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The Upper West Side of New York City isn鈥檛 exactly a bastion of country music. Yet a Little Nashville has sprung up here. On West 86th Avenue, where every apartment building has a uniformed doorman, an off-Broadway theater has mounted a new musical with a twangy score. 鈥淢usic City鈥� is about an aspiring country star, T.J., who falls in love with a songwriter who鈥檚 just moved to Nashville, Tennessee. The show kicks off with T.J. and his brother singing a song called 鈥淵鈥檃llsome.鈥�

鈥淵鈥檃ll some freakin鈥� good lookin鈥� country music lovers,鈥� the actors sing to the audience. In truth, the theatergoers don鈥檛 look like regulars at a honky-tonk hootenanny. But the setting is convincing. The entire West End Theatre has been transformed to resemble a rustic Nashville bar that hosts open mic nights. Its walls are papered with Kenny Rogers album covers, posters of Johnny Cash, and flyers for Lainey Wilson. The audience, seated at circular bar tables, claps along to the tunes. There鈥檚 even an occasional whoop.

鈥淚t鈥檚 fun that country music is having its moment,鈥� says audience member Jasmine Jourdain. 鈥淚t didn鈥檛 many, many years ago when I was a kid. And it鈥檚 fun to see it kind of revitalize here in New York City.鈥�

For the most part, show tunes on Broadway still sound more influenced by Andrew Lloyd Webber than by, say, Morgan Wallen. But country music is making inroads. The comedic 鈥淪hucked,鈥� set in a Midwestern corn-farming town, features songs by Shane McAnally and country star Brandy Clark. Its accolades include a Tony Award for best featured actor as well as a Drama Desk Award for outstanding music. An adaptation of S.E. Hinton鈥檚 novel 鈥淭he Outsiders,鈥� set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, incorporates country into its songs. It won this year鈥檚 Tony for best musical. Elton John鈥檚 score for the newly opened 鈥淭ammy Faye: The Musical鈥� boasts a country twang.

These musicals aren鈥檛 just responding to country music鈥檚 growing cultural reach. They鈥檙e also telling stories from beyond Manhattan. The productions are broadening the outlook of musical theater to reflect different aspects of America.

鈥淧ost 2016, there was a shock wave for liberal America,鈥� says Joanna Dee Das, an associate professor in the performing arts department at Washington University in St. Louis. 鈥淭here was a huge increase in awareness and thinking about giant segments of the American population that places like New York hadn鈥檛 really considered, or thought about, or taken seriously. And there was a sense that people who identified in theater circles in New York, or liberals in general, needed to really understand [those places].鈥�

It鈥檚 not as if there haven鈥檛 been past attempts at country musicals. 鈥淯rban Cowboy,鈥� a 2003 adaptation of the John Travolta movie, flopped. So did 鈥淗ands on a Hardbody,鈥� a 2013 musical about a competition to win a pickup truck in a Texas town. In 1982, 鈥淧ump Boys and Dinettes鈥� fared better. The show about Southern gas station attendants and diner waitresses ran for a year, and then refueled to go out on tour. New York Times critic Frank Rich panned it.

鈥淭he apparently all-white South they celebrate is so relentlessly congenial it makes Rodgers and Hammerstein鈥檚 romanticized Oklahoma seem like Las Vegas by comparison,鈥� he wrote.

鈥淲hat does Middle America really mean?鈥�

Today鈥檚 Broadway shows are built differently. When 鈥淥klahoma!鈥� returned in 2019, it wasn鈥檛 so much a revival as it was a deconstruction of the original. The musical centered on a mixed-race relationship and amplified sexual tensions and violence. It also swapped out playing the original lush orchestration in favor of reinterpreting standards such as 鈥淥h, What a Beautiful Mornin鈥欌�� with pedal steel guitar, banjo, and fiddles. 鈥淭he Outsiders,鈥� too, boasts an Americana flavor with country tunes such as the rollicking 鈥淔riday at the Drive-in鈥� and the plaintive 鈥淔ar Away From Tulsa.鈥� Though it鈥檚 set in the 1960s, Ms. Das says it cautiously examines white, working-class Southern identity politics. At least Broadway is starting to ask pertinent questions, she says.

