[NEohioPAL] Review of "Smokey Joe's Café" at Cain Park

[Bob Abelman]

Cain Park's 'Smokey Joe's Café' serves up easy listening entertainment

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times, Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 6/21/13

 

 

In the food chain of jukebox musicals - those pieces of musical theater that employ previously released popular songs as their musical score -- "Smokey Joe's Café," on stage at Cain Park in Cleveland Heights, is a bit of a bottom-feeder.  

 

The best of the jukebox musicals explore the life and times of the actual creators of their songs, the way "Jersey Boys" tells the story of the The Four Seasons and how "The Boy From Oz" is all about Peter Allen.  In "Smokey Joe's Café," Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller - the guys who wrote the eclectic blend of 40 songs performed throughout the evening - are not mentioned in the production, are not widely known to have written any of those songs, and never performed their own music.

 

Nor does this musical take its chart toppers from the 1950s and 1960s and interweave them with a viable storyline, the way the music of the Beach Boys and ABBA inspired the tales told in "Good Vibrations" and "Mamma Mia," respectively.  "Smokey Joe's Café" has no storyline.  It has no characters.  In fact, it has no dialogue to connect one song to the next or to explain who the performers are, why they have wondered onto the stage, and why they stayed.

 

"Smokey Joe's Café" is a musical revue - the same kind of light-weight entertainment found on Caribbean cruise lines and in the far corners of theme park thoroughfares.  Yet, this one ran for five years on Broadway after opening in 1995.

 

Its massive appeal resides in its music.  The songs - which range from ballads ("I (Who Have Nothing)"), to rock classics ("Hound Dog"), to gospel ("Saved"),  to easy listening anthems  ("Stand By Me") - serve as the soundtrack to the lives of an entire generation.  While most musicals create memories, "Smokey Joe's Café" taps existing ones and, by doing so, forms an immediate and intimate connection with middle-aged audience members.  

 

For everyone else, the talent and exuberance with which these songs are presented will have to do.  The Broadway show was stacked with high-end performers and so, too, is this Cain Park production.

 

Nyla Watson, Nicole Sumlin, Katherine DeBoer, Julia Rose Hines, Darryl Lewis, Kelly Autry, Ellis C. Dawson III, Eugene Sumlin, Malik Victorian are flat-out superb singers and dancers.  As featured individuals, each performer brings something special and distinctive to the evenings' entertainment, and is an absolute pleasure to watch.   

 

More importantly, they gel as a collective group, performing Gregory Daniels' creative and song-specific choreography with incredible precision and energy, and selling each musical number as if their lives depended on it.  Although their voices are rock solid, the group lacks the vocal range necessary to nail the theatrically enhanced harmonies added to many of the songs.  Leiber and Stroller purists will actually find this more authentic, less lounge-like treatment of the music a great relief.  

 

These nine performers are backed up by a wonderful six-piece band under Nathan Motta's direction and featuring saxophonist David Kasper.

 

The only thing missing from this otherwise superb production is proper ambiance.  Rather than creating a night club-like atmosphere to house this musical revue, Trad A Burns has built a multi-tiered scrap-metal structure reminiscent of a long-term storage warehouse.  The cavernous space provides variety for director Scott Plate's clever and fluid staging, but forfeits any semblance of charm and creates lighting challenges not yet conquered on opening night.  In a show that features nearly as many costume changes as there are musical numbers (kudos to Tesia Dugan Benson's wardrobe design), the performers enter this stark stage all dressed up but with nowhere to go.

  

Fortunately, the show's performers are charming in their own right and work double-hard at engaging the audience.  They sell this show for all it's worth and, by evening's end, it is worth plenty.

 

"Smokey Joe's Café" continues through June 30 at Cain Park's Alma Theatre in Cleveland Heights.  For tickets, which range from $22 to $26, call 216-371-3000 or visit www.cainpark.com/tickets.  

  
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