Day: January 25, 2023

Elijah Rock, Man in the Saloon, returns to North Coast Rep and is the “Ladies Man” for the production. Elijah is smooth, has a great voice, blends well with the three ladies on stage and he has wonderful facial expressions. He is featured in songs such as “I’m Just a Lucky So-And-So”, “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues”, “Dirty No-Gooder’s Blues” (sung with Anise), and “Baby Doll”.

TR Robertson – The latest play/musical in North Coast Rep’s 41st season is a nostalgic trip to 1930’s Chicago through a 26-song journey of some of the most iconic Blues’ songs ever performed. A talented cast of three women and one man along with an amazing five-piece Blues band on stage takes the audience through a two-hour wide range of Blues musical styles. A cramped, but intimate stage incorporates three-bedroom sets, a raised section for the band and an open area center stage that perfectly fits this production. The range of songs chosen for the musical uses’ songs from some of the greats of the Blues era. Songs from singers like Bessie Smith, Ida Cox, Alberta Hunter, Jimmie Cox, Ann Ronell, George W. Thomas, and many more fill the stage performed with wonderful interpretations by the cast who use solo numbers, duets, trios and quartets showing their range of talent on stage.

So, what is The Blues? The Blues is an old music form dating back to the 1860’s musically. Wikipedia says The Blues uses “spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants and rhymed ballads from the African American culture” in creating a style like no other music form. Traditional blues also uses single lines repeated four times in the song. The Blues reference goes back much further than the 1860’s. In Britain, to have the blues referred to “visual hallucinations from alcohol withdrawal”. In the early 1800’s Blue Laws were created allowing no alcohol to be sold or served on Sundays. In 1798 George Coleman wrote a one act farce called Blue Devils, a term used in describing melancholy and sadness. John Audubon wrote to his wife in 1827 saying how much he missed her and that he had the blues. In 1862, Charlotte Forten, an African American anti-slavery activist and poet, wrote in her diary how lonely she was and that she had the blues. The Blues is so much more than just a song. As you listen to the songs in Blues in the Night you can hear all these references – sadness, lost love, drinking, lost hope, and at times funny references to all of these and more, putting the feeling of the blues to music.

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Elijah Rock as the Man in the Saloon but also -that guy-, right? is sort of the wild card amongst all the estrogen and in addition to a great voice he does a mean tap solo that I wish was screened for everybody to see, just like they do in concerts so you do not miss the details.

North Coast Rep Opens Theatre Year with Blues in the Night. An “Oldie but a Goodie” that will Guarantee not only a Wonderful but also a Soul-Searching Night Out 

To welcome 2023, NCR Theatre in Solana Beach brought back the classic Blues in the Night conceived and originally directed by Sheldon Epps. A musical that debuted Off-Broadway in 1980 and two years later on Broadway. The original vocal arrangements and musical direction is by Chapman Roberts and Sy Johnson is responsible for orchestrations and additional vocal arrangements. 

The packed 26-song production spread out in two acts takes place during the late 30s in a rundown Chicago hotel where three women (played by Karole Forman, Anise Ritchie, and Ciarra Stroud) let the audience in on their failed love relationship -amongst other things- with the same man (Elijah Rock).

Even though the piece moves smoothly without dialogue and the songs tell the story, it is a complex production with several moving parts with a five-piece jazz band as backdrop composed by Kevin Tomey in piano and leading the group, Roy Jenkins in bass, Danny King in drums, Malcolm Jones in reeds, and Thomas Alforque with the trumpet. The band immediately introduces the mood while audiences walk in the theatre and see them onstage lighting up the place along with Marty Burnett’s set design with three different stations or rooms where each woman will share her triumphs and sorrows. The cool aspect I enjoyed was that the rooms are decorated with the personality of each woman which is confirmed as they sing their songs so, you start following both listening to the lyrics, and peacing the description with the design as well as with the props, designed by Chris Williams. Lighting is always key in production but here, more so because each song ends with a bang! and Matthew Novotny’s lighting design guides the song to the end when it pops, making audiences want more and know what is coming next. The women’s trio is a display of impressive, strong vocals with a tessitura mix that is just right. Karole Forman and Anise Ritchie each bring the seasoned flare with poise and style. Ciarra Stroud in her NCR debut is striking and delivers fierce interpretation, all three rocking Roxane Carrasco’s choreography that involves all types of “eights” from paced and marked to fast and extreme. Elijah Rock as the Man in the Saloon but also -that guy-, right? is sort of the wild card amongst all the estrogen and in addition to a great voice he does a mean tap solo that I wish was screened for everybody to see, just like they do in concerts so you do not miss the details. Regan A. McKay’s costume design is detailed, nostalgic and full of sass. I particularly loved a white tool dress with black and red stripes that Anise Ritchie changed to onstage and, in a different scene, a big white hat made from the same material, absolutely stunning. 

