Smokey Joe's Cafe
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Smokey Joe's Cafe

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""Smokey Joe's Cafe" | Jukebox Musical Review"

The Jazz Alley presentation of "Smokey Joe's Cafe" keeps it simple: just a big batch of old-school rock songs by one of popdom's successful tunesmith teams, sung by seven performers knocking themselves out to please you.

An early, very popular example of the jukebox musical revue (which played here at Empty Space Theatre in 1990, before hitting it big on Broadway in 1995), "Smokey Joe's Cafe" dispenses with a narrative or any biographical tidbits about the songwriting team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

For the record, the two met as teens in Los Angeles in 1950, and proceeded to co-write dozens of radio-ready tunes for an array of top recording artists — ranging from Peggy Lee and the Coasters to Johnny Mathis and Elvis.

"Smokey Joe's Cafe" (also one of their song titles) lets loose seven appealing performers on 40 tunes (some of which are so well absorbed into our culture, no coaxing is needed to get the audience singing along).

A. Curtis Farrow's compact staging of the show at Jazz Alley has the cast getting right down to the basics.

Upbeat and energetic, they belt their songs and dance in place on a bandstand just big enough to hold all seven and a small back-up combo.

The three women singers in the crew are the strongest soloists, particularly Famecia Ward in her fetchingly impish treatment of the sassy LaVern Baker number, "Don Juan"; and LaTasha Spencer Jordan, who does her bluesy-mama thing on the Elvis smash "Hound Dog" and smoothly dispatches the Drifters hit "Fools Fall in Love."

Now playing

"Smokey Joe's Cafe," with songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, today through Sunday, Jazz Alley, 2033 Sixth Ave., Seattle; $26.50 (206-441-9729 or www.jazzalley.com).
Among the guys, the standout is Ron Lucas, whose rich baritone coasts right through "Young Blood," written for the Coasters.

Leiber and Stoller had hits in numerous genres, well displayed here: bouncy novelties ("Poison Ivy," "I'm a Woman"), crooning ballads ("Spanish Harlem," "Loving You") and roadhouse R&B ("Teach Me to Shimmy").

Arranged with tight, bright vocal harmonies and adorned with simple choreography, the show is a light, pleasing 90-minute diversion. And though there was a lot of gray hair in Tuesday's opening night audience, why not bring the kids? They'll recognize quite a few of these durable tunes from TV's "American Idol," which relies heavily on them.
- Seattle Times theater critic


"Cheerful Nostalgia"

"Smokey Joe's Cafe," a tribute revue featuring the songs of Stoller and Leiber, is at Jazz Alley. The show is pretty mild compared with the productions that played the Paramount Theatre and the 5th Avenue Musical Theatre not too long ago. But the nostalgia throbs. And the seven performers, who share the small Jazz Alley stage with a peppy four-man band, are personable.
Stoller and Leiber, two Jewish boys from Los Angeles, started writing songs for black performers in 1950 when they were 17. Then Elvis Presley began recording their work and they became instant legends.
As the Jazz Alley show demonstrates, nearly every human experience can be jolly when submitted to the Stoller and Leiber treatment: Wandering ("Keep on Rollin'"), reproaches ("Charlie Brown," "D.W. Washburn," "Yakety Yak," "Hound Dog"), frustration ("On Broadway"), mercenary perfidy ("Don Juan"), salvation ("Saved"), boasting ("I'm a Woman") and, most especially, frustrated infatuation ("Young Blood," "Searchin'," "Fools Fall in Love," "Love Potion No. 9," "There Goes My Baby").
Then, too, there's pitiful melodrama ("I, Who Have Nothing") and plain old romance ("Spanish Harlem").
The best song in the show, however, is a sort of plaintive country and western tune -- before there was country there was country and western -- called "Pearl's a Singer." It's a poignant lament about a woman who maybe coulda, shoulda been a star if only .... Safiya Fredericks puts the song across at Jazz Alley as a touching little bittersweet drama celebrating resiliency in the face of disappointment.
The "Smokey Joe's" touring company comes from the Irving Street Repertory of New York. The Rep has already brought several productions of the Fats Waller revue "Ain't Misbehavin' " to Jazz Alley.
Four male performers -- Jonathan Celestin, Ron Lucas, Stanley Martin and Jace Rivera -- are spunky and fresh. Latasha Jordan Spencer is the company's female belter. She has gospel pipes. And Famecia Ward (a 2004 "American Idol" contender) is the perky femme fatale.
"Smokey Joe's Cafe" has a certain quaint charm. "Smokey?" What's that about? Oh, yeah. People used to smoke in nightspots. One of the show's big whole-ensemble numbers is "Baby, That Is Rock and Roll." Or, as one might say now, "Baby, That Was Rock and Roll."
- Seattle Post Intelegencer


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Smokey Joe’s Café
The Songs of Leiber and Stoller
As much as anyone, Leiber and Stoler invented Rock”n”Roll. Their timeless songs provide the basis for this electrifying entertainment that had critics raving and audiences stampeding the box office during its record-breaking Broadway run.

Featuring nearly 40 of the greatest songs ever recorded including such hits as On Broadway, Hound Dog, Jailhouse Rock, Stand By Me, Spanish Harlem, Love Potion #9 and I’m A Woman. Each song is a trip down the corridors of American culture. Smokey Joe’s Café transforms classic pop music into compelling musical theatre.