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Chasing Rhythm and Love
Based on legend Louis Prima’s life, musical follows the birth
of the lounge act in Las Vegas
* By Paige Parker
After the musical “Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara”
received rave reviews and numerous awards, including the Ovation
Award for Best Musical, both co-writers and co-stars Vanessa Claire
Smith and Jake Broder are enjoying another warmly received run at
the Geffen Playhouse, where the musical is playing until May 24.
However, it seems even the brains behind this award-winning
musical are clueless as to how the production garnered such success.
“I didn’t even think anyone knew who (Louis and Keely)
were, much less if they were going to enjoy the story or not. It’s
been an incredible and unbelievable success, and I’m not sure
exactly why,” said Smith, who plays Keely in the musical.
The story is about the birth of Las Vegas and the lounge act, and
is based on the true events surrounding the life of jazz musician
Louis Prima, played by Broder. Prima attempted to reinvent himself
by creating a star out of 16-year-old singer Keely. Broder and Smith
have been portraying the characters of Louis and Keely since the
musical’s debut in Hollywood in June of last year.
“We’ve always had this idea where we would send the
audience out into the night snapping their fingers and crying at
the same time. Because it’s a very upbeat tragedy,”
Broder said.
The inspiration behind the story stems from Smith’s upbringing
in Louisiana. She began to research Prima, who was born in 1910
and lived and performed in New Orleans during the jazz movement
in the 1920s. Smith, who was previously married to a fellow performer
and is now divorced, was particularly intrigued by the turbulent
relationship between Prima and his wife, Keely.
“I found myself more drawn to ... the idea of two performers
being married together and trying to make that work,” Smith
said. “And at some point, both have to choose between family
and career, and it’s hard to do.”
Although she was doubtful that she would find an actor dynamic enough
to play the vibrant Prima, during a performance of “Lord Buckley”
in a Los Angeles bar where Smith worked as a bartender, she saw
Broder perform as a 1950s figure who reminded her of Prima.
“When I saw Jake do the show, I was like, ‘Wow, I think
I found my guy,’” Smith said.
That night, she bought him a shot of 12-year-old whiskey and asked
if he would be interested in playing the role, although she had
not yet written the script. He told her when she had the script,
they could talk. After she presented a few drafts to Broder, he
agreed and began to assist Smith in the writing process.
The pair researched the couple in-depth, watching documentaries
and YouTube clips and reading biographies and online interviews.
Smith admits that there was pressure to do her character, who is
still alive, justice, estimating that about 70 to 80 percent of
the performance is true, based on actual quotes and stories from
their lives.
“We try to make both (portrayals) sympathetic, obviously,
but at the same time, we don’t want the truth to get in the
way of the story either,” Smith said. “One of my goals
was to bring their story back and their music back. And it seems
to be working. Thank God.”
From their first show in Hollywood 11 months ago, the performance
has received enthusiastic standing ovations and glowing reviews.
This could be due to the accuracy of the plot or the poignant message
Smith and Broder’s characters reveal.
“I think our thesis is: If at the end of your life you look
back, and you’ve chosen self-fulfillment over love, you will
be empty,” Smith said. “I think too many of us get so
enmeshed in our own stupid careers or in the little, tiny, stupid
details that we forget to just realize that we are living in our
life.”
The play has come a long way since opening night. With new characters
and a new director, Academy Award-winning director Taylor Hackford,
both Smith and Broder agree that the show’s dynamic has changed.
“The show is changing into a larger machine on every level.
The story is bigger. The production is bigger. Everything is just
different,” Broder said. “Eleven months ago, this show
didn’t even exist. So we’re just getting our feet wet.”
Pointing out the higher ticket prices and more theater-savvy viewers
attending the Geffen performances, Smith admits to the pressure
that comes with the new venue, but sees both positives and negatives
in this change.
“It’s great because we have a lot more support, so we’re
able to focus more on just being actors and writers, but it’s
also a lot more pressure on us. We have a lot more people depending
on us,” Smith said.
“The stakes are just a lot higher because we have sort of
the world looking at us, whereas before we could make mistakes and
that was OK.”
However, no matter the change in venue or audience size, audience
reaction has stayed the same: enthusiastic clapping and standing
ovations.
“It still blows my mind everyday,” Smith said. “People
still walking away from it genuinely affected, from what I understand.
And that’s what we’re going for.”
-- Paige Parker
© 2007 ASUCLA Student Media
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L.A. Times: Review - 'Louis & Keely' at the Geffen Playhouse
- March 23, 2009
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THE ARTICLE
He's an Italian American jack-in-the box with unerring
instincts for scat and swing. She's a pageboy bob with perfect pitch
and a cool-as-a-cucumber delivery. Together, their lounge act diverted
the casino herds in the 1950s, inspiring the Rat Pack and leading
the way to Sonny & Cher.
Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, last years musical sensation
performed and written by Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder, is
back in a revamped version of the show about the novelty jazz duo,
Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Newly arrived at the Geffen Playhouse's
Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater under the direction of filmmaker Taylor
Hackford, the production sounds better than ever in its new home,
which has been transformed into a quasi-nightclub space that will
have you happily mistaking Westwood Village for the Vegas strip.
I enjoyed the show when I saw it last summer at the Sacred Fools Theater
(it subsequently moved to the Matrix Theater in the fall). But it's
been a while since I found myself swaying from beginning to end in
my seat, unable to sit still as the terrific seven-piece band, front-loaded
with fabulous horns, kept the room aloft. And it's as a concert musical
that Louis & Keely thoroughly captivates the thrilling rise of
an act and the inevitable collapse of a marriage told through the
flowing feeling of seemingly improvisatory riffs...
The strength of Louis & Keely doesn't lie in its narrative (or potential
cinematic) breadth but rather in its performance intensity. The good
news is that, despite the groping around for new dramatic possibilities,
Hackford is loyal to the work's theatrical core...
Better still, Hackford gets more disciplined work out the leads, particularly
Broder, whose dervish energy and profuse sweat haven't abated, yet
who is less anarchic, more strategically deployed than before. It's
amazing, given the physical (and ethnic) differences, how well Broder
succeeds in conjuring Prima's frenetic style ' the melange of Italian
zaniness, New Orleans jazz, and big-band pizazz, wired by a desperate
insecurity that could only be appeased by regular applause and constant
women. (Erin Matthews quick-changes to give us a sense of the adoring
floozy hordes.)
Having recently discovered the assured wonder of Keely Smith's style,
I'm more taken by this tribute to her than worried that the actress
impersonating here isn't as singular a vocalist. Whenever a distinctive
musical artist is portrayed, there's going to be a gap in the talent
quotient. (If geniuses were so easily duplicated, they wouldn't deserve
being immortalized in this way.) And Smith (no relation to Keely)
has an appealingly tender stage presence, an attention-grabbing voice
and an ability to make lyrics pierce through their listener.
What's especially moving about the work is the way it shows how two
people can be so professionally right for each other and personally
so wrong (cue Keely's tear-jerking rendition of 'Autumn Leaves').
Louis was raised to be a stage animal. His mama taught him, 'Play
pretty for the people and you will have famiglia. Amore. Always.'
And he seems to have judged his value by headline billings and lucrative
contracts.
Keely needed a Svengali to tinker with and launch her talent. But
emotionally, she was relatively uncomplicated. She desired a normal
life with a husband and kids, albeit one in which she was performing
two shows a night to the cocktail crowds. She wanted love and found
fame; Louis wanted fame and found he was incapable of steady love.
But what a memorable musical blend they achieved, two disparate interpretive
approaches to song harmonizing into pure originality. Of course it
had to end some day. And after Keely's more traditional gifts snared
Sinatra's eye and ear, her growing stardom, which was both abetted
and resented by Louis, signaled that a romantic forever wasn't meant
to be.
The production containing this happy-sad tale is by and large vividly
pulled off. Joel Daavid's sets and projections are most effective
when they colorfully situate us in a club. Anne Militello's lighting
and Lindsay Jones' sound design intensify the performing atmosphere.
And Melissa Bruning's costumes help establish the right retro tone.
But it's the snazzy live music that lifts 'Louis & Keely' into a realm
of tingly exuberance.
-- Charles McNulty
' 2009 L.A. Times
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Seldom do the big fish in the L.A. theater world
acknowledge the presence of the little guppies. Here's a thrilling
exception to the rule ' the big-deal Geffen Playhouse is hosting a
new and substantially improved version of Louis & Keely Live at the
Sahara, one of the small theater scene's greatest hits of 2008.
The venue itself provides some of the improvements. The play's principal
settings are the mind of the dying singer and bandleader Louis Prima
in 1978 and, more literally, a Las Vegas lounge in the '50s. The production's
two previous, sub-100-seat homes, Sacred Fools Theater and the Matrix,
suggested Prima's interior monologue well enough. But they couldn't
pass as Vegas lounges nearly as credibly as the Geffen's smaller theater,
the Audrey Skirball Kenis.
It has been re-configured into a room vaguely resembling a nightclub,
with a capacity of 134 including additional seating in the area that's
often occupied by the lip of the stage. A few tables and drinks would
have made the illusion even more obvious ' but they also would have
cut back the space available for theatergoers, and it's useful for
this crowd to be somewhat bigger than, say, 99, in order to amplify
the jolts of musical electricity that surge through the audience.