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And, finally, there’s The Man in the Saloon (Elijah Rock) who is a sharp dresser, a good dancer and knows how to sweet talk the ladies. Yes, he’s a rascal, but after hearing him sing “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues,” there are many who would let this man buy them a drink.

The Blues tells it like it is – love, loneliness, sex, betrayal but also humor and resilience.

In “Blues in the Night,” three women and a man repeatedly cross paths in a rundown Chicago hotel in 1938 with their interwoven stories told entirely through the songs of Bessie Smith, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington and Alberta Hunter, among others. This musical revue of early jazz and blues standards tugs at the heart and comforts the soul.

Taking us on this musical journal of solos and soaring harmonies are:

A Woman of the World (Karole Foreman) who conveys the high life she once enjoyed through a buoyant “Stompin’ at the Savoy.” Alas, madame’s attempts to keep up appearances are betrayed by gowns no longer in style and sparkling jewelry that is paste (“Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out”).

The Lady from the Road (Anise Ritchie) was once a headliner on the Chitlin’ Circuit. Now all that remains are memories evoked from the brittle pages of photo albums and a jumble of feather boas and costumes in a battered travel trunk. Ritchie delights with “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” and teases with the naughty “Take Me for a Buggy Ride” and “Kitchen Man.”

The Girl With a Date (Clarra Stroud) is a starry eyed young thing who we painfully watch surrender to bitterness as men disappoint her. On a cold night, standing alone under a glaring neon hotel sign, Stroud’s crystalline voice delivers fully on the haunting melancholy “Willow Weep for Me.” It’s a defining moment in the show.

And, finally, there’s The Man in the Saloon (Elijah Rock) who is a sharp dresser, a good dancer and knows how to sweet talk the ladies. Yes, he’s a rascal, but after hearing him sing “Wild Women Don’t Have the Blues,” there are many who would let this man buy them a drink.

Directed by Yvette Freeman Harley, the singers are accompanied on the North Coast Rep stage by a red-hot five-piece band under the musical direction of accomplished musician-conductor-composer Lanny Hartley. Choreography by Roxane Carrasco.

There are a lot of elements in the set design by Marty Burnett: A stage on top of the main stage to accommodate an upright piano, drum kit and myriad wind instruments; bar set up; hotel entrance; three suggested apartments with furnishings for the ladies and center stage a diamond-patterned floor for robust tap and swing dancing. The additional energy of the streets sounds of traffic, horns and pedestrian bustle are courtesy of sound designer Matt Fitzgerald.

All these elements assembled in place are truly a marvel to behold – when the stage is devoid of occupants. On opening night, however, the set threatened to overtake the cast when an amplifier issued a feedback echo during the first number, a singer stubbed a toe on one of the stair risers (thankfully they maintained their balance) and a couple of costume challenges occurred in the tight quarters. Through it all, the singers and musicians never missed a beat.

by Lynne Friedmann

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Elijah Rock, a fine singing actor, plays The Man in the Saloon (aka the bad man causing these women all that misery).

With a name like “Blues in the Night,” Sheldon Epps’ 1980 revue conjures up images of gin-soaked songs of misery poured in out in 4/4 time to a muted trombone.

And there is a fair amount of that in North Coast Repertory Theatre’s new production of the 1980 show, which opened Saturday. But there’s also unexpected humor, joy, tap and swing dancing and charismatic performances from the four-member cast, who are accompanied by an onstage five-piece blues band. Directed by Yvette Freeman Harley with music direction by her husband, accomplished musician Lanny Hartley, the show is a lively and entertaining two-hour ride through the history of the blues.

The four performers alternate singing 25 songs written from the 1920s through the mid-1950s. There’s no dialogue, but the performers each play a different style of blues performer and they sing several numbers together in trios and quartets. All four perform the show’s title song, better known as “My Mama Done Told Me.”

Anise Ritchie is the Lady from the Road, modeled after the famous black women blues singers of the 1920s and ‘30s, including songwriters Bessie Smith and Ida Cox and singer Alberta Hunter, who toured the vaudeville and chitlin’ circuits and specialized in bawdy and done-her-wrong songs. Ritchie has a powerful voice, a great sense of humor and stage presence. She shines most in the numbers “Dirty No-Gooder’s Blues” and “Wasted Life Blues.”

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