Bubbling Brown Sugar
sweet and spicy

Broward Stage Door Theatre's resurrects the Harlem Renaissance jukebox musical

October 29, 2009

Allison Semmes in Bubbling Brown Sugar at Broward Stage Door Theatre.

The incandescence named Allison Semmes is currently electrifying Broward Stage Door Theatre's resurrection of the Harlem Renaissance jukebox musical Bubbling Brown Sugar.

Semmes is actually a supporting actress here. Even in a cast of 16, however, she stands out with a polished Broadway voice, toothpaste ad grin, flashing eyes and amped-up flair evident in her angular body language and vivacious delivery. Near the end of the show, she delivers a Duke Ellington torch song so affectingly that it actually raises goose pimples.

Bubbling is yet another strong offering from Stage Door, which has revived its reputation for reliable productions of musicals requiring large casts. This year, it mounted impressive iterations of La Cage Aux Folles and A Little Night Music that frankly surprised many theater veterans.

This is a song and dance procession of 31 hits from the 1920s-1940s penned by Eubie Blake, Cab Calloway, Billie Holliday, Fats Waller and a dozen others. It is a glorious stroll through every standard from Bert Williams' mournful vaudeville special Nobody up to a roof-raising finale in Benny Goodman's It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing).

It fights to overcome the obligatorily flimsy script written and set in 1976: Three aging stars (Christopher George Patterson, Jerrial Young and the Nadeen Holloway) take two young people (Semmes and Rendell DeBose) back in time to experience the music first-hand. A lot of the stilted dialogue would defy the skills of Laurence Olivier or Richard Pryor.

But when this cast sings and dances -- which is most of the evening -- the show is pure hallelujah time. That's thanks in large part to Dan Kelley's staging, Chrissi Ardito's choreography and Mark Goodman's musical direction to David Cohen's pre-recorded score. The three leads are especially winning, but almost everyone gets a moment to shine.

Bill Hirschman can be reached at muckrayk@aol.com.

Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

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October 30, 2009

JERRY LAYTON'S
CURTAIN CALLS

"BUBBLING BROWN:" SUGAR
A SWINGING SOUFFLÉ

By Jerry Layton

   Okay, let's get the good stuff out of the way right away!  "Bubbling Brown Sugar," at the Broward Stage Door, is a fantastic show.  It is a bold, brassy, beautiful treat, and if you don't rush right out to see it, you're a fool.

There!  Now for the reasons.

This is the second time I'm reviewing "Bubbling Brown Sugar.  The first time I did it was about 30 years ago when it came, fresh off Broadway, to the late, lamented Coconut Grove Playhouse. 

In the cast, as the Gospel Lady, was a fat, black and dynamic young performer named Nell Carter.  She stopped the show with her version of "His Eye Is On The Sparrow."  It has since been one of my most memorable theatrical experiences.
The production currently on display in Margate's bastion of great musicals, shows that the show has lost none of its luster or power.  If anything, like fine wine, it has improved with age.

In my long career, I never thought I would be able to write this sentence, but in "Bubbling Brown Sugar" there is no such thing as a minor player.  They are all stars.
The chorus singers and dancers, who are usually the lowest on the food chain, have been so perfectly chosen, and they perform with such energy, grace, skill and artistry, they are a major part of the success of this total song and dance show.
Director Dan Kelley and choreographer Chrissi Ardito have driven them to within an inch of their endurance to present moment after moment of mind-boggling originality, creativity and pleasure.

And as for the principals, they are the principal reason for the success of this remarkable venture.
"Bubbling Brown Sugar" is a hymn to Harlem.  To those too young to have known this place in its heyday, it was more than a geographic location.  It was a magic land, a place where the forbidden and fascinating genres of jazz and blues were evolving.
In a time when social liaisons between whites and blacks were largely taboo, Harlem was the one place they could meet on almost equal terms.

And Harlem was the place where the rich and the hip wanted to go.  After dark, they went to the dangerous, decadent and appealing realm of The Cotton Club, the Apollo and Small's  Paradise.  It was where George Gershwin went for a lot his musical inspiration,
At a time when blacks were not allowed in downtown clubs, they welcomed white clientele.  On their own turf, they were the bosses; they had to upper hand.

Bubbling brown Sugar is a revue, conceived by Loften Mitchell from a concept by Rosetta LeNoire, a popular black entertainer.  It was designed to show the musical emergence of Harlem.  It was hung around 30 musical contributions by Duke Ellington, Eubie Blake. Can Calloway, Billie Holliday,  Earl "Fatha" Hines, Noble Sissle, "Fats" Waller, Bert Williams and many others.

"Bubbling" is first and foremost a sing and dance show, and we are not allowed to forget itfor a moment.
However, every revue needs a book, no matter how ephemeral it is.  "Bubbling's" is so thin, it's almost transparent.  Three aging vaudevillians decide to take two newbie couples, one black and one white for a compressed 50 year tour of Harlem and its music.  Period, end of plot, end of case.

Chris Patterson (John Sage) and Jerrial Young (Checkers) portray an old comedy team such as Buck and Bubbles and Butterbeans and Susie.  Patterson is a big, imposing, funny man, who has a natural comic presence.  He commands his every scene.
He shines in his renditions of Bert Williams "Nobody and 'Ain't Misbehavin"".  Jerrial plays it big and sly in "Pray For The Lights To Go Out" and the two boys teach the meaning of "easy" in "Honeysuckle Time."
They also give a droll snippet of the classic Ben Carter and Mantan Moreland 'anticipation" routine.

