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Two bio-musicals set audiences humming
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Reviewed by: FRAN HELLER Contributing Writer
The bio-musical, that ever-growing, crowd-pleasing, risk-averse genre threading its way across the theatrical landscape, invades the Cleveland scene with a double billing.
Tony Sandler, from the 1960s Sandler & Young singing duo, stars in a one-man performance of the inimitable French troubadour Maurice Chevalier in “Chevalier Maurice & Me” at Kalliope Stage. Clevelander Marc Moritz takes on the persona of larger-than-life Al Jolson, in the JCC production of “Jolson & Company,” held at Tri-C East Performing Arts Center. (See related Cavalcade, page 40.)
Both run through May 20.
An amiable and entertaining mix of biography, claptrap and music, it is the songs n so familiar to older audiences n that give these shows pizzazz.
Everybody loves a rags-to-riches story, and Chevalier and Jolson follow that script. Both men grew up in extreme poverty and went on to become superstars. Both worshipped their mothers, perhaps the greatest loves in each of their lives.
One of Chevalier’s idols was none other than Jolson, whose ability to work an audience also became the French bon vivant’s secret to success.
‘Chevalier Maurice & Me’
The intimacy of Kalliope Stage serves well the cabaret-style musical revue format of “Chevalier Maurice & Me,” in which Sandler retraces the life and music of Maurice Chevalier. With Chevalier’s trademark straw hat cocked to one side, walking stick in hand, and elegant savoir-faire, Sandler takes us through a lifetime spanning two world wars and a legendary career on both sides of the Atlantic.
Interspersing snippets of song with narrative, including excerpts from Chevalier’s memoirs, Sandler affects all the mannerisms of the famed Frenchman, including flawless French and strongly accented English. But one has the feeling that Sandler, whose own career spans 50-plus years, has his best singing days behind him.
Chevalier wasn’t much of a singer either, but he had an insouciant air and exuberant warmth that captivated his listeners.The stiff and somewhat lackluster Flemish-born Sandler generates insufficient heat as the irrepressibly alluring and ageless Frenchman.
Chevalier knew his vocal limitations, but the way he delivered a song enchanted his audience. At the performance I attended, Sandler rarely reaches that level of enchantment.
The second act is livelier than the first and also includes some of Chevalier’s most memorable songs. But the repetitive format grows stale.
Chevalier hit his peak as a cabaret performer and Hollywood film star when World War II intervened, creating a political situation that would find him fighting for his reputation and his life. During the war, Chevalier was living with a young Jewish actress, Nita Raya. Nita was threatened with deportation. So to save her life, Chevalier agreed to perform for German officers. After the Allied victory, Chevalier was accused of treason and condemned to death, but he was exonerated by General Eisenhower.
The culmination of Chevalier’s second career was the lavish film musical “Gigi” (1958). set in Paris, it starred the young Leslie Caron and featured Chevalier as an aging playboy.
A lion’s share of the show’s appeal belongs to Marge Adler at keyboard. Her lively musical accompaniment not only serves the songs with élan, but provides melodic counterpoint to the voluble narrative as well.
Adler and piano are in full view throughout the performance. It is inexcusable that Sandler does not verbally credit Adler at the show’s conclusion. The real Chevalier, who worshipped women, would have kissed her hand, at the least.
‘Jolson & Company’
If you close your eyes, you can almost hear the Jolson sound.
That’s how close Marc Moritz gets to becoming Al Jolson in “Jolson & Company,” the 2002 off-Broadway musical by Stephen Mo Hanan and Jay Berkow. The rolling eyes, shoulder shrug and body sway, splayed fingers and jump step: they’re all there, too, in a sensational tour de force performance by the multitalented Moritz.
Moritz flourishes as the complex, brash and egocentric Jolson, whose phenomenal success hid a lifetime of insecurity and neediness. George Roth and Kristin Netzband do yeoman’s work portraying 17 characters drawn from Jolson’s tumultuous life. A dream design team and Fred Sternfeld’s laser direction deliver a class act from start to finish.
The setting is the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City in 1949, where Jolson is being interviewed by radio host Barry Gray.
Through flashbacks, Jolson’s life is interspersed with many of the songs he made famous. Audible humming from the audience began with the very first song, “Swanee.”
The framing device of the interview is clunky and interrupts the flow of the story. It is the weakest part of the script.
Richard Gould’s rotating tripartite set creates the different scenarios in Jolson’s life n from a recording studio and assorted dressing rooms to a Hollywood producer’s sumptuous poolside patio and army headquarters.
