Billy And The Killers is a sexy new rock musical about a teenager who is accused of killing his girlfriend not far from the trailer park where he lives. Our hero Billy is reminiscent of Hedwig and the Angry Inch's Tommy Gnosis, with this show kinda feeling like his backstory. And, similar to Hedwig, it feels more like a rock concert than musical theater...in a good way!

The gritty characters in this show match the themes of the show, both oozing with testosterone. This is musical theater for fans of Sons of Anarchy -- there's even a real vintage motorcycle on the stage! This is all wildly refreshing, considering musical theater doesn't usually tell the stories of people who live in double wide trailers and work in greasy garages while they're out on parole.

Both Sydney Shepherd and her co-star Adrian Blake Enscoe are swoonworthy young dreamboats and Peter Stopchinski's loud rock music sounds really good in the small basement black box theater at HERE.

Photos: Shira Friedman

Grab a Coors Light, throw on your Carhartt jacket, and hop on your hog to head downtown to rock out to Billy and the Killers. Well, don't drink and drive...wait until you get to the theater to drink the Coors Light!

Runs through November 18.

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Because of the "ripped from the headlines" theme of the show, we stopped into a rehearsal a few weeks ago and asked the cast and creative team a very fundamental question:

Do you believe everything you read in the news?

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Adrian Blake Enscoe, Cast

"In general, yeah...but the thing about news is that you can't possibly put every fact in the story. So, you have to ask yourself what's being left out."

Sydney Shepherd, Cast

"Not everything. The news is written by humans and none of us is infallible, so I think the news has just as many flaws as people do."

Sean McDermott, Cast

"I don't. I think the scary thing is the normalcy of 'We had another shooting, oh well..." It's getting more and more scary. We've become numb."

Tom O'Keefe, Cast

"What is news, ya know? I have a healthy skepticism. There are outlets that have earned my trust, so I give them the benefit of the doubt."

Jim Shankman, Book & Lyrics

"What always strikes me is that with gossip stories, and Hollywood, or crimes being committed is how you believe it and theres a further revelation and you go 'Oh, it's the exact opposite of what I thought' and then there's a THIRD revelation and you realize the second thing you believed was wrong too! As the revelations come in, you keep realizing that you believe everything you read until...you read something else!"

Craig J. George, Director

"I believe everything I watch on MSNBC. That's where my news come from, that's the equivalent of my newspaper. I actually do trust the people on that network and I believe it, so yes!"

Peter Stopschinski, Music

"Yes. I mean no, not really. I think my first instinct is to believe anything that's in print and then I have to catch myself and remind myself to not believe everything thats in print."

Paul Sadlik, Cast

"No, I don't. It depends on the source, of course. There's news sources I trust more than others. There's others that I obviously don't!"