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The energetic musical revue featuring the songs of pop tunesmiths Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller rolls into Hudson's Show Palace Dinner Theatre.
By BARBARA L. FREDRICKSEN, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published July 5, 2002
Baby Boomers call the 1950s and '60s the "Golden Age of Music."
It was the time of the Coasters, the Drifters, the Dixie Cups, Ben E. King, Peggy Lee, Elvis...
... of Kansas City, Love Potion #9, Yakety Yak, Stand By Me, Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog.
... of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the pop writing duo who created these classics.
And it's all in Smokey Joe's Cafe, the Songs of Leiber and Stoller, the musical tribute to the pair's songs opening July 12 at the Show Palace Dinner Theatre in Hudson.
"This is a really wonderful show," said John Leggio, a former Broadway dancer and current Show Palace artistic director and director of the show. "The songs are just great."
The original Smokey Joe's opened on Broadway in March 1995 and closed nearly five years later in January 2000, making it the longest-running musical revue in Broadway history.
Leiber and Stoller's witty, sophisticated rock tunes were wildly popular when they came out and have stood the test of time. Almost anyone who came of age in the '50s and '60s can sing at least some of lyrics to their many big hits.
According to their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame biography: "They brought a range of stylistic flavor to their story songs, which ranged from wisecracking, finger-popping hipster tunes to quieter love ballads." Leggio recently made a trip back to New York to recruit singer-dancers for the show. Among them is Radio City Rockette and Broadway player Desiree Parkman, who recently wound up a stint in the Broadway revival of Annie Get Your Gun and a tour of Europe portraying Josephine Baker in Blackbirds of Broadway.
Cast members include Canadian television performer Francine Finley, cruise line and theater performers D.J. Oliver, Marla Sanders, and Gregory Stockbridge and theater singer-actors Chris Lewis, Michelle Martin, Melvin Tunstall and Ron Foster.
"The talent -- I have never been able to get this level of talent across the board for a show here," Leggio said. "They're mainly singers, but they are dancing as if they were dancers. When I watch them, I feel like I'm back in New York. They're that good."
Leggio is doing fresh choreography for all but two of the show's songs and adapting those two to suit the talents and the stage at the Show Palace.
"We have four big production numbers, including Jailhouse Rock," Leggio said. For that, set designer Tom Hansen has built a mock jail.
Hansen also incorporated a raised semistage at the back of the set for music director Stan Collins's five-piece combo, which will accompany the show. Collins has been musical director for several shows at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Jaeb Theatre productions, including Decades, Hollywood Nights, The World of Jacques Brel, a Christmas Carol Cabaret and Swing! Swing! Swing.
He has also performed with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra and toured with the latest incarnation of the Four Aces.
"This is an energetic show, and the performers feed off the energy of the audience," Leggio said. "I want this place to be filled, and everybody clapping and hollering. That's what will make the show really go."
WHAT: Smokey Joe's Cafe
WHERE: Show Palace Dinner Theatre, 16128 U.S. 19, Hudson
WHEN: July 12-Aug. 18. Performances at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays and 1:30 p.m. some Saturdays. Doors open two hours before each show for buffet and cash bar.
TICKETS: Dinner and show, $37.50; show only, 26.45; ages 12 and younger, $19.95 and $14.95, all plus tax and tip. Call 863-7949 in west Pasco; toll free elsewhere at 1-888-655-7469.