You wouldn’t look twice at Peggy Jo. She’s a good daughter, always tips, plays by the rules – but when she dons a fake mustache, sunglasses, and ten-gallon hat, she becomes “Cowboy Bob”- the slickest bank robber Texas has ever known. Inspired by actual events, this world-premiere musical tells the story of one of the FBI’s most unusual suspects through the eyes of a chain-restaurant waitress desperate to buck her flavorless life and awaken to all that’s possible. With a genre-bending score that shifts from country to punk to folk and indie rock, Cowboy Bob – co-authored by Galveston’s own Molly Beach Murphy – is a defiant rejection of the status quo, inviting audiences to take life by the reins, join the heist, and let it ride.
Cowboy Bob reflects the fluid vitality of the work created by Molly Beach Murphy, Jeanna Phillips and Annie Tippe. This collaborative team formed in 2016, united by a desire to make music theatre that carves out space for more dynamic female-identifying characters and explodes the possibility of the genre at large. Originally developed as a workshop production at Ars Nova in 2016, the piece has since received support from the Yale Institute for Music Theater, University of the Arts’ Polyphone Festival, New York Stage & Film, and the Village Theater Festival of New Musicals. A concert at 54 Below in 2019 featured Grace McLean, Ashley Prez Flanagan and Barbara Walsh. Cowboy Bob was selected as one of eight shows presented by the 32nd Annual Festival of New Musicals (NAMT).
