Savoring Our Musical Heritage: Two New Shows Turn Up the Volume

Jane Dunlap Norris

Daily Progress, July 19, 2002 [excerpt]

Heritage Repertory Theatre has enough music to keep two stages hopping this weekend.

If you take your date to "Smokey Joe's Cafe" in Culbreth Theatre, you may find a shared fondness for such nostalgic hits as "Yakety Yak," "Stand By Me," "On Broadway," "Charlie Brown," "Poison Ivy," and "Love Potion No. 9."

And even if you don't have a date for this weekend's performances, then the been-there humor of "I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change" in Helms Theatre may remind you why you keep trying.

"Smokey Joe's Cafe" packs 41 songs by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller onto the Culbreth stage. The musical takes listeners on a journey through and influential decade in early rock history, ending in about 1963.

"It's like a ride, with different styles, different flavors, different moods," director Cate Caplin said. "It's also a tribute to that style of show - the variety show. The styles of dancing are varied, too. They go from classical musical theater to gospel to swing to slinky Fosse-esque moves."

Songs by Lieber and Stoller became hits for the Coasters, the Drifters, Ben E. King - and especially for the King. Elvis Presley landed a major hit with "Hound Dog" and eventually recorded more than 20 of the team's songs - including some written just for him, such as "Jailhouse Rock."

Audience members can go from tapping their toes to a four-part harmony song from beach music's hey-day to chuckling at the hit's stylized backup-singer choreography. There are tender love songs, and "there's a beautiful, romantic adagio" in "Spanish Harlem," Caplin said.

"There's drama, there's humor, there's poignancy - and a kicky sense of fun," said Capling, who's back for her fourth season at Heritage.

Arbender Robinson, who performed in "Ain't Misbehavin'" at Heritage in 2000, said he came back for the fun with friend Millicent Thomas. They're part of a nine-member cast that also includes Jared Bradshaow, Mekia Cox, Kendra Goehring, Lisa Goldstein, M. Frank Holmes, Cedric Leiba and Daniel Watts.

"We divide them up and sing them all," Robinson said of the Leiber-Stoller hits. "They're all familiar to me. I think everyone who comes will recognize a lot of the music.

"It's amazing to me that the same team wrote all of this."

The nine singers on stage will be backed up by conductor Greg Harris' five-member band, which includes piano, synthesizer, bass, drums, and guitar.