鈥淲hat does Middle America really mean? What does the heartland mean? Who鈥檚 included in that?鈥� says the professor, whose upcoming book, 鈥淔aith, Family, and Flag: Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America,鈥� is about Missouri鈥檚 popular vacation spot. 鈥淎ll of these spaces in the United States in the 21st century are racially diverse, ethnically diverse.鈥�

Musical Writers, a Dallas-based online academy designed to nurture budding talents, points out that great shows can originate anywhere in the U.S.

鈥淎ll the cool kids are writing about 20-somethings in New York,鈥� says Amanda Dills, an Oklahoma City-based content writer for
MusicalWriters.com. 鈥淚 grew up on a farm in the middle of Nebraska. My dad was a farmer. My mom was a teacher. I think the part of growing up and when you accept where you鈥檙e from and learn to embrace it is realizing that their stories are worth telling in those places, too.鈥�

Ms. Dills鈥� musicals include 鈥淭he Singing Shepherd鈥� and 鈥淔at Girlfriend,鈥� winner of the 2009 Omaha Theater Arts Guild Award for best new script. They show that 鈥淵ou can write stories about the middle of the country without it having to be country,鈥� she says.

Welcoming country in the Big Apple

Besides, country music doesn鈥檛 usually equate with commercial success in the theater. But 鈥淪hucked,鈥� which was developed in Salt Lake City, broke through in 2022. It鈥檚 about a con man who swindles a town of corn farmers. (Picture an agricultural 鈥淢usic Man.鈥�) The multiracial cast included a nonbinary actor playing a nonbinary character. The occasionally ribald comedy leans into, ahem, corny jokes. Publicity materials for 鈥淪hucked,鈥� which has moved from Broadway to a recently launched nationwide tour, tout Reba McEntire as the show鈥檚 official 鈥渟talks-person.鈥�

These days, Broadway isn鈥檛 so much a finish line for musicals as it is an important pit stop along a cross-country route, says Elizabeth Wollman, author of 鈥淭he Theater Will Rock: A History of the Rock Musical, from 鈥楬air鈥� to 鈥楬edwig.鈥欌��

鈥淸鈥楽hucked鈥橾 poked a lot of holes in what a country music audience is and what would run well on Broadway,鈥� says Ms. Wollman. 鈥淚t matters a lot that the creators are openly queer and are established in Nashville.鈥�

The team behind 鈥淢usic City鈥� is hoping that 鈥淪hucked鈥� signals that New York audiences are open to country sounds. Its songs are by Nashville songwriter J.T. Harding, including a 2014 hit he co-wrote with Keith Urban that the country star recently performed on NBC鈥檚 鈥淭oday鈥� show.

鈥淪omeone texted me and said, 鈥業 just walked by Rockefeller Center. ... Keith Urban is standing on a taxi cab. The roof of it is dented. His band is playing 鈥淪omewhere In My Car鈥� and people are going crazy,鈥欌�� says the songwriter, whose hits for Blake Shelton and Kenny Chesney also appear in the show. Mr. Harding took it as a sign that the city is embracing Nashville sounds. The book for 鈥淢usic City,鈥� written by Peter Zinn, is a gritty love story about two struggling songwriters living on the poverty line.

鈥淭he boy and girl are forming this relationship,鈥� explains award-winning director Eric Tucker. 鈥淏ut he鈥檚 delivering drugs to her mother. She鈥檚 trying to keep her mother off of the drugs.鈥�

It鈥檚 a very American story, says Mr. Tucker. He believes the musical鈥檚 authenticity and relatability 鈥� not to mention its rousing ending 鈥� will draw audiences during its run through Dec. 22. One of its investors is a Broadway producer who believes it has the potential to be developed further.

Ms. Jourdain, who tries to see a show every week, singles out the 鈥渂eautifully written鈥� production鈥檚 warm humor as a highlight. Unexpectedly, she loved the music, too. 鈥淧eople are realizing that good music and good lyrics transcend cultures and backgrounds,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd what a better city than New York City for it to be introduced to?鈥