, with a few old classics (”I Fall To Pieces,” “These Boots Were Made For Walkin’”) thrown in for good measure.

The story follows the pressures and problems of two young Southern women. Misty Cotton (”Winter Wonderettes,” “Miss Saigon,” “Les Miserables”) plays Katie Lane who is troubled by her inability to keep a job, memories of an inadequate ex-boyfriend and overly constrictive footwear. Late for work at the end of the first song, Katie finds herself out of a job and searching for one.

Having stained her blouse on the way to an interview with an employment agency, Katie rushes to the laundry shop of an energetic fast-talking woman named Lana Mae Hopkins (played by Bets Malone, also of last season’s “Winter Wonderettes”). Scenic Designer Vicki R. Davis’ set is convincing enough to feel functional, yet light enough to fill out the limited stage space without feeling oppressive. It’s remarkable how iconic those metal rings around the glass circles are.

Katie ends up working for Lana Mae and the two commiserate on problems with men and work. Katie, who broke up with her beau at the beginning of the show chastises Lana Mae for not dumping her husband, a lazy, two-timing drunk who never seems to find the time to fix a broken dryer at the shop. She refuses to do anything other than, “Stand By (Her) Man,” but reveals a deeper dissatisfaction when she tells of her life-long dream of becoming a country singer and playing The Grand Ole Opry.

Though both are dealing with great difficulty making a living, by intermission, they manage to prod each other into starting a country music act. And the same laundry shop that was home to the entire first half turns into a performance space for Lana Mae and Katie. The show’s second half is all about the duo and its concert at the laundry shop.

Bets Malone gets all the best lines in the show and delivers them with considerable Southern charm. Cotton is allowed more in the way of physical humor, which she executes with excellent timing. Pam Kriger’s choreography includes the kind of genre-appropriate “boot scootin’” that you’d expect from a contemporary homage to country-western music.

Roger Bean has done it again. He’s put together a delightful collection of music and humor in an unlikely setting – a laundromat.

The Milwaukee Rep’s Stackner Cabaret opened its third offering of the season last week with his “Honky Tonk Laundry.” Bean has entertained us before with the likes of “Winter Wonderettes,” “That’s Amoré,” and “Route 66,” to name a few of his clever creations. He has been a big hit here and in many other cities.

The premise of the show is that Lana Mae runs the Wishy-Washy Washateria while her husband Earl messes around, contributing nothing but heartache to their marriage. She happens upon another unfortunate soul, Katie Lane, who has just lost a job and a useless boyfriend, whom she still loves. They decide to team up as workers and mutual consolers and advisers.

The first act reveals their individual tales of woe which they share with each other and us as they go about doing their work. Misty Cotton as Katie did a very creditable rendering of “Independence Day” and Bets Malone as Lana Mae beautifully belted out “Longtime Gone” and wailed with fervor in the tune “Jolene” as she mourned her unfaithful husband and the woman who lured him away.

Act One was certainly entertaining, but the show really reached a peak in Act Two. By this time this pitiful pair decides to try something new. They’ll continue running the laundromat, but in the evening they’ll turn it into a mini Grand Ole Opry. One of Lana Mae’s dreams is to sing, so she talks the frightened but talented Katie into joining her in her musical venture.

In the course of their act, they mimic Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn, and we certainly hear echoes of their styles, but it is when they are using their own unique talents that they are most convincing. Bets Malone dazzles us with her formidable presence and energy, and Misty Cotton really comes alive ‘performing onstage’ in the second act.

Some of the hit numbers in Act Two include the poignant Dolly Parton song “Coat of Many Colors,” touchingly rendered by Lana Mae. Together they do marvelous work in an a capella number with unusual harmonies called “Shattered Image,” another original Parton tune. “Sin Wagon” and “PMS Blues” are both show stoppers.

Their involvement with the audience offers more amusement, but Lana Mae and Katie are such an irresistible pair, I can’t imagine the targeted gentlemen minded their attention too much.

The production lovingly satirizes Southern stereotypes and country music, but we end up mightily enjoying the result. The costume designer. Alex Tecoma, did a wonderful job as did Vicki R. Davis, the scenic designer. The foot-stomping and the use of homemade musical instruments added colorful flavor and variety to the show. The thought of doing this show seven or eight times a week wears me out, but I suspect that these two talented women will continue to deliver with vigor.

