By Charles Shubow

When you attend a Broadway show and you hear the following announcement, “At this performance, the part of …….will be played by ……” Then you hear the groans.

That happened to me (without the groan) the first time I saw Memphis on Broadway two years ago when it was announced that the leading role of Felicia was going to played by a real Felicia, one Felicia Boswell.  Wouldn’t  you know Boswell stole the hearts of everyone in the theater that night and was deservedly given a standing ovation.

What a nice surprise to see that Boswell is now stealing the hearts of theatergoers nationwide as she has taken on the role of Felicia on the Memphistour and she didn’t disappoint. She’s an absolutely amazing performer who is a triple threat and  who I predict has a great future on Broadway.

The leading male lead in Memphis was originally played by the great Chad Kimball who received a Tony nomination for his role as Huey Calhoun who is a high school dropout, lives with his mother, has a hard time keeping employment, but discovers the blues at a Black nightclub in the famous Beale Street section of Memphis.  I found Kimball’s performance way over the top, somewhat creepy and his southern drawl accent often annoying.

Playing the role on the tour is Bryan Fenkart who in my opinion gives a more restrained yet understandable take on the role. Fenkart has a great voice and uses it well.  He also demonstrates an authentic  love for his discovered talent, Felicia.  He really shines in the finale when he sings his heart out during “Memphis Lives in Me”.

The score by Bon Jovi keyboard player David Bryan is infectious. Do yourself a favor a buy the CD so you can sing along (silently) during the show because after you see the show you’re going to want to listen to it again and again. The pulsating score is packed with great ballads, blues,  a little bit of gospel, and some rock.

To accompany the music, choreographer Sergio Trujillo has assembled great dancers who jump, spin, kick, and fly all over the stage.

The story involves Huey’s attempt to mainstream Black music into Memphis radio land and to move the blues from the far right end of the radio dial (where small stations broadcast) to the middle of the radio dial where White radio predominates.  This is the 1950′s where there were White only water fountains and restrooms.  And to complicate matters, Huey falls in love with Felicia  and in Tennessee for a Black to be with a White was not acceptable.

So there’s a compelling message here. There’s also great music, great theater and an exuberant group of actors who look like they’re having the time of their lives.

Director Christopher Ashley does a superb job with great material. He’s aided by clever costumes by the amazing  Paul Tazewell, terrific lighting byHowell Binkley, superb sound by Ken Travis (not an easy achievement here) and clever projection design by David Gallo and Shawn Sagady.

The on stage nine piece orchestra plays their hearts out under conductor/keyboard 1 Alvin Hough, Jr.  They include Darryl Archibald (Associate Conductor/Keyboard 2), Trevor Holder (Drums), Dave Matos (Guitar), Enzo Penizzotto (Bass), Dave Detwiler (Trumpet/Flugelhorn), Victor Barranco (Tenor and Bass Trombone), David Jones (Alto Sax/Flute), and Ed Walters (Tenor and Baritone Sax/Bass Clarinet).

A bit of advice…don’t leave early. You can expect a nice coda at the end of the show. You’ll have to see the show to understand the “mmmmmmmmmm.”

You only have until July 1 so order your tickets now at 202-467-4600 or visit www.kennedy-center.org. Visit facebook.com/kennedycenter for behind-the-scenes news and special events. Follow @kencenon Twitter.

Also visit www.memphisthemusical.com for videos.

And what a summer for musical theater in DC. Xanadu,which is now playing a successful run at the Signature Theatre and to make it a perfect trifecta, you will also love the Arena Stage‘s The Music Man. See these reviews elsewhere on BroadwayWorld.

For comments, write to cgshubow@broadwayworld.com.

Photo credit: Joan Marcus

By Buzz Bellmont

http://blog.chron.com/criticscritic/2012/05/dallas-summer-musicals-memphis-is-mighty-magnificent-miraculous/

Once in a long, long while a musical comes along that is so brilliantly written, directed, and performed and so deeply resounds and resonates with such truth, wisdom, and power that all we can do is be grateful that we experienced this gift in almost the same way as if we had experienced a profound spiritual awakening.

Memphis is this musical.

I first experienced Memphis in May of 2010 on Broadway shortly before it won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical which I predicted it would win.

