<div dir="ltr">
<style>
<!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
{font-family:Cambria;
panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
@font-face
{font-family:Palatino;
panose-1:2 0 5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;
mso-font-charset:0;
mso-generic-font-family:auto;
mso-font-pitch:variable;
mso-font-signature:3 0 0 0 1 0;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{mso-style-parent:"";
margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:12.0pt;
mso-bidi-font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ascii-font-family:Palatino;
mso-fareast-font-family:Cambria;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Palatino;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;
color:black;}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;
mso-header-margin:.5in;
mso-footer-margin:.5in;
mso-paper-source:0;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<p class=""><b style><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••</span><br></b></p><p class=""><b style><br></b></p><p class=""><b style>Cleveland Play
House’s THE DEVIL’S MUSIC entertaining, but…</b></p>
<p class="">Roy Berko</p>(Member: Cleveland Critics Circle, American Theatre Critics Association)
<p class="">Bessie Smith, the subject of THE DEVIL’S MUSIC, the
eighty-minute<span style> </span>bio-concert now in
production at the Cleveland Play House, was noted as the “Empress of the
Blues.”<span style> </span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">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.<span style>
</span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">Though her career was a success, her personal life imitated
the blues she sang.<span style> </span>As she
once said, “There’s some that calls the blues the devil’s music.<span style> </span>Well, honey, I danced to the devil’s
music.<span style> </span>So, I gotta give the devil
his due.” </p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">Born into poverty in Chattanooga, Tennessee, she was one of
seven children.<span style> </span>Her father was a
Baptist minister and a laborer, who died shortly after Bessie’s birth.<span style> </span>Her mother died when Bessie was
eight.<span style> </span>Raised by an unmarried
aunt, she made money on street corners by singing, accompanied by her younger
brother.</p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">At eighteen she joined a traveling minstrel show in which
late hours, sexual freedom, and the abuse of alcohol was the rule.<span style> </span>That laid the foundation for many of
the issues in her later life.<span style> </span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">In 1920, Mamie Smith (no relation) made the first vocal
blues record.<span style> </span>When it sold one
hundred thousand copies in a month, the record companies went on a search for
singers to sell this “race music.”<span style>
</span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">Bessie was signed in 1923 by Columbia Records.<span style> </span>Her first record sold 780,000
copies.<span style> </span>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.<span style> </span>She even starred in a two-reel film, ST
LOUIS BLUES, a semi-autobiographical film.<span style> </span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">In spite of her financial and artistic success, her life was
not easy.<span style> </span>The 20’s was a period of
high racism, especially in the south.<span style>
</span>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.</p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">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.<span style>
</span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">The success of the<span style>
</span>Benny Goodman band in 1937 brought an interest in swing, and Smith
adapted her music to fit the era.<span style>
</span>Her career was reborn, but on the morning of September 26, 1937, Smith was
killed in an auto accident.<span style> </span>It was
estimated that over 7000 people attended her funeral.</p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">THE DEVIL’S MUSIC opened in New York on June 22, 2011 to
universally positive reviews, and ran for a year.<span style> </span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">The local production , with stars Miche Braden, who played
Smith in the Big Apple, is very entertaining.<span style> </span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">Braden has the all the requisites for the role.<span style> </span>Her big voice, larger than life
personality, excellent comic and dramatic timing, and physical presence, all
enhance the show.<span style> </span>Her musical
trio, Jim Hankins, (bass), George Caldwell (piano) and Keith Loftis (saxophone)
are amazing musicians.<span style> </span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">The beautifully conceived Victorian-influenced setting, by
Michael Schweikardt, takes the audience into a “buffet flat,”<span style> </span>“a private establishment where blacks
could gather after hours for food, drink, gambling, lodging, entertainment and
amusement of all kinds.”</p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">If there is any negative to the show, it’s the format of the
script.<span style> </span>As a bio-concert, it is
neither pure story telling nor musical performance.<span style> </span></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">We are supposedly experiencing Smith telling us of her life
experiences in real time (Monday, October 4, 1937 and nine days earlier).<span style> </span>However,<span style> </span>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.<span style> </span>Though all the ideas are
interesting, and well performed, there is a disconnect between the musical
entertainment and the biographical tale.<span style>
</span>Though not a major problem, it is enough of a distraction to hold the
production from being a mesmerizing experience.</p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">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.</p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class=""><i style>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.</i></p>
<p class=""> </p>
<p class="">THE DEVIL’S MUSIC runs through March 10, 1913 at the Allen
Theatre.<span style> </span>For tickets call
216-241-6000 or go to <a href="http://www.clevelandplayhouse.com.">www.clevelandplayhouse.com.</a></p>
<p class=""><span style="color:rgb(255,0,0)">****************************** </span><br></p><p class=""><br></p><p class=""><br></p>
</div>