Country music fans and critics alike know there are certain themes the music focuses on. The Milwaukee Repertory Theater’s production of “Honky Tonk Laundry” takes the audience on a typical and delightful country music journey of tragedy, with “side trips through the towns of heartache and betrayal.”

The new musical, written and directed by Roger Bean, features songs from the last forty years of country. The songs are seamlessly woven in the first act into a story of heartache and betrayal and then in the second act into a show-within-a-show.

Bean crafted a script to tell the story of two women affected by trouble with men in the quaint setting of the Wishy Washy Washateria and inserted songs from artists such as Terri Clark, Dolly Parton, the Dixie Chicks and Loretta Lynn, among others.

As Bets Malone’s character, Lana Mae Hopkins, says: “Everyone’s got a good story. If they didn’t, we wouldn’t have country music.”

Misty Cotton plays the high-strung, overdramatic Katie Lane who loses her job, breaks up with her boyfriend and gets a new position at Malone’s laundromat. Her pained facial expressions and habit of hyperventilating give credibility to the picture of a spurned woman.

The duo presents a musical with two very distinct vocal styles that give character to songs that have already been established by well-known performers. Malone’s more nasal voice sounds like traditional country singers, while Cotton’s rich tone and wide vocal range make her voice similar to the pop country of today.

In addition to the well-written script and entertaining performances, the costumes by Alex Tecoma and props from Jim Guy help immensely in creating a whole story in a show based around only two characters.

Malone’s quaint character uses phrases such as “quicker than two shakes of a rattler’s tail,” while walking around herlaundromat in bright pink capris, white crop tops and cowboy boots with curlers in her hair.

Cotton’s slightly more sophisticated character, although she is less adept at handling crises, tends to dress conservatively, presenting an interesting contrast to Malone throughout the show.

By adding in props, such as Earl’s boxers and the “town whore’s” intimate apparel, the audience is given a picture of life outside the laundromat without having to bring in other actors.

In the second act, as the duo presents their “Grand Ole Laundry,” the script brings the audience into the performance. During the song “Potential New Boyfriend (Better Keep Your Hands Off My),” Cotton walks into the audience, choosing a man as her potential new boyfriend and warning the female audience members to stay away. The intimate setting of the show allows the audience to feel closer to the women and enjoy the production more than if sitting farther from the action.

Overall, “Honky Tonk Laundry” presents a package of witty dialogue, old music presented in an exciting and fresh new way and talented performers creating a generally enjoyable evening — even for non-country music fans.

Grade: A

Thelma and Louise singing a catalog of country divas’ finest in a Laundromat? All that is available (through March 20) in the Milwaukee Rep’s Stackner Cabaret show “Honky Tonk Laundry.”

The two-person show’s characters aren’t really Thelma and Louise, but Lana Mae Hopkins (played by Bets Malone) and Katie Lane (Misty Cotton), are lovely belles in distress in a world of pickup trucks and longneck, brown glass beer bottles, steel-toed boots and tight, tight jeans, honky-tonk two-step line dance stomps, “hair teased to Jesus ... Hallelujah,” and towns named after roadkill.

The duo washes, tosses, fluffs, irons, folds and sorts (with varying degrees of success) over valium, chocolate and beer – singing and dancing all the way. They dream of stardom, dispense twisting family sagas and, ultimately, bond over love lives that ‘Ain’t right. Ain’t fair.” They toss around colloquial analogies (”busier than a one-eyed man at a burlesque show”) and philosophize (”everyone’s got a story. If they didn’t we wouldn’t have country music”) and eventually emerge surer, stronger, better.

In celebration of their new independence, they wrangle Opry aspirations, turning their laundromat (”Welcome to the Wishy Washy Washateria. What’s your washing wish?”) into the “Grand Ole Laundry.” Cotton and Malone start soft, finish strong, and belt out country classics with expert country style and grace.

Like Thelma and Louise, Lane and Hopkins are at their best on the warpath, attacking their lives’ woes. Borrowing from Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, among others, playwright and director Roger Bean lines up some of the woman-power-est country ballads for the occasion: “I’ve Got A Right To Cry,” “Men Don’t Change” and “Independence Day.” By the time the duo works through their second dozen songs, their woes and sorrows are abundantly clear, and those in the audience who wholeheartedly related to “PMS Blues” didn’t seem to mind one iota.