It also won Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical by Joe DiPietro, Best Original Score by David Bryan and Joe DiPietro, and Best Orchestrations by Daryl Waters and David Grant.

Memphis is still running to packed houses at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway.

Dallas Summer Musicals is hosting two weeks of the first national tour of Memphis in the Music Hall at Fair Park which opened Tuesday night, May 15, and runs through Sunday, May 27.

The touring production is slightly scaled back for touring purposes and there are two less ensemble players than the Broadway show but this first national tour is better in every way than the Broadway production.

By the way, the producers of Memphis have just announced a nine-month extension to this wildly popular national tour so Memphis will continue to wow audiences across the country through the summer of 2013.

Believe you me, the Broadway show is first class and flawless, but the touring cast seems to have gone to the next level of excellence in their quest to tell the fictional story of the quirky and totally original Huey Calhoun, a white deejay in Memphis who lives his passion in the early 50s to heavily promote the African-American R and B sound over the air waves and the fallout that he and everyone around him experiences.

Joe DiPietro’s brilliant book and touching lyrics provide a solid base from which the magnificent, mighty, and miraculous Memphis springs forth into our consciousness of musical theatre exquisitely achieved.

David Grant’s rhythmic, melodic, and highly memorable score touches the heart and soul in all of us.

In fact, I never stopped tapping my cowboy boots to the beat of the music.
My entire body became so alive to the rhythm of the fabulous score and I begun rocking back and forth so enthusiastically in my comfortable turquoise velvet chair in the Music Hall that the woman behind me had to politely ask me to stop the rocking because the back of the chair was hitting her knees!
That’s how infectious Memphis‘ dynamite score is.

Christopher Ashley‘s insightful and ingenious staging and direction are evident from the minute the curtain goes up and we are in Delray’s underground African-American club in Memphis, grooving to the beat of “Underground.”

Mr. Ashley has brilliantly cast Memphis and his principals are, in this critic’s book, better than their Broadway counterparts.

How could this happen?

Easily. A show is an ever-evolving organism that grows and changes with each new cast and family of actors that inhabit it.
When a Broadway musical tours the country, the performers travel together as a team, thereby giving the cast the incredible opportunity to form lasting relationships while on tour. This bond of friendship, camaraderie, and community becomes instantly recognizable onstage to the audience.
Quite simply, the cast Mr. Ashley has assembled here has the feeling of a real family, working together to give us, the audience, the best possible theatre experience.
This was obviously evident in the original Broadway cast.
It is simply more evident in the blazing performances of this amazing touring cast.

 

Felicia Boswell as Felicia Farrell, Bryan Fenkart as Huey Calhoun (Photo: Paul Kolnik)

First and foremost, Bryan Fenkart completely captures the heart and soul of Huey Calhoun as soon as he awkwardly enters Delray’s all African-American club in Memphis in the first scene.

Mr. Fenkart absolutely and completely becomes Huey Calhoun and wins us over with his brilliant performance as the nutty and crazy Huey Calhoun.

From the minute he opens his mouth to the minute he sings his first song which describes his raison d’être, the soulful and wistful “The Music of My Soul,” Mr. Fenkart captures our hearts and feeds our souls.

I never once thought that Mr. Fenkart was an actor playing a role. I never got this feeling from Chad Kimball, who played this role on Broadway.

Bryan Fenkart’s performance is so transparently real and shatteringly gripping that, from the getgo, we are keenly aware that we are in the hands of a master and he draws us in so beautifully that we are his, totally and completely, until the final curtain descends.

Chad Kimball’s performance as Huey Calhoun in the original Broadway production was more performance-driven than character-driven. Bryan Fenkart’s finds the heart of Huey Calhoun with a more character-driven than performance-driven characterization. At times, I found Chad Kimball’s performance rather annoying as he seemingly did a caricaturish impression of George W. Bush. Bryan Fenkart’s portrayal of Huey never seems cartoonish or unnatural—it is just plain magnificent.

Mr. Fenkart brings down the house with his final song, “Memphis Lives in Me,” one of the best songs in the show.

Mr. Fenkart graciously earned and accepted an overwhelming standing ovation with the humility of a great actor who has done some ingenious work in our midst.

The chemistry between Mr. Fenkart and Felicia Boswell, who brilliantly captures Felicia, is the equivalent of a Fourth of July fireworks display.

