by Sheila Barth
There’s no other way to say it.
Ogunquit Playhouse’s opening season,90-minute, one-act, super songfest, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” based on the music of multi-award winners Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, is sensational, spectacular, stupendous, and superlative in every way.
There are several reasons for these accolades. First off, the theater, in its 86th successful season, hires only topnotch staff, musicians, creative support, and cast members. And it shows. That’s the case with “Smokey Joe’s Cafe”. After its three-week run in Ogunquit, the entire show is moving to off-Broadway, New York City, in July. It wouldn’t surprise me if this revision ultimately ignites the Big White Way, too. Director-choreographer Josh Bergasse makes every song, every minute, a celebration of of the duo’s music that not only “revolutionized popular music – rock ’n’ roll, rhythm and blues, of the 1950s and 1960s- but it also influenced popular culture,” he wrote. “….I began to realize just how deeply these songs are woven into our culture; some of them have been recorded by artists throughout the last seven decades. But these aren’t just songs; they were the soundtrack of a generation, of multiple generations; and that’s why artists today are still recording this music and why we love to listen to it.”
Leiber and Stoller’s partnership spanned 61 years, winning them several awards, including Grammy Awards for Lifetime Achievement and Smokey Joe’s original cast album. They were also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame, and their music launched the careers of iconic superstars Elvis Presley, the Drifters, the Coasters, Ben E. King, and countless others.
At Ogunquit, theatergoers happily move, groove and share the blues to a potpourri of 40 songs. Even though Bergasse made some changes to the original show, he wisely enlisted Stoller to attend rehearsals, coach and work with Ogunquit’s cast and marvelous music director Sonny Paladino and band. Paladino, you’ll remember, musically helmed splashy, spectacular Broadway musical hit, “Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812”. Tony Award winning scenic designer Beowulf Boritt’s two-tiered, brick and wood set is eye-catching, with its three spiral staircases, neon signs in the stage cafe windows, and movable platform that extends and recedes with pianists Paladino and associate conductor Matt Oestreicher, who plink-a-plink away, center stage, in “Dueling Pianos”. Cast members Dwayne Cooper, Emma Degerstedt, John Edwards, Dionne D. Figgins, Nicole Vanessa Ortiz, Kyle Taylor Parker, Jelani Remy, Max Sangerman, and Alysha Umphress, also boast exemplary careers, each performing on Broadway, in outstanding TV special productions, such as NBC’s recent “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert,” outstanding national touring companies, and more.
Besides internationally-known New York-based costume designer Alejo Vietti’s character-defining garb in every number, Tony Award-winning lighting designer Jeff Croiter switches mood from swinging to sultry, rocking to rejoicing.
And they all ensure theatergoers are having fun, while they clown around on stage, exert amazing energy acrobatically while dancing and singing, and make individual eye contact on stage and in the aisles, getting the crowd toe-tapping, clapping, swaying, and beating time in their seats. All Elvis Presley numbers draw hearty applause, whether it’s ballad “Loving You” or bombastic “Jailhouse Rock”. Everyone rocks to “Bossa Nova Baby,” “Yakety Yak,” “Charlie Brown,” and revel in closing song “Stand By Me,” coincidentally the lovely song performed at Prince Harry and his American bride Meghan Markle’s magnificent wedding.
Male performers Cooper, Edwards, Parker, Remy and Sangerman brought the house down several times with their blended harmony, immense vocal ranges, comedic facial expressions, and slick choreography in “Young Blood,” “Searchin’,” “Poison Ivy,” “Along Came Jones,” “On Broadway,” and “There Goes My Baby”. They delight homespun folks with their kitchen harmony, playing the washboard, spoons and sticks in upbeat “Keep on Rollin’”.
The women ensemble produce their own brand of fabulous, too, in solos, duets and ensemble numbers. Umphress belts out a powerful rendition of “Trouble” and “I Keep Forgettin’” Degerstedt gyrates, shakes and shimmies, leading the male ensemble in “Teach Me How to Shimmy;” Figgins is super sultry in all numbers; and Ortiz blows the doors off in her solos.
But when the women’s ensemble sing the feminist anthemic tune, “I’m A Woman,” the hue and cry is infectious. Female theatergoers whooped and hollered, making their own strong protest, perhaps, endorsing today’s “Me, Too” movement that has swept the country. When the cast swarmed the stage and aisles in encore “Saved,” the crowd was on its feet, clapping, dancing, happily heading to the exits, singing away. For more information and tickets, go to: http://www.ogunquitplayhouse.org/
