Dan's Papers - June 5, 2009 - Sophisticated Ladies at Gateway Playhouse

It's always good to see the opening of the new season at Gateway Playhouse, especially as it is celebrating its 60th anniversary and once again producer Paul Allen and his colleagues have come up with a great blend of old and new, and well known and not so well known shows that will run in Bellport and Patchogue from now until mid October. Miss Saigon and A Chorus Line are among the top musicals ever written, The Drowsy Chaperone and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels are recent Broadway hits that will be seen on Long Island for the first time and Meshuggah-Nuns and Sophisticated Ladies represent the lesser known shows.

Duke Ellington is a name revered by all musicians and rightly so, for he was a man of incredible talents whose music came in very many styles. He once described his music as "American music," rather than jazz, and many rate him as America's best composer. In his career he wrote well over 2,000 pieces and was awarded 17 honorary doctorates, as well as the highest civilian honors from the United States and from France - the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Legion of Honor.

Sophisticated Ladies is really a review, rather than a musical, because it is basically a mélange of Ellington's songs performed by a cast of singers and dancers without any dialogue creating storyline. This is a great shame, because this should have been a story of an exceptional man.

That said, if you love his music, you are in for a treat, because the non-stop action covers well over 30 of his songs. This is a production where in many ways the orchestra is the star, and under the direction of Brendan Whiting, who plays the piano, it really recreated the sound of the Big Band era. All of the lighting, backdrops and scenery designed by the husband and wife team of Brian and Brittany Loesch and the costume design of B.G. Fitzgerald added to the ambience in transporting us back to the '30s and '40s, when the Duke was in his musical prime.

For the singers and dancers, it was an evening of quick changes of style, tempo and costume. Although the program says the show is based on a concept by Donald McKyle, it really is hard to see any discernable pattern in the way the songs were placed within the show and sometimes this called for some unusual segues.

Standards such as "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," "Take the A Train," "Solitude," "In a Sentimental Mood" and "Mood Indigo," plus many other less well known pieces gave Jennifer Byrne, Eugene Fleming, Francesca Harper, Carly Hughes and Jon Peterson the opportunity to display their vocal abilities and also showed just how demanding Ellington's melodic lines and phrasing can be. The more you listen, the more you realize this was by no means a simple jazz musician! The dancers showed great enthusiasm and energy as they interpreted the music in styles ranging from jazz and ballet to some great tap dancing, something unfortunately rarely featured today.

Sophisticated Ladies runs until June 13. Overall, this is a fun evening for anyone who has even the slightest interest in music of this genre and almost certainly you will come out feeling happy, with some of those beautiful melodies running through your mind. After all, isn't this what a night out at the theater should be? The great pity is that the audiences will go home knowing as little or as much about this musical genius, Duke Ellington, as they did when they entered the theater. This is no fault of the production, but rather, the original concept.