BWW: MEMPHIS Filled with Rock and Soul at The Bushnell through January 15

Memphis
Book and Lyrics by Joe DiPietro
Music and Lyrics by David Bryan
Directed by Christopher Ashley
at The Bushnell Center for The Performing Arts in Hartford, CT through January 15
www.bushnell.org

Thanks to the arrival of Memphis, the 2010 Tony Award-winner for Best Musical, the Insurance Capital is being served a big dish of Rock ‘n Soul.  High-octane musical numbers and a dazzling cast make for a raucous and rocking night out.   Add equal parts West Side Story, Dreamgirls and Hairspray, you pretty much end up with Memphis.  Although not quite as accomplished or as musically memorable as those predecessors, it makes for a grand, energetic start to 2012.

The musical (unsurprisingly) takes place in Memphis, Tennessee.  Set in the 1950s, before the Civil Rights Era has kicked into high gear, there is an invisible, but clearly delineated line, separating blacks and whites.  The one thing that may begin to bridge the gap is the nascent collision of rhythm and blues and its white crossover equivalent, rock and roll.

Huey, a young, white idealist, stumbles across an underground juke joint, home to  the sizzling sounds (and looks) of Felicia.  Instantly smitten with the black singer, Huey swears he is going to make Felicia a star and bring her music to a wider, and whiter, audience.  In short order, he secures a radio show that has white teens jiving to “race music.”  Of course, Huey’s interest in Felicia is more than musical, and the societal tensions between their races plays out in private, on the airwaves and in the streets.  The show brings little to the table on matters of race and pop music that we have not already seen in Dreamgirls and Hairspray, but it does take on a grittier feel.

The superb leads, Bryan Fenkart and Felicia Boswell, are exceptional singers and actors.  Mr. Fenkart in particular eschews any trace of a traditional Broadway male lead and thoroughly embodies his Southern hick character.  As the play progresses, Huey’s megalomania and idealism threaten to capsize his dreams, and the actor does not shy away from this unpleasantness.  Ms. Boswell charts the journey of Felicia beautifully while raising the roof with a powerhouse voice.  The rest of the cast steamroll their way through a 2-and-a-half hour show that is filled to the gills with song and dance.

The music and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan (keyboardist for Bon Jovi) are propulsive, but tend to seem indistinguishable after a bit.  Most of the songs allow for vocal pyrotechnics; they start big and stay big.  It left me feeling a little bit flattened.  There are some standout numbers, in particular The Supremes-esque “Someday” and the rousing closer “Steal Your Rock ‘n’ Roll.”  Oddly, the best parts of the show, for me, were the smallest ones focusing on the relationship between Huey and Felicia.  I was hungering for a sweet, small duet for the two lovers as a respite after all that hollering.

In the end, quibbles aside, Memphis may not be one of the all-time great musicals, but it recalls one of the best musical eras in our nation’s history.  The fact that rock ‘n’ roll was born out of such racial turmoil says something.  The fact that in 2010 our first black President made his first Presidential visit to Broadway to see this show, says something, too.  You should hit the road to Memphis before Memphis hits the road.

Photo of Memphis touring cast by Paul Kolnik.

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