“The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”
Meadow Brook Theatre
Rochester, Mich.
Through Nov. 1, 2026
I hold my breath and scoot forward in my seat as Tyrick Wiltez Jones inches across the stage, dragging his mop behind him. It’s a thousand eternities of dead silence as Jones — portraying Black saloon hand Jim Mosten in the 1890s Wild West — is summoned toward the man with the power to end his life, and odds aren’t looking good.
The end of Act I of Meadow Brook Theatre’s “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance,” directed by Travis W. Walter, is some of the most intense theater I’ve experienced in recent memory. The Jethro Compton adaptation of Dorothy M. Johnson’s short story (later a John Ford film starring James Stewart and John Wayne) explores the lawlessness of the 19th-century American frontier and the sacrifices we make for love.
The play follows the journey of Ransome Foster (Brandon Ruiter), a scholar from the American East searching for purpose and adventure in the Wild West. He’s rescued by Bert Barricune (Stephen Blackwell) after being beaten up and left for dead by racist villain Liberty Valance (Drew Parker) and his goons after protecting a Black man. Barricune takes him to Hallie Jackson’s (Marley Boone) saloon for recovery, leading to a love triangle and town shakeup as Foster settles in to teach Jackson, Mosten, and other townsfolk to read.
The cast is excellent. They bring to life a (mostly) endearing variety of characters, capturing the complex emotions of people navigating love, hope, fear, and survival in the volatile and often brutal American frontier. Jones breaks our hearts as the happy, loyal saloon hand with a newly discovered intellectual brilliance putting him on a path he had never dreamed of — and may never realize.
Blackwell showcases an impressive range as the bumbling cowboy with a big heart and drawl to match, a man doing his best to avoid trouble and protect those he loves, even at personal sacrifice.
Parker is terrifying — a 180 from when I last saw him as the much more understated, likable Roy Scheider in Tipping Point’s “The Shark is Broken.” He swaggers on to the stage with the disarming charm, cool confidence, and total command of a powerful villain with no remorse of the horrible deeds he has done and plans to do — the scariest kind of evil.
The tone of the show is uneven. Other than its dramatic middle, the rest of the play has a generally more light-hearted feel. The intense racial drama makes for more compelling theater, but it’s jarring compared to the rest of the play and almost feels out of place. That being said, it’s the most gripping part of the show with exceptionally strong performances by Jones and Parker.
The marketing for “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance” emphasizes the play as a classic tale of “good versus evil,” but it’s ultimately about the sacrifices we make for love with more heart than you might expect from a Western. Just be prepared for an emotional gut punch.
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