BWW Reviews: Stackner's LOW DOWN DIRTY BLUES Seductively Satisfies the Soul

Reaching from a music tradition founded near the turn of the 20th century, the All-American Blues "brings out the boogie" at Milwaukee Rep's Stackner Cabaret. Their lusty revue Low Down Dirty Blues features "Big Mama" Felicia Fields, Chic Street Man, Sugaray Rayford with the trio accompanied by jazz pianist Robert Stephens.

The four incredibly talented performers begin on one Saturday night singing at Big Mama's 'Windy City' Blues Club, and serenade the audience while they sashay and shimmy to sexual innuendos and bodacious melodies. Lush voices revel in the beginnings of blues, tunes originating from the Mississippi Delta and Texas, such as; "Crawlin' King Snake," a sexy guitar and vocal solo by Chic, "Rub My Back," Sugar's audacious song with double meaning and moves, and a rousing tune "Don't Jump on My Pony," where Big Mama rides the audience to frenzied heights of adulation.

The favorite Muddy Waters tune, "I Got My Mojo Workin;" works big and bold for a seductive Fields, a force on stage, especially paired with the powerful mojo of Sugaray, who sweetens the booty in every tune.. With the audience already riveted to the stage, where some members can barely keep from dancing in their seats, Fields strolls through the tables, asking her questions with brazen confidence. The audience follows her every move, even when she shamelessly flirts with the men watching from the front tables. Clearly, "women with a little meat on their bones," a phrase taken from Freddie King's "Big Leg Women," celebrates the sexual prowess of all women.

After the intermission, the singers slow the tempo to a Sunday morning, when those Blues night club performers used their voices in church choirs, integrating the gospel genre with their folk melodies. These particular musicians were somewhat satirical, lamenting that the "Blues ain't the blues anymore. "It's green-all about the money now," While the original blues singers certainly kept their day jobs, often serving and cleaning for the upper classes because of the era and their skin color, the blues have resurged to the forefront of 21st century music, strains heard through blue grass, rhythm and blues, pop culture, and country music in alternative ways that honor the tradition.

On the production's Sunday morning, Fields removes her shoes, and they alternate singing Etta James's "I'd Rather Go Blind," and a poignant rendition of Son House's "Death Letter," where Sugar croons, "It's been too hard living and I'm afraid to die." This serious side touches on the plight of these immensely gifted musicians and performers who struggled, and yet, preserved to create a beloved All American music form that continues to touch hearts today.

This seductive night at the Stackner will sweeten any spring evening for someone who can say to the person beside them as Howlin' Wolf did: "a spoonful of your special love is good enough for me." This amorous, show-stopping, toe-tapping cabaret delivers the goods, musically and sensually for a fabulous night out created and directed by Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman. To see the revue a second time around would be well worth applauding these magnetic performers, in a sizzling show that touches the senses...And concludes with B.B. King's, "Everyday I have the blues, where being born into those blues all our lives... Saturday nights gone to Sunday morning now."

Take one weeknight through May 24, or one Saturday and Sunday evening, and satisfy the human spirit with the Stackner's, good-time, glorious and gutsy Low Down Dirty Blues.

Milwaukee Rep presents the Low Down Dirty Blues in the Stackner Cabaret at the Patty and Jay Baker Theatre Complex through May 24. For information, season tickets to the 2015-2016 Stackner Cabaret series or this production, please call: 414.224.9490 or www.milwaukeerep.com..

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