Great Barrington Public Theater Will Host NIGHT AT THE SPEAKEASY

GB Public Theater will premiere Night at the Speakeasy, a new, realistic and immersive cabaret, featuring dynamic NY actor and singer Janelle Farias Sando with pianist Hudson Orfe, directed by Wendy Welch.

Janelle Farias Sando brings a powerhouse voice, captivating stage presence and personality as the chanteuse host in a jazz age speakeasy.

Staging will recreate glamour and vivacity of a Roaring Twenties club, with Farias Sando singing a mix of classic and new songs, rarely heard, jazzy discoveries, stylish treatment of American songbook favorites and surprising genre crossovers.

Great Barrington Public Theater's summer breaks into music, song and surprise July 26-August 11 with the premiere production of a unique, live cabaret that seats the audience onstage in the re-creation of a Roaring Twenties nightclub. Night at the Speakeasy features the wide-ranging voice and acting skills of Janelle Farias Sando carrying the audience back to the days of bootleg clubs, flappers, dance marathons, zoot suits and freedom through music, song and intemperance. Night at the Speakeasy is a collaboration of Farias Sando, her accompanist Hudson Orfe and director Wendy Welch.

Wendy Welch explains the collaboration. “The 1920's saw the beginning of Prohibition, when people were unable to purchase alcohol legally. It was the time of glitter, high- living, underground clubs, secret doors, whispered passwords, bootleg champagne and the temptations of unbridled fun. Rules were there to be broken, and club music was suggestive, provocative. The songs in this show are not strictly from that time, but carry that feel from different eras. We chose songs to create a night of fun, desire, playfulness, some naughtiness, romance, love and power struggles. The show celebrates freedom that defined the jazz age and that audiences still love a century later.”

 

GB Public Artistic Director Jim Frangione continues. “I saw Janelle in a Broadway cabaret a few years ago that Wendy directed. She has magnetic energy, spontaneity and a voice like a velvet hammer that brings songs and lyrics to life. I asked if they could create something new, unexpected, alluring, with a sense of wall-to-wall fun. They spent months exploring songs, stage possibilities and themes. When the idea of the Roaring Twenties came together on a zoom call, I knew we were off to the races, and the speakeasy.”

 

Audiences will be given a password for entry into an actual, realistic club experience. They become the night-lifers, the club goers in real time and ambience. There will be a bar on stage for the purchase of beer and wine, with Janelle as the club's resident chanteuse and Hudson Orfe as her piano man.

 

“We want to capture the air of risk, danger, fun, freedom and decadence of that time,” Welch says. “The songs in our speakeasy won't stick to rules, normal expectations or to a single form of music. The music will shift times around, be jazzy, clubby, risqué, showy, seductive, always fun and often very funny.””

 

Night at the Speakeasy (July 26-August 11) plays Thurs.-Sat. 7:30pm; Sat. & Sun. 3pm, in the McConnell mainstage theater, Daniel Arts Center, Bard College at Simon's Rock, 84 Alford Rd., Great Barrington, MA, 01230.Reservations can be made on the Great Barrington Public Theater website, or by emailing or calling the box office GBPTboxoffice@gmail.com, 413-372-1980. Press opening is Sunday July 28, 3pm matinee.

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