The Total Bent

 In their latest installment for the stage, Stew along with Heidi Rodewald will fill your soul with music.  This show is starting much like their last - at The Public Theatre.  You may remember their last show, Passing Strange.  In the lean years (after the financial troubles) it moved to Broadway for a decent but brief run. It was different.  Remarkably so.

In this latest show, The Total Bent, Stew seems to loosely tie his first show's characters lives in.  It's not a perfect match at all but there are similarities.  This show focuses on a preacher-entertainer and his young son-singer (and if i read it right, a radio and televangelist out to make a buck).  His son is gay and trying to make it by joining the black protest movement. Two very different viewpoints about how black people should live and be.  Most everything about these two is about opposites - music, lifestyle, political views, beliefs. Family struggles.  Religious struggles.  Race struggles.  You can see the powder-keg a mile away.

Much of this show is about the music and the band - it seems the plot is secondary - with Stew leaving much up to your imagination to connect dots that may or may not be there.  It seems that it is really about ideas and themes rather than linear story.  You simply get the highlights and it's up to you and your life experience to process.  This can be frustrating for those who crave linear storylines.  Just know that this is the case going in, enjoy the music, entertainment, and theme.

The concert-stage ready actors never fail to dazzle and blow the roof off the joint including the Marty ( the indomnible Ato Blankson-Wood) and Joe Roy (the powerhouse Vondie Curtis Hall) and the lone white-guy English music producer Byron Blackwell (the remarkable David Cale).

I don't think this one is destined for Broadway given the holes in the storyline.  But an enjoyable evening at the Public Theatre is nothing to rattle your tambourine at.

The City Club

The City Club has great potential.  Of the five major factors that go into that statement - it lacks in only one area - and that one area is one that can easily be fixed.   Music & Lyrics - bravo James Compton, Tony De Meur and Tim Brown and all the performance musicians.  Dance - high kicks all around.  Costumes, Lighting, Scenery - brilliant and appropriately colorful.   Direction, swift and crisp.  Now I'm not trying to be picky, but the book - well - that's another story.  Penned by Glenn M. Stewart, an international money manager and financial arbitrageur by day, inspired writer by night, well, it could use just a little work.

The story is one that mixes blues and jazz and film-noir.  It's a story of a nightclub in the '30s.  A romantic musician, the employees in his club and a few characters from the underbelly of the city (purposely unnamed).  At its core - i could see it working and working quite well.  But right now, it's a little confusing.  "The Committee" is often mentioned, but never explained.  "My Father" is mentioned but we don't know if he's alive or dead.  And even a few times, the multiple character coverage by one actor was a little confusing (e.g Didn't he just die?  Why does the reporter walk behind the bar and serve drinks? Is that guy the governor too?).  The good news in all of this is that I'm pretty sure a little script doctoring and treatment in the ER of musicals might turn this thing into a smash Broadway hit!

I mention the Broadway hit part also because I'm pretty sure the producers have their eyes focused uptown.  I mean when have you seen a show at the Minetta Lane Theatre with a web address of www.ThecityClubBroadway.com? That tells me they are thinking big.  And so they should.

I loved the omni-present piano player, Parker (Kenny Brawner) center stage.  The band on-stage is a no-brainer and a must.  Chaz Davenport (Andrew Pandaleon) had an all-star voice that blew the roof off the joint - but dancing needs to be a stronger suit for Chaz and if you were to have asked me to cast the show I might have picked a more Italian, suave and dark haired actor.  All the female leads and dancers were superb and made me laugh and clap and gasp in all the right places.  Jacobus Olsen (Patrick O'Neill) wins the award for the best dancer I've seen in any show all season!

Despite a the improvements that need to be made, I highly recommend the show.  It's a night of great music, dancing, and singing all wrapped up in a nightclub feel.  I have a strong feeling we'll see this one again sometime down the road.

Head on down to the cozy Minetta Lane Theatre for a rare treat that's likely to cost you a whole lot more in its next incarnation!