanied by powerhouse vocalists Eddie Cooper as Billy the Kid, and Tymisha Harris, who makes a perilous pole-sliding entrance as Stagecoach Mary; their vocal harmonies blend in hair-raising renditions of chart-toppers by ELO, the Eagles and Bad Company, among others. However, the show’s true star is Kyla Swanberg, the triple-threat singer/dancer/costumer who sparkles as Miss Madelaine Silkes, the “fallen angel of small death” with a codeine addiction and a bountiful bustle that literally lights up the room.
Backed up by the five-piece Bandits band — which features blistering guitarist Matthew Lynxwiler — and buoyed by an area tour’s worth of moving lights and subwoofers (lights by Ben Lowe, sound by Zay Jarrett), Bullock and the Bandits Vol. III is a full-blown rock concert experience. Those with sensitive eardrums will want to bring hearing protection, and even without earplugs the lyrics are often lost in the tooth-rattling reverb.
That’s no huge loss, since the song’s themes are only tenuously connected to the slender storyline, which is imparted by Lee in poetic pre-song monologues. And although the energy lulls briefly around the midpoint, Lee expertly rebuilds the pacing into the cathartic conclusion, barreling right into a well-earned encore.
Franchises that go into outer space are usually floundering (see: James Bond’s Moonraker, Fast & Furious 9, etc), but happily Bullock and the Bandits still appear to be firing on all cylinders, as the titular extraterrestrial element merely involves minor mythological and musical nods to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Without any VarieTease offering in this year’s Festival, these Cowboys and Aliens might become your boot-stomping best bet for a sexy sensory overload, as long as you can stand the heat.
Bullock and the Bandits, Vol. III: Cowboys and Aliens
Venue: Renaissance Theatre Co.
60 minutes; 18 & up
$15
Get tickets
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This article appears in May 7-13, 2025.