 

Felicia Boswell as Felicia Farrell (Photo: Paul Kolnik)

Felicia Boswell was born to play the role of Felicia, Delray’s sister whom Huey Calhoun “discovers” and introduces to Memphis via his first radio gig.

Ms. Boswell was Montego Glover‘s cover on Broadway since January of last year.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Montego Glover’s Tony-nominated performance in the Broadway production, there is something about Felicia Boswell’s performance in this first national tour that is more vulnerable, more entrancing, more spirited, more transcendent, more breathtaking, and more charismatic than Ms. Glover’s.

Ms. Boswell discovers and shares all of the vocal nuances and strengths of Felicia as she charms and hypnotizes us unmercifully from beginning to end.

Ms. Boswell’s Felicia is the journey of every African-American woman who experienced the trials and tribulations of the 50s.
With her head held high, she survives and triumphs over an attempt to beat her to death by white supremacists.
Ms. Boswell so brilliantly captures this scene with her exceptional acting that our hearts break and we weep with her at this all-too-common, embarrassing, and shameful moment in our not-too-distant American history.

The fact that Ms. Boswell is related to the great Rosa Parks, who is mentioned in Memphis, makes Felicia’s journey through the tumultuous 50s even more powerful, personal, and intricately transparent.

The gorgeous Felicia Boswell gives the quality of performance that we have come to expect from a well-seasoned actress at the top of her career and Ms. Boswell’s career is just taking off.
What momentous, astonishing, and legendary work we can expect from this rising star, Felicia Boswell, as she grows and matures into one of our greatest and brightest stars.
Ms. Boswell has what it takes to ascend the throne of super-stardom.

She owns the stage in her brilliant “Colored Woman” and her “Love Will Stand When All Else Fails” is pure genius.

The chemistry between Felicia and Huey is electrifying and potently palpable as they beautifully sing their first duet “Ain’t Nothin’ But a Kiss” and reprise it in the Act 2 after a reprise of “Love Will Stand.”

I will forever be touched by Felicia Boswell’s extraordinarily astonishing performance as Felicia in Memphis.

Brava, Ms. Boswell!

As if the two leads in Memphis are not powerful enough, every one of the supporting actors in Memphis knocks the ball out of the park.

 

Julie Johnson as Mama (Photo: Paul Kolnik)

The legendary, remarkable, and extraordinary Julie Johnson, as Huey’s mother, absolutely, completely, unabashedly, and spectacularly takes us to a higher place and steals Act 2 with her “come to Jesus” ballad, “Change Don’t Come Easy.”
The audience was screaming, shouting, and begging for more of her vocal gymnastics as she sensationally sells the song all the way to Ft. Worth!
Ms. Johnson is more than a brilliant songstress. Her phenomenal acting will astound you.

The handsome Kent Overshown is strong, stunning, and superb as Delray. His amazing vocals, particularly in “She’s My Sister,” are some of the most beautiful and profound in the show. His acting is stunning.

Rhett George reprises his role as charming Gator from the original Broadway production. From the minute he begins to speak and sing with the Act I closing “Say a Prayer,” Mr. George enchants and mesmerizes us.

Will Mann as the big and boyishly lovable Bobby sells his “Big Love” to the last row. His dance moves are deliciously charismatic, always cool, and he delivers some of the finest ensemble moments in Memphis.

William Parry is fiercely fine and quite memorable as Mr. Simmons, Huey’s boss at his first radio station.

The talented ensemble players beautifully and adeptly support Memphis, playing a myriad of smaller roles and dancing up a storm to Sergio Trujillo’s splendid, energizing, fresh, and joyful choreography.

Costume design by Paul Tazewell perfectly and stylishly captures the fabulous fifties with glorious colors and textures.

Scenic design by David Gallo is simple, effective, and always interesting. Particularly enchanting are the multiple levels he has created.

Lighting design by Howell Binkley is breathtakingly beautiful, magically enchanting, and ardently atmospheric.

Sound design by Ken Travis could have been better. The band’s volume could have been turned down a bit at times and the vocalists’ volume could have been upped. Often, lyrics could not be understood.

