Emma Degerstedt and ensemble
photo credit: Joan Marcus
It’s
not that I wasn’t listening to the radio during the 1950’s and 1960’s, but I
just didn’t think that such songs as “Baby Baby,” “Poison Ivy,” “Yakety Yak,”
and “Shoppin’ for Clothes” were connected to composers. Now I know that. But I actually
didn’t know they were until 1975 when I saw the first Broadway production of “Smokey Joe’s Cafe.” After close to
twenty-five years, a welcome revival is back Off Broadway. It is pure pleasure from
the opening number to its rousing finale.
It
must be noted that it is nothing more than end-to-end songs and performer
following performer(s) being simply sensational and backed by a terrific
on-stage band within a spectacular cafe-bar setting designed by genius Beowulf
Boritt. Three metal spiral staircases are prominent as are the neon-lit beer
signs that call our attention with the huge well-stocked bar. You won’t fail to
notice the strategically placed collection of vintage radios.
Be assured that there
is also plenty of room for this terrific ensemble to dance up a virtual cyclone
under the expert lighting designed by Jeff Croiter.
Perhaps
because it has no famous (not yet) names to extol, no book, no discernible
structure or continuity or point of view, this celebration of songs all by
Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller is a very unusual kind of entertainment. But it
is also more than a valentine to the composing team, as it has the heart of
something much bigger, more invigorating and satisfying than many of the more bloated
high-tech productions now on Broadway.
I
don’t know that the show’s director/choreographer Joshua Bergasse has done to give his performers the unstoppable and un-dimishing
energy that is maintained during the show but I hope it’s legal. Without
let-up, except to change the mood, the performers group and regroup to sing and
dance and humorously cavort to practically the entire (???) canon of songs by
the successful and prolific team who once provided massive hits for Peggy Lee,
the Coasters, Big Mama Thornton and of course, Elvis Presley (“Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse
Rock”.)
Admirers
of Leiber and Stoller will no doubt feel twinges of nostalgia. Purists may also
feel their favorites are a bit compromised by their reinterpretation or something like that. So
what. Who cares? They all sounded great
to these ears and my eyes were treated to watching great performers giving
their all to every song whether doing solo or as part of the ensemble.
The
most familiar songs “Kansas City,” “Fools Fall in Love,” and “On Broadway” had
the audience in a state of rapture while the lesser (there really aren’t any) ones
often commanded cheering....not a bad thing. When was the last time you saw a musical in
which every song in it filled you with joy and made you want more. I guess I should single out each of the
thirteen performers and the almost forty numbers in which they stood out...but I’ll
mention just a few I felt were most memorable. I’m giving a shout-out to Dwayne
Cooper and Dionne D. Figgins for their comical and sultry “Don Juan;” Jelani
Remy for making “Jailhouse Rock” an acrobatic show-stopper; zaftig Alysha Umphress
emphasizing the “evil” in “Trouble;” Blonde bombshell Emma Degerstedt doing her
best to “Teach Me How to Shimmy.”
The
dancing throughout was sensational, particularly the sensually interpreted “Spanish
Harlem.” A good point to mention the beautiful costumes designed by Alejo
Vietti. The moving bandstand put the musicians in the light a few times but
they really shone with a dazzling “Dueling Pianos.” Individually the singers, that
included Nicole Vanessa Ortiz, Kyle Taylor Parker, and Max Sangerman, also
stood again and again as did John Edwards with his dramatically stunning “I Who
Have Nothing.” I’ll conclude saying this
is a show that has everything. You need a story? Make one up.
