It’s not that I wasn’t listening to the radio during the 1950’s and 1960’s, but I just didn’t think that such songs as “Baby Baby,” “Poison Ivy,” “Yakety Yak,” and “Shoppin’ for Clothes” were connected to composers. Now I know that. But I actually didn’t know they were until 1975 when I saw the first Broadway production of Smokey Joe’s Cafe. After close to twenty-five years, a welcome revival is back Off Broadway. It is pure pleasure from the opening number to its rousing finale. It must be noted that it is nothing more than end-to-end songs and performer following performer(s) being simply sensational and backed by a terrific on-stage band within a spectacular cafe-bar setting designed by genius Beowulf Boritt. Three metal spiral staircases are prominent as are the neon-lit beer signs that call our attention with the huge well-stocked bar. You won’t fail to notice the strategically placed collection of vintage radios. Be assured that there is also plenty of room for this terrific ensemble to dance up a virtual cyclone under the expert lighting designed by Jeff Croiter. Perhaps because it has no famous (not yet) names to extol, no book, no discernible structure or continuity or point of view, this celebration of songs all by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller is a very unusual kind of entertainment. But it is also more than a valentine to the composing team, as it has the heart of something much bigger, more invigorating and satisfying than many of the more bloated high-tech productions now on Broadway. I don’t know that the show’s director/choreographer Joshua Bergasse has done to give his performers the unstoppable and undiminishing energy that is maintained during the show but I hope it’s legal. Without let-up, except to change the mood, the performers group and regroup to sing and dance and humorously cavort to practically the entire(???) canon of songs by the successful and prolific team who once provided massive hits for Peggy Lee, the Coasters, Big Mama Thornton and of course, Elvis Presley (“Hound Dog,” “Jailhouse Rock”). Admirers of Leiber and Stoller will no doubt feel twinges of nostalgia. Purists may also feel their favorites are a bit compromised by their reinterpretation or something like that. So what? Who cares? They all sounded great to these ears and my eyes were treated to watching great performers giving their all to every song whether doing solo or as part of the ensemble. The most familiar songs “Kansas City,” “Fools Fall in Love,” and “On Broadway” had the audience in a state of rapture while the lesser (there really aren’t any) ones often commanded cheering....not a bad thing. When was the last time you saw a musical in which every song in it filled you with joy and made you want more? I guess I should single out each of the thirteen performers and the almost forty numbers in which they stood out...but I’ll mention just a few I felt were most memorable. I’m giving a shout-out to Dwayne Cooper and Dionne D. Figgins for their comical and sultry “Don Juan;” Jelani Remy for making “Jailhouse Rock” an acrobatic show-stopper; zaftig Alysha Umphress emphasizing the “evil” in “Trouble;” Blonde bombshell Emma Degerstedt doing her best to “Teach Me How to Shimmy.” The dancing throughout is sensational, particularly the sensually interpreted “Spanish Harlem.” A good point to mention the beautiful costumes designed by Alejo Vietti. The moving bandstand puts the musicians in the light a few times but they really shine with a dazzling “Dueling Pianos.” Individually the singers, that include Nicole Vanessa Ortiz, Kyle Taylor Parker, and Max Sangerman, also stand again and again as do John Edwards with his dramatically stunning “I Who Have Nothing.” I’ll conclude saying this is a show that has everything. You need a story? Make one up.
