New ABC drama offers soapy intrigue, tunes in Music City

HOLLYWOOD -- Take one of TV's best veteran actresses, combine her with one of the tube's top young female talents, and then partner them with the screenwriter responsible for perhaps the big screen's most memorable and beloved distaff duo, and chances are you're going to come up with something pretty special.

Which is why there's so much anticipation surrounding the new ABC drama Nashville, which stars Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights) and Hayden Panettiere (Heroes) and has a pilot script written by Oscar winner Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise).

Yes, there's a lot to like about Nashville.

"I think it was the right time (for a show like this)," Khouri said last week when Nashville's cast and producers sat down for an interview session during ABC's portion of the U.S. networks' semi-annual press tour in Los Angeles. "I think there's been a great love of music and shows in the last few years, and I think audiences are really accepting and are actually really hungry for great music.

"We're going to be having a lot of original music, and not just in the country world. It's kind of a lot of crossover in pop and a really wide range of music... so we're not in a narrow 'country music fans only will like it' situation."

In Nashville, which is undoubtedly one of the strongest new-show pilots of the upcoming TV season, Britton plays Rayna James, who has been country music's biggest female star for nearly two decades. But times have changed; her newest record isn't selling as well as her past efforts, and her live shows are no longer guaranteed sellouts. The record company's new executives are more interested in promoting young ingenue Juliette Barnes (Panettiere), and they offer Rayna an ultimatum dressed up like a compromise: cut back her own touring plans, and take part in series of co-headlining shows that basically amount to the veteran serving as the upstart's opening act.

When the boss presses Rayna for an answer, she suggests he can kiss her response as it's walking out the door.

Meanwhile, ruthlessly ambitious Juliette is trying -- both personally and professionally -- to seduce Rayna's longtime bandleader. And Rayna's dad, the most powerful businessman in Nashville, is hatching a political power play that could directly affect Rayna's personal life.

Khouri, whose career to date has been focused on feature-film projects, said Nashville presented her with a new and, for the most part, exciting challenge.

"I'm actually loving it, because with a feature, you do it and it's over," she explained. "But I'm getting to sit with some absolutely incredible writers and plan out stories that go on for a long time. So I can plan for characters to go through things and go through changes that you would never be able to do in a feature film, because you can cover such a long period of time. And I love that.

"It's so much fun. I mean, it's writing at a much faster pace than I'm used to. That's the only thing I'm having a problem with -- 'Wait? What? It's due when?' Everything else about it is so inspiring, you know, to be able to take each character and know you're going to take them on this long journey and see them change and see them grow and put them through trial by fire."

Britton, who garnered a pair of Emmy nominations for her work on Friday Night Lights and another for her single-season run on American Horror Story, said tackling a role that requires her to sing as well as act has been daunting.

"I would say, actually, for me it's a dream come true," she offered, "because as an actor, to have the opportunity to stretch my muscles in this way is great.

"I have sung my whole life, but not professionally. Not really professionally at all. And so, as an actor, to be able to work with the best writer and the best music producer, that's a dream come true."

Acclaimed musician/producer T-Bone Burnett, who also happens to be Khouri's husband, is Nashville's music supervisor.

"Oh, Connie is having a journey," Britton said with a laugh, seeking to downplay her musical abilities. "It's a journey, and it's an exciting journey because it's a journey with T-Bone Burnett."

Panettiere, who actually recorded and released an album during her teen years, was quick to endorse her older co-star's vocal talent.

"Connie's been amazing since the beginning, but I just recently heard some of the newer tracks that she's recorded, and they're pretty unbelievable," she insisted. "So she's going to be schooling us all."

brad.oswald@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @BradOswald

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition August 1, 2012 D3