‘Swing!’ wows with creativity By CHRIS PAGE
Get Out
I bluesed my brains out earlier this month with the Herberger's two musical revues, “Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill” and “It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues.” So it could be understandable if another fake-smoke-in-the-spotlights, rootsy tune show — namely Phoenix Theatre's jazz collection “Swing!” — might not appeal to me.
Especially considering that, along with everyone else's, my swing dancing phase jitterbugged itself out years ago.
Long since the show made its 1999-2000 Broadway debut and one year since a touring version hit Gammage, Phoenix director Robert Kolby Harper might as well have retitled the show “Passé!”
But, surprise, “Swing!” is a delight. It's got none of the depth of "Ain't Nothin'" and none of the cool of “Lady Day,” that tragic Billie Holiday bioplay. But what “Swing!” delivers is energy. A 10-pack of dancers, four singers and a magnificently tight little big band (steered by pianist Alan Ruch) work so hard, you'll burn calories just watching them in action.
Because the streamlined production has nothing plot-wise to latch onto — a contrast to the two blues shows' creative storytellings — what audiences come away with are stripped-away memories of the scenes that really worked, like Natalie Charlé Ellis's (of recent “Chicago” success at the theater) switch from a bookish nerd to sexy crooner during the ditty “Two and Four,” or a finale that explodes like fireworks. A dinner date done in scatted vocals by Kristen Drathman and Jim Graft was giggly good.
This “Swing!” features dancer Heather Langham doing a slinky interpretive dance around an upright bass player while the band plays the most sensual version of “Harlem Nocturne” I've ever heard. I think I drooled a little. Then again, I'm a bass player.
Some of “Swing!'s” more acrobatic dance numbers, wonderfully choreographed by Linda Love-Simmons, were shaky in its opening weekend, but overall the show is a spiffy little sparkler.
I just hope it's the last revue I'll see for a while. I think my dance card's full.
|