The Memphis Band, capably conducted from masterful keyboards by Alvin Hough, Jr., ravishingly rocks and rolls and rhythms and blues its soulful beat into the Music Hall.

I guarantee that you will be on your feet singing, clapping, and dancing to the beat of one of the best finales ever written for the stage, the catchy and fantastic finale of Memphis, “Steal Your Rock ‘n Roll.”

I give this exquisite production of Memphis my highest recommendation.

I believe you will find Memphis to be every bit as magnificent, mighty, and miraculous as I have.

Memphis runs at the Music Hall at Fair Park only through Sunday, May 27.

Run to get your tickets while they last by clicking on:

http://www.dallassummermusicals.org/

Hockadoo!!!

By Michael Eck

April 17th, 2012

http://blog.timesunion.com/localarts/memphis-proctors-41712/22780/

SCHENECTADY – David Bryan is from New Jersey. Considering he came to fame as the leonine keyboardist with 80‘s hitmakers Bon Jovi, he’d better be. Joe DePietro hails from the Garden State as well, and perhaps that explains why the music in “Memphis” has so little to do with the actual sound of the River City in the 1950s.
DiPietro wrote the book for the show, now onstage at Proctors, and Bryan wrote the score, with both contributing lyrics.
The show’s lack of real R&B roots didn’t stop it from winning three 2010 Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book of a Musical, so they must have done something right. And the production at Proctors does lots right, too, especially in the casting of Bryan Fenkart, Felicia Boswell and Quentin Earl Darrington.
Fenkart plays Huey Calhoun, a poor white country boy who makes something of himself in Memphis by bending the rules until they break. His loud mouth (based on the actual Dewey Phillips) not only gets him into black nightclubs, but onto radio and eventually television, where he preaches the gospel of “negro music” to a white audience.
Fenkart has an oily eccentricity that fits the role nicely, and he sings like a deejay on “The Music of My Soul” and “Tear Down the House.”
Boswell, conveniently, plays Felicia, a young Beale Street singer who becomes Calhoun’s love interest in a time and place where such emotions could get them killed.
She dazzles with “Someday” and does almost tear down the house with “Love Will Stand.”
And Darrington plays her brother Delray, who bears the literal scars of racism while doing his best to protect his sister and the music he fears Calhoun is stealing by popularizing.
DiPietro smartly puts the love story at the center of his racially-charged tale about Memphis radio, just as director Christopher Ashley remembers that the stage is a visual medium, even if the radio is not.
Big dance numbers prevail at Delray’s club and on the radio (“Everybody Wants to Be Black on a Saturday Night,” “Radio”) and later when Huey hits the tube instead of the box and Felicia hits the big time (“Stand Up,” “Steal Your Rock and Roll”). Sergio Trujillo’s ubiquitous choreography is what really brings this show to life (because even though the book won awards, it straggles).
If some of the staging and the dancing feels akin to “Jersey Boys,” that’s Trujillo’s doing, as he choreographed both shows along with “The Addams Family,” also recently seen in Schenectady.
Other standouts in the big cast include Julie Johnson as Mama. She rocks “Change Don’t Come Easy,” making it one of the most poignant yet powerful moments in the show. Somehow she makes it one of the funniest, too.
And Will Mann’s Bobby, whether pushing a broom, mugging in a TV camera or announcing his engagement, is always entertaining.
“Memphis” may not be much about Memphis, but is big, bold, bright Broadway.

MEMPHIS
Performance reviewed: 8 p.m. Tuesday.
Where: Proctors, 432 State Street, Schenectady
Running time: 150 minutes; one intermission
Continues: 8 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; 2 p.m. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Tickets: $20-$70
Info: 346-6204; http://www/proctors.org

Michael Eck is a freelance writer from Albany and a frequent contributor to the Times Union.

http://blogcritics.org/culture/article/theater-review-washington-dc-memphis-at/

Theater Review (Washington, DC): Memphis at the Kennedy Center, Directed by Christopher Ashley

Memphis is one of those shows where you can’t help but leave the theater with a huge smile on your face. There is a reason why it was one of the most popular shows on Broadway last year. The National Touring production has pitched its tent in Washington, DC for an extended visit at the Kennedy Center. The show features some truly amazing performances.

