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Home > Blogs > Arts and Entertainment > Archives > 2009 > January > 25 > Entry
‘Smokey Joe’s Cafe’ rich with songs, stories
Book musicals try but don’t always succeed in telling clear, consistent stories punctuated with singing and dancing.
“Smokey Joe’s Café,” a revue of 42 early rock ‘n’ roll standards by prolific songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, doesn’t bother with that challenge.
It just rolls out the songs.
As Wright State University Theatre’s brisk, wonderful production of the 1995 Broadway hit makes clear with energy, personality and pleasing sound, it does tell stories, however. They come in miniature versions three to four minutes long, each contained in a song.
Not every number in the two-act production directed and co-choreographed by Greg Hellems offers a narrative. Some just provide an excuse to sing, dance or create a mood. But many are perfect little narrative gems. A few that stood out during the Saturday, Jan. 24, performance included:
• “Don Juan,” with Madeline Paul as a gold digger in a little blue dress and long red feather boa, a character too good not to bring back during Act 2 in “Some Cats Know.”
• Jeremy Gaston as a man dying to buy a new suit, only to have his credit application refused by salesman Shea Castle in “Shoppin’ for Clothes.”
• Lindsay Flick as a new victim of cupid’s arrow in “Falling,” powerhouse singer Melissa Grochowski as another in “Fools Fall in Love,” Gaston as a wino and the rest of the company as his would-be saviors in “D.W. Washburn,” Flick and Paul as two ladies who could give pop singer Pink assertiveness lessons in “Trouble,” and Paul with Castle in “You’re the Boss.”
The show’s most impressive early attraction was its well-dressed, slick-moving male ensemble —Brandon Fleming, Matt Kopec, Gaston and Castle in “Young Blood,” “Keep on Rollin’” and, with Eric Byrd, in “Ruby Baby.”
Everyone in the nine-member cast that also included Jackie Snyder (“I Keep Forgetting,” “Pearl’s a Singer” and the reprise of “Neighborhood”) had a solo. Music director Rick Church, a member of the onstage band, even got into the act (“Stay a While”).
But don’t let anyone tell you “Smokey Joe’s Café” is just about great old songs. It’s full of stories.
WSU’s production will continue through Sunday, Feb. 1, in the Creative Arts Center. Tickets are $17-$19. Call (937) 775-2500.
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