MNM Theatre Company's FIVE GUYS NAMED MOE Opens at The Kravis Center in September

MNM Theatre Company will present Five Guys Named Moe, playwright Clarke Peters exciting, exhilarating, and exuberantly loving tribute to Jazz legend Louis Jordan and his music from September 8th through September 24th in the Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts.

 

The September 8th opening date will also mark the official launch of MNM's updated website and the introduction of the company's brand-new logo.

Five Guys Named Moe is based on a 1943 musical short of the same name by Louis Jordan himself.  It had its UK debut in 1990 at Theatre Royal Stratford East, running for over four years in the West End, and then premiering on Broadway in 1992, where it was nominated for two Tony Awards.  It was revived in 2010 at the Edinburgh Festival, starring the show's playwright Clarke Peters and returned later in 2010 to the theatre in which it originally premiered. The musical won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.

Nomax has run out of money and his girlfriend has left him.  He needs comfort, support, and advice.  Emerging from his 1930s-style radio are Five Guys Named Moe:  Big Moe, Four-Eyed Moe, Eat Moe, No Moe, and Little Moe, who harmonize, croon, wail, tap, and joke... and provide Nomax with just what he needs, all in the form of Louis Jordan's hit songs and music.

The show's director, Jacquez Linder-Long is a former Moe himself.  “I'm very excited to be presenting this show from the 'other side of the table' this time around,” he says.   “It means a lot to me because Louis Jordan and the Tymphany 5's hits are what my grandmother Merdis Moore and I had echoing through my home as a child. It is a big part of where my style and love for storytelling comes from.”

Linder-Long is a Dreyfoos School of the Arts graduate, and a former student of MNM Theatre Company's Producing Artistic Director and CEO Marcie Gorman, so being able to direct the show for MNM is particularly significant. “To me MNM means “chance””, he says.  “I came to Marcie Gorman and her company with my vision and from day one we have been working to make that vision into reality - to present to audiences a show of African American Legacy and culture through timeless music, song, and dance.”

Linder-Long, who will not only direct, but will also choreograph the show, has cast James White III as No Max, Don Seward as No Moe, Doriyan Caty as Eat Moe, T.J. Pursley as Little Moe, Michael Wallace as Four-Eyed Moe, and Leo Jasper Davis as Big Moe. Desir Dumerjuste is the show's swing.



Five Guys Named Moe's Musical Director Bobby Peaco has assembled a top-notch band for the production, including Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino (saxophone), Julie Jacobs (drums), and Rupert Ziawinski (bass).

 
Jazz Madison will serve as Five Guys' Assistant Director, and Annaya Osborne is the Assistant Choreographer.  Harold Petion is the Production Stage Manager, and Belicia Linder-Long will create the costumes for the production. Lighting Design is by Karalyn Fitzgerald, Sound Design is by Justin Thompson, and the show's Set Designer is Jordon Armstrong.

As a bandleader in the 1940's Louis Jordan pioneered a wildly popular blend of jazz and blues. The swinging shuffle rhythms played by singer/saxophonist Jordan and his Tympany Five became known as “jump blues” or “jumpin' jive”, and served as a forerunner of rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll. At the height of his career he scored 18 number-one hit records - four of his songs are in the Grammy Hall of Fame, which honors recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. Jordan performed songs that appealed to millions of Black and White listeners. Able to “straddle the fence” between these two audiences, Jordan emerged as one of the first successful crossover artists of American popular music.

Clarke Peters (Playwright) is an actor, singer and writer. He earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a Musical for Five Guys Named Moe. As an actor, he has appeared on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh (Theatre World Award) and as Billy Flynn in the revival of Chicago. Clarke's London credits include Guys and Dolls, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Passion and Dispatches at the Royal National Theatre. His West End credits include Blues in the Night, Porgy and Bess, The Witches of Eastwick, and Chicago. In regional theater he has appeared in Driving Miss Daisy, The Wiz, Bubbling Brown Sugar, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Carmen Jones and The Amen Corner. Clarke is familiar to television viewers for his roles on The Wire, Treme and The Divide. His film credits include Mona Lisa, Notting Hill, Marley & Me, Endgame, John Wick, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Harriet, and Da 5 Bloods. As a director, his credits include Blues for Mr. Charlie, Fascinating Aida, King and Martin Luther.

Five Guys Named Moe will run from September 8 - 24 in the Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis Center for the Performing arts in West Palm Beach. 

Tickets for Five Guys Named Moe range in price from $45 to $55 and are on sale now at www.kravis.org.   Group rates are also available.

 

To post a comment, you must register and login.