Richard Ingraham’s sound effects, Trad A Burns’s lighting, and Aimee Kluiber’s panoply of costumes are spot on. The three-piece orchestra, under the reliable direction of Larry Goodpaster at keyboard, provides the perfect musical backdrop.
The singular production flaw is the awkward transitioning of actors moving backstage between scenes, fully visible to the audience.
The Jolson story begins with young Asa Joelson and the death of his mother Naomi in childbirth, when Jolson was 8. Naomi had encouraged her son’s singing talent.
Jolson’s cold and disapproving father, a cantor, wanted Jolson to follow in his footsteps, but Jolson had other ideas. At first, Asa and his brother Hirsch, who changed their names to Al and Harry, went into vaudeville together.
But Al’s outsized ego and constant upstaging of his brother led to a split.
Blackface makeup turned Jolson into a star. Behind the mask, Jolson could do what he couldn’t do as a white, Jewish man. Jolson wanted to sing “colored” as well, comparing jazz to davening, which he described as “wailing with devotion.”
Jolson’s personal life was as complicated as his public image. The show starts with wife #2, Ethel Delmar, an alcoholic, followed by Ruby Keeler, who was 19 when she and Jolson (then 43) met. Netzband proves quite the hoofer in a tap-dance routine with Moritz.
After Keeler, whose star is rising, dumps him, Jolson puts on blackface (the only time in the show), as if to hide his pain. As Moritz artfully applies the black makeup, he takes refuge behind the metamorphosis. He then launches into “My Mammy,” a song of heartbreak and loss, which brought down the house.
He draws a comparison between blacks and Jews as outsiders who know how to break into a song when life gets tough.
The musical includes two imaginary scenes between Jolson and Mae West (a delicious impersonation by the spunky Netzband). Their duo, “April Showers,” is a highlight in a show awash with high moments.
Excellent George Roth adds real definition to a variety of characters, beginning with radio host Barry Gray and including Jolson’s harsh Poppa, sibling rival Harry, and a smooth-talking Hollywood producer.
The standing ovation at the show’s end is deserved. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet until you see this terrific production.
“Chevalier Maurice & Me” is at Kalliope Stage, 2134 Lee Road, Cleveland Hts. 216-321-0870 or www.kalliopestage.com.
“Jolson & Company” is at Tri-C Eastern Campus Performing Arts Center, 4250 Richmond Road, Highland Hts. 800-766-6048 or www.tickets.com.
The bio-musical, that ever-growing, crowd-pleasing, risk-averse genre threading its way across the theatrical landscape, invades the Cleveland scene with a double billing.
Tony Sandler, from the 1960s Sandler & Young singing duo, stars in a one-man performance of the inimitable French troubadour Maurice Chevalier in “Chevalier Maurice & Me” at Kalliope Stage. Clevelander Marc Moritz takes on the persona of larger-than-life Al Jolson, in the JCC production of “Jolson & Company,” held at Tri-C East Performing Arts Center. (See related Cavalcade, page 40.)
Both run through May 20.
An amiable and entertaining mix of biography, claptrap and music, it is the songs n so familiar to older audiences n that give these shows pizzazz.
Everybody loves a rags-to-riches story, and Chevalier and Jolson follow that script. Both men grew up in extreme poverty and went on to become superstars. Both worshipped their mothers, perhaps the greatest loves in each of their lives.
One of Chevalier’s idols was none other than Jolson, whose ability to work an audience also became the French bon vivant’s secret to success.
‘Chevalier Maurice & Me’
The intimacy of Kalliope Stage serves well the cabaret-style musical revue format of “Chevalier Maurice & Me,” in which Sandler retraces the life and music of Maurice Chevalier. With Chevalier’s trademark straw hat cocked to one side, walking stick in hand, and elegant savoir-faire, Sandler takes us through a lifetime spanning two world wars and a legendary career on both sides of the Atlantic.
Interspersing snippets of song with narrative, including excerpts from Chevalier’s memoirs, Sandler affects all the mannerisms of the famed Frenchman, including flawless French and strongly accented English. But one has the feeling that Sandler, whose own career spans 50-plus years, has his best singing days behind him.
Chevalier wasn’t much of a singer either, but he had an insouciant air and exuberant warmth that captivated his listeners.The stiff and somewhat lackluster Flemish-born Sandler generates insufficient heat as the irrepressibly alluring and ageless Frenchman.
Chevalier knew his vocal limitations, but the way he delivered a song enchanted his audience. At the performance I attended, Sandler rarely reaches that level of enchantment.
The second act is livelier than the first and also includes some of Chevalier’s most memorable songs. But the repetitive format grows stale.
