Louis & Keely is the pride and joy of L.A.’s small-theater world. The musical, about Louis Prima and Keely Smith, started life in 2008 at Sacred Fools, an Equity-waiver company based in East Hollywood. Written and performed by Vanessa Claire Stewart and Jake Broder, the show caught on and had a sold-out run which attracted the attention of Taylor Hackford. The Academy Award-winning filmmaker (“An Officer and a Gentleman”), who had long been a Louis & Keely fan, saw the commercial potential of the Sacred Fools production and helped with changes and financing. In 2009 the Geffen Playhouse mounted the rewritten version of Louis & Keely, resulting in an eight-month run and numerous L.A. theater awards. Then Hershey Felder, a successful performer/producer (Hershey Felder as Irving Berlin), joined forces with Hackford and helped polish it even more. Their new version premiered at Chicago’s Royal George Theater last year, winning even more plaudits and profits. Now the show has returned to the Geffen for another run which will be followed by a month-long engagement at the Laguna Playhouse. Louis & Keely is the Little Musical That Could. Stewart reprises her lead role, but replacing Broder (as Louis) is Tony-winning Anthony (Kiss of the Spider Woman) Crivello. Together they make a terrific team, not only lighting up the stage when revisiting some of the songs that made Louis and Keely famous (“Embraceable You,” “Pennies from Heaven,” “That Old Black Magic,” to name but a few), but when portraying the sturm und drang of the couple’s marriage. Louis, who was 23 years older than Keely and a notorious womanizer, became jealous when his youthful partner and protégé began to eclipse him professionally, earning top billing in Las Vegas, where they were fixtures at the Sahara Hotel. The fires of love that once burned hotly soon turned to cold ash, resulting in separation and divorce. Backing up Stewart and Crivello in Louis & Keely is a seven-piece band that plays the kind of redhot, New Orleans-flavored jazz in which the trumpet-playing Prima specialized. Erin Matthews and Paul Perroni fill out the intimate cast, playing multiple roles (memorably Perroni as Frank Sinatra). The choreography of Vernel Bagneris and the set design of Felder and Trevor Hay also are big pluses, giving the production a glitzy Broadway trajectory and look. Although Louis & Keely has a heavy-on-exposition opening, too many short, cinema-like scenes, and songs, the show’s exuberance and pizzazz are the qualities you most take away with you.