Felicia Boswell as Felicia and Bryan Fenkart as Huey in the National Tour of MEMPHIS – photo by Paul Kolnik

For lovers of music history, Memphis is loosely based on Memphis disc jockey Dewey Phillips, one of the first white DJs to play black music in the 1950s. In this production, he’s the fresh-faced “white boy” with a soul, Huey (Bryan Fenkart), who spends his nights hanging out in the black part of town.

Huey feels the soul of the singers in Delray’s nightclub and especially the club’s star performer Felicia (Felicia Boswell). He may not have a job or know how he’s going to do it, but he has a dream of bringing this music to the masses.

David Gallo’s (The Drowsy Chaperone, Reasons to Be Pretty) scenic design is beautifully done and never distracts from the power of the performances. The show features music by Bon Jovi’s founding member and keyboardist David Bryan, and lyrics by Bryan and Joe DiPietro. They did an absolutely amazing job on an incredibly diverse soundtrack that includes traditional gospel, ’50s-style black rock and roll in the form of Felicia’s “Someday,” and rousing, uplifting big Broadway cast numbers like the signature “Steal Your Rock ‘n’ Roll” and “Stand Up.”

Felicia Boswell as Felicia and the National Touring Cast of MEMPHIS – photo by Paul Kolnik

There is not one sour note in the entire production. Everyone has a moment to shine. This production also had one of the biggest surprise musical moments I’ve seen in months. It came from Julie Johnson who played Huey’s long “suffering” mother. She throws it down on a southern gospel, country rock song, “Change Don’t Come Easy.” It’s part comedy, part serious, and she manages to bring it all together.

As she says, “I heard them people pray and chant. Colored folks sing like white people can’t.” Johnson may have proved that statement wrong. Up until that point everyone in the show was hitting these amazing three- and five-minute vocal runs and I joked to my dad that I’m waiting for someone to do a 20-minute note. Johnson didn’t quite go there, but she did a five- or 10-minute run where she hit almost every high, medium, and low note imaginable. Everyone in my section was thinking, “Wow, where did this come from?”

There were a lot of real musical surprises in this show, powerful voices coming from the strangest places. Fenkart does an outstanding job on the soulful, plaintive cry of “Memphis Lives In Me.” While the show has its dramatic moments it never wallows in depression and the pacing of the story is perfect.

Memphis is based on a concept by the late George W. George, with direction by Tony® nominee Christopher Ashley (Xanadu) and choreography by Sergio Trujillo, whose work is currently represented by shows on Broadway including Memphis and Jersey Boys.

Memphis is one not to be missed. It is currently on a national tour and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC until July 1, 2012. Performances will take place Tuesday through Sunday evenings in the Opera House at 7:30 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 1:30 p.m. There will be an additional matinee performance on Wednesday, June 27 at 1:30 p.m.

For information on when Memphis is coming to your area, visit the musical’s website.

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/phillystage/137590426.html

By Howard Shapiro
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

The pumping musical Memphis celebrates an America whose definition of freedom is always evolving. The national tour, which pulled into the Academy of Music on Tuesday and is staying through Sunday, delivers the show about the ‘50s with the same high-energy and spirit as its Broadway rendition.

Memphis, which is loosely based on a true story about a young Memphian who integrated the music on the city’s radio stations, won the best-musical Tony in 2010, and its popularity across demographics has helped producers turn it into a new Broadway experience, across formats.

The musical still runs there nightly — soon to reach its 1,000th performance — and the national tour travels the country, but it also was digitally shot on several cameras, then screened at movie theaters last year in across the country, and a DVD of the full show hit the stores this month.

It’s easy to see why Memphis is the vehicle for that sort of multi-media trial. With electrifying music and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan, plus intricate, high-energy choreography by Sergio Trujillo (watch how he moves the dancers by their shoulders, hips and knees) and casts here and on Broadway that deliver the show as if it were a smoking plate of barbecued ribs from Beale Street, the show is a joy from beginning to end.

It tracks the trajectory of a white guy who connives his way onto Memphis radio as a disc jockey in the ‘50s. Then he introduces the city’s whites — who trivialized the sound blacks were making as “race music” and generally blocked it from their lives in the same way they segregated the black community — to the recordings blacks were making at the city’s walk-in-and-record studios. This is the music that became known as rhythm and blues and rock and roll, and it’s plentiful, and beautifully performed.