Chevalier hit his peak as a cabaret performer and Hollywood film star when World War II intervened, creating a political situation that would find him fighting for his reputation and his life. During the war, Chevalier was living with a young Jewish actress, Nita Raya. Nita was threatened with deportation. So to save her life, Chevalier agreed to perform for German officers. After the Allied victory, Chevalier was accused of treason and condemned to death, but he was exonerated by General Eisenhower.
The culmination of Chevalier’s second career was the lavish film musical “Gigi” (1958). set in Paris, it starred the young Leslie Caron and featured Chevalier as an aging playboy.
A lion’s share of the show’s appeal belongs to Marge Adler at keyboard. Her lively musical accompaniment not only serves the songs with élan, but provides melodic counterpoint to the voluble narrative as well.
Adler and piano are in full view throughout the performance. It is inexcusable that Sandler does not verbally credit Adler at the show’s conclusion. The real Chevalier, who worshipped women, would have kissed her hand, at the least.
‘Jolson & Company’
If you close your eyes, you can almost hear the Jolson sound.
That’s how close Marc Moritz gets to becoming Al Jolson in “Jolson & Company,” the 2002 off-Broadway musical by Stephen Mo Hanan and Jay Berkow. The rolling eyes, shoulder shrug and body sway, splayed fingers and jump step: they’re all there, too, in a sensational tour de force performance by the multitalented Moritz.
Moritz flourishes as the complex, brash and egocentric Jolson, whose phenomenal success hid a lifetime of insecurity and neediness. George Roth and Kristin Netzband do yeoman’s work portraying 17 characters drawn from Jolson’s tumultuous life. A dream design team and Fred Sternfeld’s laser direction deliver a class act from start to finish.
The setting is the Winter Garden Theatre in New York City in 1949, where Jolson is being interviewed by radio host Barry Gray.
Through flashbacks, Jolson’s life is interspersed with many of the songs he made famous. Audible humming from the audience began with the very first song, “Swanee.”
The framing device of the interview is clunky and interrupts the flow of the story. It is the weakest part of the script.
Richard Gould’s rotating tripartite set creates the different scenarios in Jolson’s life n from a recording studio and assorted dressing rooms to a Hollywood producer’s sumptuous poolside patio and army headquarters.
Richard Ingraham’s sound effects, Trad A Burns’s lighting, and Aimee Kluiber’s panoply of costumes are spot on. The three-piece orchestra, under the reliable direction of Larry Goodpaster at keyboard, provides the perfect musical backdrop.
The singular production flaw is the awkward transitioning of actors moving backstage between scenes, fully visible to the audience.
The Jolson story begins with young Asa Joelson and the death of his mother Naomi in childbirth, when Jolson was 8. Naomi had encouraged her son’s singing talent.
Jolson’s cold and disapproving father, a cantor, wanted Jolson to follow in his footsteps, but Jolson had other ideas. At first, Asa and his brother Hirsch, who changed their names to Al and Harry, went into vaudeville together.
But Al’s outsized ego and constant upstaging of his brother led to a split.
Blackface makeup turned Jolson into a star. Behind the mask, Jolson could do what he couldn’t do as a white, Jewish man. Jolson wanted to sing “colored” as well, comparing jazz to davening, which he described as “wailing with devotion.”
Jolson’s personal life was as complicated as his public image. The show starts with wife #2, Ethel Delmar, an alcoholic, followed by Ruby Keeler, who was 19 when she and Jolson (then 43) met. Netzband proves quite the hoofer in a tap-dance routine with Moritz.
After Keeler, whose star is rising, dumps him, Jolson puts on blackface (the only time in the show), as if to hide his pain. As Moritz artfully applies the black makeup, he takes refuge behind the metamorphosis. He then launches into “My Mammy,” a song of heartbreak and loss, which brought down the house.
He draws a comparison between blacks and Jews as outsiders who know how to break into a song when life gets tough.
The musical includes two imaginary scenes between Jolson and Mae West (a delicious impersonation by the spunky Netzband). Their duo, “April Showers,” is a highlight in a show awash with high moments.
Excellent George Roth adds real definition to a variety of characters, beginning with radio host Barry Gray and including Jolson’s harsh Poppa, sibling rival Harry, and a smooth-talking Hollywood producer.
The standing ovation at the show’s end is deserved. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet until you see this terrific production.
“Chevalier Maurice & Me” is at Kalliope Stage, 2134 Lee Road, Cleveland Hts. 216-321-0870 or www.kalliopestage.com.
“Jolson & Company” is at Tri-C Eastern Campus Performing Arts Center, 4250 Richmond Road, Highland Hts. 800-766-6048 or www.tickets.com.
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