Chris also dances with that consummate grace big men often have.
Nadeen Holloway (Irene) offers shades of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday and Bessie Smith in her bold renditions of "What Harlem Means To Me,  Honeysuckle Rose and There'll be Some Changes Made."

Teisha Duncan fills some mighty big shoes as the Gospel Lady, with a contralto vesion of "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" that reaches from the soles of her feet to the tips of her hair.  It is riveting.

Rendell De Bose (Jim) is the owner of a smoky baritone and he shows some real jazz chops with is reading of Ellington's "Sophisticate Lady."
Allison Semmes (Ella) owns a beautiful set of pipes and has a soul groove in  "Love Will Find A Way" and "I Got It Bad."  There is even a little Dinah Washington hiding out in the background.
Handling the white distaff side is arresting red head Liz Mc Farlane (Judy) who offers a sizzling reading of "Some Of These Days."

John Ramsey is the surprise of the evening.  A bored. white playboy, he becomes a Harlem disciple and convert. He is so affected by the music that it totally alters his personality.  He becomes an all-out singing and dancing phenomenon.
The big Act 1 finale is the Benny Goodman favorite "Stompin At The Savoy."  It was such a runaway number that it even made audience members unwilling to take a bathroom break.
The whole proceedings ends with what could have been declared as the philosophy of the entire show, "It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing."  That is the show's message. 

It was the swing and the music that gave Harlem its reason for existence and won it a place in history and in pleasant memory.
So come on out to the feast at the Stage Door Theatre.  You'll find that "Bubbling Brown Sugar" is a sweet, delicious treat.

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“Bubbling Brown Sugar” is a Honey of a Musical

                I can envision thousands of musical revue lovers “strolling” across the parking lot of the Stage Door Theatre to enjoy an excellent production of the rarely performed BUBBLING BROWN SUGAR.  The Stage Door continues to produce top rate revivals of Broadway musical classics which are directed, choreographed, and cast to perfection.

BUBBLING takes us back to Harlem in the 1920’s-1940’s and features the music of African American composers such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway and Fats Waller.  The outstanding cast does justice to song and dance numbers such as Some of These Days, Amazing Grace, Sweet Georgia Brown, Honeysuckle Rose, Sophisticated Lady,  Solitude, Ain’t Misbehavin’, I Got it Bad, and It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).

The story line offers ample opportunity to enjoy the singing and fabulous dancing of sixteen talented performers.  They perform at famed Harlem venues such as The Savoy, Small’s Paradise, and the famed Apollo Theatre.  Almost all of the cast are newcomers to the Stage Door except for the very talented Marcus Davis who is cast in several of their shows annually.  However, it would be difficult to find more talented singers and dancers than Nadeen Holloway, Rendell DeBose, Walter Kemp, Chris Patterson, Liz McFarlane, John Ramsey, Roslyn Seale, Allison Semmes, and Jerrial Young. 

Getting the most from these skilled performers is the fine direction of Dan Kelley, the excellent choreography by Chrissi Ardito, the musical direction of Mark Goodman, and the musical tracks by David Cohen.  The sets are ample but simple and much credit is due the costume designer. 

So, Take the A Train down to Sample Road and treat yourself to over two hours of wonderful entertainment.  I’m sure that you’ll be on your feet at the finale, giving the performers a well-deserved tribute.

Cobrua Reporter
Al Horowitz

'Bubbling Brown Sugar' sizzles with fun
COMI ZERVALIS NEUBURG Forum Publishing Group
October 22, 2009

The music in Bubbling Brown Sugar celebrates the songs of Harlem's Golden Age composers, including the prolific Duke Ellington and the jubilant Fats Waller.

Featuring popular tunes like "Take the A Train" and "Sweet Georgia Brown," this musical revue, written by Loften Mitchell, highlights Harlem's history and folklore from the 1920s to the 1940s, and the spirit of a people rooted in their music.

Legend has it that just as the sun is setting in Harlem, time steps backward to the rhythm of the city uptown, when legendary jazz and blues performers, orchestras such as those of Louis Armstrong's, holy rollers and gospel singers all converged.

Via the sardonic street humor of enchanting time-traveling guide Checkers (Jerrial Young), we fly to the color of Harlem's nightclubs and speak-easies. There the polished Broward Stage Door Theatre company blends the high-stomping tap and dance of the day with tender ballads, satirical songs and gospel, swing and blues numbers into an addictive brew.

Character-driven, tongue-in-cheek pieces written by pianist/organist/singer Fats Waller become spellbinding peepholes into Black American culture as performed by strong singer Nadeen Holloway and Chris Patterson in "Honeysuckle Rose." Holloway is gifted with a voice filled with enough nuance to fully portray character through song and Patterson's delivery of "Ain't Misbehavin" and "Nobody" painted a story.

"In Honeysuckle Time," a Eubie Blake comedic tune that teeters between conversation and coded communication, Patterson and Young project soul with vaudevillian flair. Allison Semmes's delivery of Ellington's "I Got It Bad," is otherworldly in range and passion and set the audience ablaze.

The company's finale is an upbeat interpretation of Ellington's "It Don't Mean a Thing" that transforms voices into a live brass orchestra.

"Bubbling Brown Sugar" runs at the Broward Stage Door Theatre on West Sample Road in Coral Springs through Nov. 22. For tickets, call 954-344- 7765.


Copyright © 2009, South Florida Sun-Sentinel