Memphis is a lot like Hairspray — it’s about tearing down racial walls. Set 10 years earlier than Hairspray, it has the same sweet sensibility about a serious issue. Its two national-tour leads, Bryan Fenkart as the brash, goofy DJ and Felicia Boswell as the black singer he falls for, are charming and big-voiced, and Quentin Earl Darrington and Will Mann run gracefully in other major roles.

And a special bow to Julie Johnson, the white mama of our hero and an unlikely character to belt “Change Don’t Come Easy,” an in-your-face anthem about the pain that accompanies a new order. The whole country, of course, was singing some form of that song through the ’50s and ’60s, which is why we look back and respond toMemphis with a big, knowing smile.

Contact staff writer Howard Shapiro at 215-854-5727, hshapiro@phillynews.com, or #philastage on Twitter. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/howardshapiro. Hear his reviews at the Classical Network, www.wwfm.org.
———————————–
Memphis: At the Academy of Music, Broad and Locust Streets,  through Sunday. Tickets:  $20-$100. Information: 215-893-1999 or www.kimmelcenter.org/broadway

http://canadianimmigrant.ca/entertainment/sergio-trujillo-the-pervasive-choreographer-of-memphis-the-musical/

By Celna Chacko-Saran

Born in Colombia and having spent his childhood there, Sergio Trujillo had an uphill climb when his family decided to move to Canada in 1976. This was just as he was about to hit his teens. English was a language he did not comprehend and the children at his new school were quick to point out his colored skin in their jokes. Trujillo, however, asserts, “Growing up in Canada has a lot to do with who I am today.”

And today, as an internationally recognized choreographer, Trujillo is nothing short of a celebrity. Raised in a Colombian family, dance has always been a part of the culture, especially social dancing. Little wonder that he decided to take up dancing as his profession after watching a live performance at Canada’s Wonderland, a popular amusement park in Vaughn, Ontario.

“I witnessed my parent’s integration into the Canadian culture as they worked hard to provide for a good life for their family. This encouraged me to work hard in pursuing a career in dance,” says Trujillo. Enrolled at a chiropractic school, he took a sabbatical to dance in his first show, Jerome Robbins Broadway.

Having danced professionally for over 10 years, Trujillo began making a shift towards choreography in 1999. He assisted choreographers like Jerry Mitchell, Rob Marshall, Debbie Allen and Vince Paterson before he became an independent choreographer. He credits Des Mc Anuff, director of Jersey Boys, and theatre artiste Chita Rivera as his mentors.

Trujillo’s work sprawls across North America, Europe and Asia. In early 2011, he had the honour of four of his shows simultaneously running on Broadway — the 2010 Tony Award for best musical winner Memphis, the 2006 Tony and Olivier awards for best musical winner Jersey Boys, The Addams Family, and Next to Normal, the recipient of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize.

New York-based Trujillo was in town recently to promote Memphis, which is performing at the Toronto Centre for the Arts till Christmas Eve. Set in the 1950s, Memphis revokes the cultural revolution as a young white DJ, Huey Calhoun falls in love with a black singer.

Trujillo feels that there is potential for more and more Canadians to make their mark in the field of dance and choreography. “Individuals from any cultural ethnicity with artistic aspirations just need to stay focused and persevere to achieve their dreams,” adds Trujillo as he signs off.

http://www.postcity.com/Eat-Shop-Do/Do/December-2011/Memphis/

Up at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, a very recent musical is playing. It’s also Tony award-winning, but don’t let that put you off. Written by the solid librettist Joe DiPietro, along with David Byran, the gifted composer and long-time keyboardist of rock group Bon Jovi, Memphis is a fine show that I wish could have stayed for months in Toronto, but it’s running until only Dec. 24.

The story is lightly based on a (white) disc jockey in the ’50s in the southern United States who did a daring thing at the time: he started to play “race music.” Of course, he also helped turn Elvis Presley into one of the most popular and beloved musical stars of the 20th century. (Presley’s real claim to fame was that he almost single-handedly made African-American music acceptable to the American white majority.)

Bryan’s music consists of pretty satisfactory imitations of mid-century rock ‘n’ roll. The white DJ Huey is played wonderfully by Bryan Fenkart, and Felicia, the black female singer who rides to the top and beyond (and is also the DJ’s love interest), is played by the striking Felicia Boswell, whose voice is booming and ethereal.

