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“Smokey Joe’s Café” continues at the Ordway in the music theater through Sept. Maybe not change the songs themselves – there are laws against that – but the way they’re sung and presented. It sounds strange in 2019 to hear four women sing “I can wash out forty four pairs of socks and have ’em hangin’ out on the line/I can starch and iron two dozen shirts ’fore you can count from one to nine … ’Cause I’m a woman! W-O-M-A-N.”
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If opera companies can tweak misogynist Mozart masterpieces to make them more palatable today, theater directors can take another look at outdated songs. But it’s still very early in the run and they can fix that.Īnother not-so-great thing is the problematic nature of certain songs.
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“Stand by Me,” a song that can’t go wrong, performed with heart and soul by the whole company. Kevin Brown Jr.’s heroic “I Who Have Nothing.” Rajané’s powerful “Fools Fall in Love Reprise,” a reason all by itself to see this show. Emily Scinto’s beautiful voice on everything she sings.īen Bakken singing and playing guitar on “Ruby Baby.” Jorie Ann Kosel’s hot take on “Trouble.” DeBose’s exuberant playfulness. Doo-wop and dancing by Shavey Brown, Kevin Brown Jr., Dwight Leslie and Rendell DeBose. The tender “Spanish Harlem” between China Brickey and Dwight Leslie. Dwight Leslie’s athletic take on “Jailhouse Rock.” The whole cast on “Yakety Yak.” Rajané Katurah in the lead on “Hound Dog” (a hit for “Big Mama” Thornton before Elvis recorded it). The music director is local legend Sanford Moore, who plays keys and leads a band of local musicians, including Jay Young on bass. The cast is all locals except for Shavey Brown, whose subterranean voice is a standout. And now it’s here, with Bergasse once more running the show.Įnough changes were made to the latest “Smokey Joe’s” that the Ordway can call it an Ordway Original. The Ordway’s producing artistic director, Rod Kaats, went to see it. Emmy winner and Tony nominee Joshua Bergasse was the director and choreographer. In July 2018, an off-Broadway revival opened and ran for six months. The original Broadway cast recording won a Grammy in 1997. Decades after Lieber and Stoller hit their peak in the 1950s and ‘60s (they worked together for 60 years), “Smokey Joe’s” opened on Broadway and ran for 2,036 performances, still a record for a musical revue. Many entered the culture and stayed there. King, “Big Mama” Thornton, Peggy Lee and the Coasters. Their songs were hits for stars like Elvis Presley, Ben E. You probably know some of the songs in “Smokey Joe’s,” even if you weren’t around when Leiber and Stroller wrote “Kansas City” (1952) or “Hound Dog” (1953), “Poison Ivy” (1958), “Love Potion No. The songs are presented, one after another, as solos, duets, quartets, or sometimes the whole cast of nine. “Smokey Joe’s” is a musical revue, 90 minutes of rock & roll, R&B and pop songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, with dancing and costume changes, occasional splits and flips in the air. A man paged through the program and said, “There sure are a lot of songs in this play.” Forty, in fact. People around us exclaimed about the set as we took our seats at the Ordway Wednesday night. Radios lining walls and shelves, tucked into alcoves and corners. All around are neon beer signs.Īnd radios everywhere. Three metal staircases spiral up to a second level.
GOAPELE CLOSER PRODUCTION CREDITS WINDOWS
Tall windows are topped by curved arches. Shelves behind the bar are filled with gleaming bottles. Designed by Beowulf Boritt, a Tony winner with a long list of Broadway credits, it’s a barroom somewhere in a city, with walls of dark wood and brick. The first thing you notice about “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” is the set.