Playing now until January 22nd at the Academy of Musica co-presentation of Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts and The Shubert Organization is the First National Tour of the Tony Award winning musical, “Memphis”. The original story is inspired by true life white disc jockey Dewey Phillips whose show, “Red Hot and Blue” is thought to be responsible for helping to integrate the American airways from 1948 – 1958. “Memphis” is a fictional account of one, Huey Calhoun, an illiterate hillbilly with a gift of the gab who falls in love with an African American singer and the rock n’ roll coming out of the segregated nightclubs of the 50’s. He vows to put Felecia Farrell’s voice on the “middle of the radio dial” where the big stations broadcast from. By showcasing both black and white musicians he promotes wider acceptance of black artists as rockabilly and rock n’ roll emerge as national trends. Though Huey develops a Number One show with a bi-racial teen audience, Memphis, Tennessee is not ready for Huey and Felecia’s romance.
In 2010 Memphis took home four Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Book and Best Orchestrations. So needless to say, the show works because the story has strong, emotional content about characters we care about who are trapped in a restrictive and rigid society. The Book, by Joe DiPietro, though dramatic is also human and funny. The Music by Bon Jovi keyboardist, David Bryan sounds like music of the era, and yet is never formulaic. His songs may start out sounding like standards of the day, but they travel to different places. There are several standout tunes, The Music of My Soul, Someday and Love Will Stand When All Else Falls to name a few. Unfortunately, in this production, the orchestrations were lost on me, as all I could hear was the booming of the bass drum. I didn’t even know there were horns until the end when the orchestra was finally revealed. Hopefully, this is a technical sound glitch that can be compensated for.
Felecia Boswell shows off a spectacular voice and a wide emotional range as Felecia Farrell, the young, singer who has aspirations of a career that stretches beyond just performing in the underground clubs of Memphis. Bryan Fenkart with the twangy voice of a Tennessee hillbilly and the comic timing of an Art Carney wins over our sympathies as he tries to promote Felecia’s career. Julie Johnson as Huey’s mother is terrific in her transformation from a bigoted woman to an enlightened Christian soul in her song,Change Don’t Come Easy. Will Mann is particularly ingratiating as Bobby, the timid Janitor who makes his singing debut on Huey’s show. With a demeanor and voice like a young Chubby Checker, Mr. Mann is also amazingly light on his feet.
A Tony Award nominee for Costume Design, Paul Tazewell’s creations are simply luscious (most especially his costumes for Felecia which are one drop dead gorgeous lamé dress after another). The direction by Christopher Ashley though fast paced has the actors very grounded in activities while they sing (before they are totally carried away by emotion or choreography). An example is when Huey and his mother, Gladys are picking up pieces of the window broken by a flying brick, while they sing,Make Me Stronger . This gives the actors something to do other than playing their intentions – and makes the audience feel that the characters are grounded in some kind of reality – though we know it’s “heightened” (because in reality, most people don’t spontaneously break out into song). That is unless you live in an Italian household, and then all bets are off.
My only caveat is that I hope the sound is adjusted because I could not understand a single lyric in the opening number. And since the opening number sets up the entire evening – we don’t want to miss a word.
With so many shows that are cavalcades of music from another era or pastiches, it’s incredibly refreshing to see an earnest original book musical that wasn’t a movie first! It’s a wonderfully exciting and emotional show.