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Musical Stages
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"Swing!"
Currently playing
at the
St. James Theatre
Reviewed March 2000
Still Playing
2000 Tony
Award nominated
Best New Musical, Featured Actress,
Choreography, Direction, Orchestrations
"Swing!" - the
bright, bouncy review now holding forth at the St. James Theatre - does for the pop music
of the 1930's and 40's what "Smokey Joe's Café" did for the pop music of
the 1950's and 60's. At its best it puts the emphasis on pizzazz, energy and momentum, not
stopping for a moment to take a breath or linger over a particularly nice morsel. Those
moments when it
does pause or carry a bit out too long stand out as surprising lapses, but there are few
of them.
The program says the original concept is by Paul Kelley but it isn't clear what that
concept was and how it evolved as Director/Choreographer Lynne Taylor-Corbett assembled
the pieces and as Jerry Zaks, director of the aforementioned "Smokey Joe's"
came on board as "production supervisor" whatever that is. If it was of a
dance-dominated review loosely following the chronological development of swing music,
then they got what he originally suggested.
How to define "Swing" music? There is the famous Louis Armstrong line
about "if you have to ask . " and there are many songs based on attempted
explanations, one of which comes early in this show. It says "If you want to swing it
. you do it on the two and four," defining the genre by its rhythmic signature. But
it seems to me that this show supports a better explanation: Swing is jazz with a sense of
humor. It is fun and refuses to take itself seriously. This show is at its best when it is
having fun and generating a smile or even a chuckle as well as giving you an itch to move
(something hard to take in the tight seats of the fully packed St. James.)
The pieces that Taylor-Corbett assembled included a troupe of tremendous talent at both
the featured performer level and among the dancers who fill the stage with motion.
Ann Hampton Callaway's talent is no secret in New York but her fame comes from recordings
and cabaret work. This is her first appearance on a Broadway stage. From it she commands
the 1,600-seat hall the way she commands a 160 seat night-club. Her sense of humor comes
through in the delightful duet with Everett Bradley of the frothy Ellington/Kuller
"Bli-Blip" with its non-sense lyric they use to tell a cute story. She teams up
with him again for a delightful combination of "All of Me" and "I Won't
Dance." When Callaway swings, she's a kick but she has another skill that is just a
bit out of place in the show. She can wail the blues big time! When the show stops to let
her do this.as in the first act's "I'll Be Seeing You" or the second act
"The Blues In The Night," it gets a bit off track. Still, her renditions are so
moving that you may not notice the digression until she's finished and they get back to
swinging.
Laura Benanti made quite a splash on Broadway when she debuted as Maria taking over for
Rebecca Luker in "The Sound of Music." Now she gets to let loose and takes full
advantage of it, whether receiving instructions on how to Swing from swing-master Casey
MacGill or working as part of the quintet of leads. Talk about the humor of swing! Listen
to Benanti's duet with the
waw-waw mute of Steve Armour on the classic "Cry Me A River." Here's where blues
rather than big-band jazz is the jumping off point for pure fun. Benanti has a ball with
it and so does the audience.
Singer, song-writer and energetic
performer extraordinare Everett Bradley contributes songs, material and no small amount of
energy to the evening. It is his "Throw That Girl round" that gets the first act
jumping. "I just want to have some fun/I just want a girl to fling, flang,
flung" may not
mean anything according to the dictionary but it means everything when these dancers get
going.
Taylor-Corbett puts these singers and dancers on a brightly colorful set designed by
Thomas Lynch and lit by Kenneth Posner in full pastel-to-neon glory and William Ivey Long
must have had a great deal of fun designing the zoot-suit to ball room costumes that carry
through with the colors and set the time periods. A rockin' band (The Gotham City Gates)
plays Harold Wheeler's crystal clear orchestrations and it is all captured and reinforced
for every seat in the house by Peter Fitzgerald's sound design that has depth and breadth
that differentiates between each instrument and voice.
And the dancers! They are flying
all over and above the stage all evening long. They throw each other over under and around
in everything from the Lindy Hop to Latin Swing to a country Boogie Woogie to the tune of
"Boogie Woogie Country." That last is a specialty for Robert Royston and Laureen
Baldovi that is one of the numbers created by the very dancers who perform them. It
involves some spins that might earn Brian Boitano a new medal on ice. But these dancers
aren't on skates. They just seem to be able to suspend the laws of physics and have no
friction with the floor.
Not everything works in every number. Early in the first act there is a challenge dance
segment which commits the fatal sin of starting with the best move - you can't build from
the top - and a perfectly fine slow dance routine to "Harlem Nocturne" slows
things down a bit too much. The first act ends with an over-long segment in a USO to
feature the World War II hits, and the gimmick of a bungee chord dance goes on too long in
the second.
But it is the stuff that works that will be the memories you take from this show. And
that's as it should be.
