Photo Flash: SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE: The Songs Of Leiber And Stoller At The Ordway

The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts opens its season with the Ordway Original Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller, which begins performances on Sept. 10 and runs through Sept. 22.

Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs of Leiber and Stoller is a Grammy Award-winning and Tony Award-nominated smash that features 40 of the greatest songs of the past century, including classics like "On Broadway," "Stand by Me," "Jailhouse Rock," and "Love Potion No. 9."

Director and choreographer Joshua Bergasse leads the creative team for Smokey Joe's Cafe at the Ordway, the only place in America where audiences can see this production of the show.

Bergasse and the Tony award-winning set and lighting designers Beowulf Boritt and Jeff Croiter along with Music Supervisor, Orchestrator and Arranger Sonny Paladino are all recreating their work from last season's off-Broadway production in New York. Bergasse, Boritt and Paladino make their Ordway debut with Smokey Joe's Cafe.

Croiter designed the lighting for the touring production of Falsettos, which played the Ordway last season, and Boritt's work will be featured again at the Ordway in Mike Birbiglia's The New One, opening October 17, 2019.

Sanford Moore, a Twin Cities-based artist, is Music Director and best known as Director and Arranger for the vocal jazz ensemble Moore by Four.

Jeni O’Malley, Costume Designer makes her Ordway debut having designed costumes at the Guthrie, Theatre Mu and Mixed Blood Theaters in the Twin Cities.  Andy Horka, Sound Designer, designed the sound for the Ordway Original productions of Mamma Mia!, Annie, In The Heights, Jesus Christ Superstar, West Side Story, White Christmas and Damn Yankees.

This Ordway Original production, the opening show of the 2019-2020 Broadway Series, features Ordway favorites Ben Bakken, China Brickey, Reese Britts and Dwight Leslie, all seen in the Ordway's acclaimed production of Mamma Mia! and Rendell DeBose (who appeared at the Ordway in Elf The Musical).

Making their Ordway debut are Rajané Katurah, Andrea Mislan and Emily Scinto.

Rounding out the cast are Shavey Brown from the off-Broadway production of Smokey Joe's and Kevin Brown, Jr. and Jorie Kosel, who are making their Twin Cities professional stage debuts. (Casting by Sheena Janson Kelley in St. Paul and Jason Styres, CSA in New York).

Photo Credit: Dan Norman

Jorie Ann Kosel, Emily Scinto, China Brickey, Rajané Katurah
Rendell DeBose (top), Shavey Brown, Kevin Brown, Jr., Dwight Leslie
Rendell DeBose, China Brickey
Rendell DeBose (top), Shavey Brown, Kevin Brown, Jr., Dwight Leslie
Shavey Brown Photo credit: Dan Norman
Emily Scinto, Ben Bakken
Jorie Ann Kosel, China Brickey, Rajané Katurah, Emily Scinto