Smokey Joe's Café takes you back in a time machine

By Katie Nisbet

November 15, 2004 | With most of the theater wide-eyed mid-fifties adults and young, uninterested college students, the cast of Smokey Joe's Café had to fulfill high expectations at Ellen Eccles Theater recently. With the night set in the 1950's, this is successfully a concert of some of the finest rhythm and
blues, rock 'n' roll, soul and country songs written by the partnership of Leiber and Stoller. Each song has its own self-contained story to tell, and the small cast relates these to the audience with various degrees of intensity.

The production comprises of two acts, the first being slightly relaxed as the next. That is until the hand-clapping, eye-opening number, "Saved." It is a highly energetic number involving all the cast members. At times I wondered if they were going to be able to continue going or if their power and velocity would eventually break them. It was a fabulous rendition that led you right into the intermission.

In the second half the quality and performances proved to fulfill those high expectations. The renditions of "Pearl's a Singer" and "I'm a Woman" were fantastic performances that made the ticket price worth it. At times I felt like jumping and singing and shouting with the cast. Although the songs were not all very popular they were performed with experience and vigor.

However, one criticism could be just that, for a tribute production the songs were not all the "best hits." But they way that they were expressed proved that they should have been in their day. If you are a fan of rock n' roll and wish for the old days of rhythm and blues be sure to catch this production of Smokey Joes's Café. You might not find it in the week's best productions list but you'll love the time capsule it throws you into.

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