I was personally moved to tears a dozen times, since I was involved in Mississippi’s Freedom Summer of 1964 as a teacher, and experienced the glorious rhythm and blues of the local Baptist church — the likes of which gave birth to modern rock ‘n’ roll — every single Sunday.

Memphis is delightful entertainment. It’s hardly a great musical — you may not be able to hum a single tune from the show — but it has a rollicking sense of freedom, and it’s full of hope for America to grow into multi-racial greatness.

Memphis, Toronto Centre for the Arts. Runs until Dec. 24.

http://www.insidetoronto.com/opinion/columns/article/1263053–front-row-centre-rock-to-the-rhythm-of-memphis

MARK ANDREW LAWRENCE

December 14, 2011

Sensational dancing and an exuberant star performance by Bryan Fenkart drive the show Memphis, now on stage at the Toronto Centre for the Arts.

Fenkart plays a hapless disc jockey, Huey Calhoun, who introduces Memphis radio listeners to the sounds of rock ‘n’ roll and rhythm and blues during the ultra-conservative years of the mid-1950s.

Inspired by the career of Tennessee-born DJ Dewey Phillips, Memphis takes us to a time and place when radio was run by unadventurous owners who resisted any attempt to integrate what was then called “race” music into their playlists.

Huey is a renegade, a fast-talking high school dropout who manages to land his own show on a local radio station where he defies the owner by playing the music he has heard in one of the city’s underground clubs.

In particular, Huey showcases a singer he has discovered, Felicia. They quickly fall in love, but this is a time when interracial marriage is against the law and the pair runs into painfully violent opposition to their relationship.

Felicia’s first record is a soulful ballad called Someday and when Huey plays it, the response from his teenaged listeners is sensational. Soon an executive from RCA records comes to town to lure Felicia to New York with promises of fame and fortune. He even offers to bring Huey to the big city as well, as long as the couple keeps their relationship discreet.

David Bryan and Joe DiPietro supply some appropriately jivey music for this show, and while some of the songs attempt to mimic the sound of the era, much of the score offers more rhythm than blues. The songs provide plenty of atmosphere, but rarely develop the plot or characters. Huey is given two powerful anthems, The Music of my Soul and Memphis Lives in Me that underscore his passion for this music, but most of the rest is simply there to inspire the dancers.

The ensemble executes Sergio Trujillo’s high wattage choreography with both precision and wild abandon. The opening number, Underground, sets the bar very high, but subsequent numbers keep moving it higher.

The cast of this touring production is on a par with the excellent original Broadway company. Felicia Boswell brings beauty and poise to the role of Felicia, with Quentin Earl Darrington giving a strong performance as her overly protective brother, Delray. Rhett George is a clear audience favourite as Delray’s friend, Gator, who breaks his vow of silence to lead an impassioned prayer for peace and tolerance at the climax of Act One.

Christopher Ashley’s brisk direction keeps the focus on the story. The book deals with issues of integration, racism and intolerance that have been explored in other shows (notably Ragtime and Hairspray), but as developed in Memphis, these elements remain powerfully persuasive.

Dancap Productions presents Memphis at the Toronto Centre for the Arts until Dec. 24. For tickets, visitwww.dancaptickets.com/pages/memphis or call the box office at 416-644-3665.

Mark Andrew Lawrence reviews theatre productions for The North York Mirror.

http://torontosceneto.com/2011/12/08/1115/

Posted by torontosceneto in Theatre Reviews

On a cold windy winter’s night the 2010 Tony Award®-Winner For Best Musical and most awards in the 2009-2010 Broadway season MEMPHIS a Dancap Production Shimmied and Shook its way to its opening night last night. Raising the roof of the Toronto Centre for the Arts. MEMPHIS will play until December 24th.

This phenomenal musical comes to us from the underground dance clubs of 1950s Memphis, Tennessee. MEMPHIS has everything you could ever want in a musical, explosive dancing, irresistible songs, humor and a thrilling tale of fame and forbidden love. If there is only one show you can go to make it this one. It is an incredible show, a must see.

