[NEohioPAL] Review of "Five Guys Named Moe" at Cleveland Play House

[Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL]

The 'Moe' the merrier at Cleveland Play House

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

As jukebox musicals go, "Five Guys Named Moe" - which premiered on Broadway in 1992 and is currently on stage at the Cleveland Play House - is a fair to middlin' confection.   

 

The pretense:  It's very late at night.  Drunk, broke and abandoned by his girlfriend Lorraine, Nomax is inexplicitly visited by five well-dressed, well-manicured guys named Moe, who step out of his vintage radio to teach him a few lessons of the heart.  

 

The purpose: This is a musical revue of the greatest hits of Louis Jordan - the "King of the Jukebox" - whose lively R& B rhythms and novelty numbers provided the soundtrack for young adults during the 1940s and 1950s.  The limited dialogue sketches out a paper-thin storyline but, mostly, it just serves as translucent connective tissue to transition from one song to the next.

 

The production:  World class.  What this show lacks in conception and construction it more than makes up for in execution.  



To read more of this review, go to:  http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/article_832f0b3a-a7c5-11e4-814e-d78e6e0d039d.html


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