New Country

When you see this cannonball of a one-act—a raunchy comedy set on the night of a bachelor party in a Nashville hotel—there’s no need to know that playwright Mark Roberts is a wellestablished TV writer and showrun

ner ( Two and a Half Men, Mike &

Molly). Nor do you need to know that it’s Roberts himself, an actor and onetime stand-up, playing drunk and disorderly Uncle Jim, a worldweary rascal who enters with a blowup doll. And you don’t need to know much about country music (much less new country) to appreciate the forlorn cries of Hank Williams, or the electrifying performances—particularly Sarah Lemp as Sharon, an ill-used woman with a thing or to say about it. Rather than getting bogged down in all that, it would be a lot better to simply go and see this play as soon as you possibly can. — MAX MALLER Through 5/14: Wed-Fri 7:30 PM, Sat 4 and 7:30 PM, Sun 6 PM, Den Theatre, 1329-1333 N. Milwaukee, 773-609-2336, newcountrytheplay.com, $45.