BWW Reviews: THE ALL NIGHT STRUT Resurrects the Sounds of the 30s and 40s

Composer George Gershwin had been dead for almost six decades by the time Connor Allston, Lottie Prenevost, J.T. Wood and Morgan Wood were born. Yet the combined power of the voices of that quartet brought back to life the music of Gershwin and his contemporaries in Otterbein University's production of THE ALL NIGHT STRUT.

THE ALL NIGHT STRUT, a loving tribute to the music of the 1930s and 40s, opened July 9 and will run through July 25 at the Cowan Hall.

Directed by Christina Kirk, the two-act, 29-song musical is like a time capsule of the music of the Depression Era, World War II and the post-war period. While most of the songs could fit in any era, a few are emotionally linked to that time frame.

Bass J.T. Wood reflected the desperation of the Depression Era with his somber reading of E.Y. Harburg and Jay Gorney's "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?" The song, written in 1932 for the Broadway musical AMERICANA, tells the story of one pursuant of the American Dream, who finds himself without a job and begging for money on the street. Because of the "anti-capitalist" nature of the song, it was nearly pulled from the musical and almost banned from the radio, but Bing Crosby's rendition reached number one on the charts.

In the latter half of the first act, the quartet breezed through eight songs from the World War II era, covering such classics as "G.I. Jive," "White Cliffs of Dover," "Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition" and "Coming In On A Wing And A Prayer" before closing out the first act with a collaborative effort on "I'll Being Seeing You." Technically "I'll Being Seeing You" was released in 1938, three years before the United States entered the war. However the song became a song of hope for those serving overseas during the height of the war.

The second act ran through another set list of benchmarks in the Great American songbook including "Ain't Misbehavin,'" "Tuxedo Junction," "As Time Goes By," and "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)," before closing the night with "Lullaby of Broadway."

Each one of the performers of THE ALL NIGHT STRUT got their turn in the spotlight. Allston lent his solid tenor voice to "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square." Prenevost, a soprano, took the lead on "In The Mood" and Morgan Wood, an alto, moved to the forefront for a raucous rendition of "Gimme A Pigfoot And A Bottle Of Beer."

However the show was at its best when all four harmonized together on pieces "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and "I Get Ideas." The four not only played well off each other and the band of keyboardist Dennis Davenport, bassists Chad Greenwald and Bradley Mellen and percussionist Tomaz Jarzecki, but, they could really interact with the audience because of the trust-stage alignment of the theatre.

While they may not have grown up listening to this music, Allston, Prenevost, J.T. Wood and Morgan Wood captured it perfectly and brought it back to life.

Remaining performances of THE ALL NIGHT STRUT will be held at 8 p.m. July 16-18 and 23-25 with 2 p.m. matinees on July 17 and 19 andat Fritsche Theatre (30 S. Grove Street in Westerville). Tickets are $30 each and can be reserved by calling the Otterbein University box office at (614) 823-1109 or purchased online at www.otterbein.edu/drama.

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