[NEohioPAL] Berko review: THE DEVIL'S MUSIC @ CPH

[Roy Berko]

*•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
*

*
*

*Cleveland Play House’s THE DEVIL’S MUSIC entertaining, but…*

Roy Berko
(Member:  Cleveland Critics Circle, American Theatre Critics Association)

Bessie Smith, the subject of THE DEVIL’S MUSIC, the eighty-minute  bio-concert
now in production at the Cleveland Play House, was noted as the “Empress of
the Blues.”



Smith had a magnificent voice, an in-your-face attitude, loved the
dramatic, and was noted for her near perfect diction, unique phrasing, and
incomparable timing.



Though her career was a success, her personal life imitated the blues she
sang.   As she once said, “There’s some that calls the blues the devil’s
music.  Well, honey, I danced to the devil’s music.  So, I gotta give the
devil his due.”



Born into poverty in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she was one of seven children.
Her father was a Baptist minister and a laborer, who died shortly after
Bessie’s birth.  Her mother died when Bessie was eight.  Raised by an
unmarried aunt, she made money on street corners by singing, accompanied by
her younger brother.



At eighteen she joined a traveling minstrel show in which late hours,
sexual freedom, and the abuse of alcohol was the rule.  That laid the
foundation for many of the issues in her later life.



In 1920, Mamie Smith (no relation) made the first vocal blues record.  When
it sold one hundred thousand copies in a month, the record companies went
on a search for singers to sell this “race music.”



Bessie was signed in 1923 by Columbia Records.  Her first record sold
780,000 copies.  From then until 1931, when the depression, the development
of the radio and talking motion pictures caused the bottom to fall out of
the blues business, she recorded 160 titles.  She even starred in a
two-reel film, ST LOUIS BLUES, a semi-autobiographical film.



In spite of her financial and artistic success, her life was not easy.  The
20’s was a period of high racism, especially in the south.  Smith and her
entourage were not allowed to stay in “white only” hotels and even had to
enter many of the venues in which she performed through the back door.



Her marriage to Jack Gee, which ended in a bitter divorce, resulted in his
filing charges against her as a poor mother, causing her to lose custody of
their adopted child.



The success of the  Benny Goodman band in 1937 brought an interest in
swing, and Smith adapted her music to fit the era.  Her career was reborn,
but on the morning of September 26, 1937, Smith was killed in an auto
accident.  It was estimated that over 7000 people attended her funeral.



THE DEVIL’S MUSIC opened in New York on June 22, 2011 to universally
positive reviews, and ran for a year.



The local production , with stars Miche Braden, who played Smith in the Big
Apple, is very entertaining.



Braden has the all the requisites for the role.  Her big voice, larger than
life personality, excellent comic and dramatic timing, and physical
presence, all enhance the show.  Her musical trio, Jim Hankins, (bass),
George Caldwell (piano) and Keith Loftis (saxophone) are amazing musicians.




The beautifully conceived Victorian-influenced setting, by Michael
Schweikardt, takes the audience into a “buffet flat,”  “a private
establishment where blacks could gather after hours for food, drink,
gambling, lodging, entertainment and amusement of all kinds.”



If there is any negative to the show, it’s the format of the script.  As a
bio-concert, it is neither pure story telling nor musical performance.



We are supposedly experiencing Smith telling us of her life experiences in
real time (Monday, October 4, 1937 and nine days earlier).  However,  Braden
breaks the story line by talking to the audience, while also interacting
with her amazing on-stage musical trio, while inserting songs that often
have no direct relationship to the tale being told.   Though all the ideas
are interesting, and well performed, there is a disconnect between the
musical entertainment and the biographical tale.  Though not a major
problem, it is enough of a distraction to hold the production from being a
mesmerizing experience.



Show highlights include a “sexual union” between Braden and Loftis’s sax,
the heartbreaking courtroom segment when Bessie loses custody of her son,
and the songs, St. Louis Blues, I Ain’t Got Nobody and Blame It On the
Blues.



*CAPSULE JUDGMENT: THE DEVIL’S MUSIC is a very entertaining evening of
theatre, highlighted by the performance of Miche Braden, but is somewhat
burdened by the format of the script.*



THE DEVIL’S MUSIC runs through March 10, 1913 at the Allen Theatre.  For
tickets call 216-241-6000 or go to www.clevelandplayhouse.com.

******************************
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.neohiopal.org/pipermail/neohiopal-neohiopal.org/attachments/20130221/5ec7a2c5/attachment-0004.htm>