MEMPHIS directed by the Tony Award®-Nominee Christopher Ashley, tells the story of a young white radio DJ Huey Calhoun who wants to change the world, and a black club singer Felicia Farrell who is ready for her big break. This is a fabulous story of the rise in popularity of Rock and Roll and tender love story in a time when inter-race relationships were not tolerated in the Southern United States.

Bryan Fenkart is brilliant as, Huey Calhoun, who is mostly a product of the mind of Tony Award®-Winner Joe DiPietro. But the similarities to the legendary Memphis radio disc jockey Dewey Phillips (who was the 1st DJ to broadcast Elvis Presley) cannot be missed. Calhoun is a simple young southern white boy, an outsider, a hillbilly, who discovers himself when he takes over as a DJ on a local Memphis radio station and promotes what at that time was called “race music”, early Rock and Roll. Calhoun’s DJ style is as a speed-crazed hillbilly, with a frantic delivery, keen sense of humor and a great ear for the music that the young people of Memphis both black and white are craving to hear. His popularity grows and his #1 radio show takes on a new life as a TV show, “Huey Calhoun’s Cavalcade” where he continues to successfully promote Rock and Roll in Memphis.
Set in a backdrop of racism and bigotry Huey secretly falls in love with a colored girl Felicia Farrell beautifully played by Felicia Boswell, and when she leaves for New York and fame, he makes the more complicated decision to stay with his first love, the city of Memphis. Huey’s rise to fame is meteoric as is his fall.

There are so many memorable moments. The electricity between Bryan Fenkart and Felicia Boswell is visible for all to see. The fantastic dancing so expertly choreographed by the incomparable Sergio Trujillo. The fabulous songs of Bon Jovi founding member and Tony Award®-Winner David Bryan are wonderfully performed by the whole company. My personal favorites “Colored Woman” by Felicia Boswell as Felicia Farrell, “Big Love” by Will Mann as Bobby, “Change Don’t Come Easy” by Julie Johnston as Mama, Quentin Earl Darrington as Delray and Will Mann as Bobby and last but not least “Memphis Lives in Me” by Bryan Fenkart as Huey Calhoun.

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For a musical to resonate, the path to true love must be a difficult one — with no obstacles to overcome, there is no emotional investment by the audience. Memphis‘s central romance rivals West Side Story‘s lovers’ dilemma but adds a historical reality that gives it an extra kick. When Felicia Boswell reminds her interracial lover that it is illegal for them to wed, the audience gasps in recognition and shock. And the gay component winces with an extra bit of bitterness. From our supposedly cozily cosmopolitan perch in multi-racial Toronto, it seems inconceivable that as late as the 1960s interracial marriage was not only socially unacceptable but also against the law. Yet the Gulnare Freewill Baptist church in Kentucky just banned an interracial couple from services, and the battle for gay marriage is far from over in the grand old U S of A. It’s hard to be smug when confronted with how little things have changed, except on the surface, and Memphis is a potent reminder that doing the right thing and standing up for social change is often painful but absolutely necessary.

That makes Memphis sound like a political tract or activist theatre, which it is thank goodness, but it is also a rollicking good time. The stage explodes with inventive dance moves set to a non-stop beat and stellar vocal performances. From dramatic moment to showstopping song — there are at least six — Memphisdoesn’t stop for a second. Gospel-inflected R&B done Broadway style is always infectious, and the cast grabs on to the songs and milks them for all they’re worth. Even the cliché situations that can be seen coming — the mother, a spectacular Julie Johnson, overcomes her racism and suddenly sings roof-raising gospel — are excused by great voices and emotionally pitch-perfect performances.

Bryan Fenkart is a gangly, oddly sexy lead, and Felicia Boswell is sheer sexiness — they generate a smouldering heat that makes the audience believe and makes the tragedy of their ill-fated love heartbreaking. And what could be more charming than watching bobbysoxers transform into beboppers? The interracial finale is subtle but powerful and makes a happy ending out of a realistic and somewhat bitter dénouement. Memphisis irresistable, and the audience rose at the end in an ovation that was not Toronto politeness but actual enthusiasm. Chilly North York is pulsating with heat for as long as Memphis is in town.

Memphis runs till Sat, Dec 24 at the Toronto Centre for the Arts, 5040 Yonge St. dancaptickets.com