If there was one nightclub that stood out as it also stood for something quite unique during the 1930s and 1940s, it was Cafe Society. It was there, beginning in 1938 and for the next eleven years, that many of the finest and most celebrated black and white jazz singers and musicians as well as theatre comics and satirists not only shared the spotlight but shared their artistry with an integrated audience. This nightclub was a dream that was to be fully realized for its entrepreneurial former shoe salesman from New Jersey, Barney Josephson. As a socially and politically progressive Jew, Josephson would be, as was his more activist brother, an inevitable target of The House Un-American Committee.
While his club earned a reputation as a Commie hangout during the "Red Scare," Jacobson was, nevertheless, fervently committed to providing a hospitable, intimate space for the showcasing and the co-mingling of celebrities, luminaries and, dignitaries, a space where a stepping-out Eleanor Roosevelt, Orson Welles, Charlie Chaplin, Gene Kelly, Errol Flynn, and Lauren Bacall (the former Betty Perske) would stop in to see such performers as Lena Horne, Billie Holiday, Hazel Scott, Mildred Bailey, Count Basie, Paul Robeson, Zero Mostel, and Jack Gilford.
Cafe Society was fabled as "the wrong place for the right people," but 59E59 Theaters is exactly the right place for Cafe Society Swing, a small-scaled but big-hearted bio-revue written by Alex Webb (based on "Cafe Society: the Wrong Place for the Right People" by Barney Josephson and Terry Trilling-Josephson) in which four splendid singers are teamed with eight terrific musicians. A narrative thread is provided by an engaging Evan Pappas as Josephson and on occasion by superb guitarist and singer Allan Harris. The thread may not be as strong or as stirring as one might like considering the swirling history and events of the time, but Pappas also get to portray credibly a headline seeking journalist and a commiserating barkeep. These characters contribute to the atmosphere and backstory for 22 musical numbers.
It's what's between the lines that really matters, however, and that's where the singers make the songs count and account for something a little different from what you might expect. The big band sound is prominent throughout with standout playing from Benny Benack III on trumpet, Harris on guitar, Bill Todd on alto sax, and Clarinet and Alex Webb on piano, with the distaff side represented by Mimi Jones on bass, Lucianna Padmore on drums, and Camille Thurman on tenor sax. Upbeat instrumentals are well balanced with the predominantly bluesy tempos of the vocals.
Another plus is the exceedingly cool, unhurried staging of each segment by director Simon Green. What I especially appreciated and enjoyed is the integration of many songs with which I was not familiar but are clearly intended to enrich our experience. Six Deco panels designed by David Woodhead also enrich the otherwise simple bandstand setting that also makes accommodation for a small office and a bar.
No need or reasons for impersonations of Lena Horne, Queen Ida Cox, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, and Billie Holiday from singers Charenee Wade, Cyrille Aimee, Allan Harris, and, indeed, Pappas, who impress with their own and very fine interpretations of the classic jazz repertoire. The closest number to a show-stopper is Aimee's joyously animated version of the famed Nellie Lutcher hit "Hurry On Down."
Other highlights include trumpeter Benack taking the vocal spot to commemorate Josh White's famed protest song "One Meatball" and Webb leaving the ivories to embrace Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life" with his own velvety voice. But if there is one moment and one number that defines Cafe Society's impact on our society, it is "Strange Fruit," the song that changed Holiday's career when she introduced it. It serves as a terrific and touching closer.
