Doo-wop ditties WOULD ROCK AND ROLL have existed without Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller?" gushes the press release for last night's A&E Biography of the legendary songwriting team. "Possibly, but not likely," is the network's answer, its one-hour, carbo-loaded profiles the surest sign that one's Q-rating is verging on the infamous. (Other profilees this month include Ivana Trump, Mary Hart and Richard Simmons.)
By Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.comIn this case, however, the hyperbole is warranted. For proof, you have only to check out Manoa Valley Theatre's staging -- at last -- of "Smokey Joe's Cafe," the 1995 Broadway hit which is, among other things, a fantastic excuse to hear some of Leiber and Stoller's greatest tunes.
It's not a great musical, nor even a very good one, at least by the standards of the past, i.e., an engrossing storyline propelled via songs that advance the action. Purists, therefore, may be disappointed by what is more properly known as a musical revue. On the other hand, "Smokey Joe's Cafe" was nothing less than the longest running musical revue in Broadway history, seen by nearly 2 million people during its five-year run on the Great White Way, grossing more than $85 million before closing in January of 2000. For an explanation of its appeal we went to a local expert, Manoa Valley's musical director, Melina Lillios.
When: Starts Wednesday. Runs 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 4 p.m. Sundays through Sept. 23. 'Smokey Joe's Cafe'
Where: Manoa Valley Theatre, 2833 East Manoa Road
Cost: $30
Call: 988-6131
"Whether or not we're doo-wop or oldies fans in particular, we can't help but want to whistle along, and I guarantee there will be people singing along in the audience," she said. "People don't realize that Leiber and Stoller wrote all this wonderful music. It's an hour and a half show which never has a dull moment."
And indeed, as the folks at A&E might say, it's hard to imagine rock history without such standards as "Hound Dog," "Love Potion #9," "Jailhouse Rock," "Stand By Me," "Kansas City" and "Yakety Yak." The songwriting team's phenomenal output is richly in evidence in "Smokey Joe's," which gathers together more than 40 numbers from the Leiber-Stoller catalog, many of them hybrid masterpieces of African-American rhythm-and-blues and conventional pop.
Which is all the more surprising when you consider that Leiber and Stoller were two East Coast Jewish guys, the former hailing from Baltimore and the latter from Queens. Each migrated separately to L.A. as a teenager, but when they finally met the results were volcanic. Their first hit, "Hound Dog" -- written for Big Mama Thornton in 1953 and eventually ridden to the top of the charts by a gyrating Elvis Presley four years later -- was penned in less than 15 minutes. But perhaps even more surprising in retrospect was the way their music, perhaps unintentionally, broke down racial barriers, uniting the youth of America -- if not their parents -- in a common appreciation of a musical genre still in its infancy.
PERHAPS IT'S FITTING then that half the Manoa Valley cast of eight is African American, "which is a high percentage for any show in Hawaii," said Lillios. Watch for Patti LaBelle sound-alike Marika Dillard as "she blows the roof off the place," and Chris "C.W." Washington, "a Lovenotes member and dancer extraordinaire." (In fact, several members of the original Lovenotes tried out for "Smokey Joe's," Lillios recalled. "They even showed up for auditions with greaser jackets, which was a little bit more than I expected on a Saturday morning. I'm looking like hell warmed over and these guys come in and start doing the hand jive.") Kala'i Stern, of the Hoku award-winning band 'Ale'a, is another casting coup, as is former Hawaii Stars grand prize winner Riya Davis.Nominated for seven Tony Awards and losing all of them, "Smokey Joe's" had the misfortune of debuting in the same season as Andrew Lloyd Webber's monumental (and in retrospect quite silly) "Sunset Boulevard" and Harold Prince's magnificent restaging of "Showboat." And while it's neither a grand spectacle nor groundbreaking theater, "Smokey Joe's" is certainly a seductive crowd pleaser, and one that will no doubt claim Hawaii as its next victim.
"We're not going to solve world hunger with it," laughed Lillios, "but we're definitely going to make people feel happier about life in general."
No small achievement, that.
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