It also helps that the arrangement of the new space creates prominent
aisles on two sides and across the center. Taylor Hackford, the movie
director who engineered this new version of the show, uses the aisles
extensively in ways that enhance intimacy, despite the larger size
of the audience.
The script of the Geffen version is about 40 percent changed. It covers
Prima's pre-Vegas years in New Orleans and on tour with much greater
detail and provides some photographic documentation in projections
on the backdrop, designed by Joel Daavid. These sections more explicitly
establish the black roots of Prima's sound, among other points.
But the biggest difference is that the new show increases the importance
of the ampersand in its title. The earlier script could have been
titled Louis With Keely, but here Keely Smith ' the younger singer
who's now discovered in Virginia Beach (her provenance was previously
murky) before becoming Prima's deadpan partner and more animated wife
' is more clearly an equal partner in the drama.
The real Keely Smith had disclosed details of an affair with Frank
Sinatra to Hackford, according to a Hackford interview in the L.A.
Times. For the show's latest edition, Smith no longer is left to exchange
flirtations with a relatively anonymous sax player (Colin Kupka) in
response to her husband's philandering. Instead, she now gets to play
around with Ol' Blue Eyes himself ' and not only in the bedroom. We
also see Sinatra flying Smith to Hollywood to personally supervise
the recording of her solo album that supposedly helped drive a wedge
into her relationship with Prima.
This clash of more equally powerful partners is the dramatic ingredient
that lifts this show above the star-obsessed scenarios of the recent
musicals focused only on one big-name singer (Ray Charles, Lena Horne,
Ella Fitzgerald).
The scorching performance of Jake Broder as Prima and the cooler but
equally vibrant performance of Vanessa Claire Smith as Keely are intact
from the previous version, as are many of the same band members who
not only heat up the house instrumentally but say a few lines (Broder
and Paul Litteral are the musical directors).
But additional actors now appear as well. Nick Cagle plays Prima's
brother and then Sinatra. Erin Matthews makes a smooth transition
from Smith's churchgoing mother into a stripper (but Prima's powerful
mother remains offstage). In a sizzling number choreographed by Vernel
Bagneris, Matthews and Crystal Keith serve as Prima's dancing partners
behind Smith's back, as the jilted wife sings 'What Is This Thing
Called Love?'
In other words, the new Louis & Keely is richer in its staging as
well as in its script. We can also guess that co-creators Broder and
Smith as well as the other artists are being compensated more appropriately
than they were in the 99-seat theaters. So far, at least, this is
a model of how a show can expand and thrive without leaving the L.A.
theatrical environment.
-- Don Shirley
' 2009 L.A. Times
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It's been a while since a piece of theater has made
me cry not from mere sadness or pity, but from witnessing the pain
caused by lost love and overwhelming hubris. But Louis and Keely
Live at the Sahara, which has just reopened at the Geffen Playhouse,
ends on such a devastating note. Indeed, the performances of writers
and stars Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith, who play singers Louis
Prima and Keely Smith -- aided by the show's new director, Taylor
Hackford -- connect so deeply that their despair almost physically
spills off into the audience.
In the 1940s, the big-voiced Prima had already become a has-been.
Though his swing anthem "Sing Sing Sing" had become a standard, his
New Orleans brand of music had gone south and American music had left
him behind. Hoping to revitalize his career, he brings on a Virginia
Beach native with a smoky voice, renames her Keely Smith, and hires
her for the band. The pair's banter and kinetic chemistry revives
the band's fame as they find a permanent home at the Sahara hotel
in then-booming Las Vegas.
But more importantly, Louis and Keely cannot resist each other's charms
and eventually marry. Sadly, the deadly sin of jealousy tears the
two apart as Louis finds his prot'g' surpassing him as a solo sensation
on the Capital Records label of pal Frank Sinatra (coolly played and
sung by Nick Cagle).
By refashioning the audience into characters in the play, we feel
even more attached to Louis and Keely's fates, anguishing along with
them. In addition, the audience's applause feeds the characters on
stage, and when Broder's Louis believes the proper respect hasn't
been given, he holds the stage hostage until he gets the adulation
he requires.
Meanwhile, because of the thrilling use of many of the duo's famous
numbers, such as "Just A Gigolo," "Angelina," and "Pack Your Clothes,"
the production becomes an evening of musical showstoppers. However,
the production cleverly uses the songs to comment on the couple's
love affair, from its burgeoning to its derailment.
As performers, Broder and Smith are extraordinary. He is a volcanic
eruption, while she is the smooth lava that flows over him. When they
ping-pong their song phrases at each other, it's foreplay for a passionate
love affair. The band, who all play roles, have a crisp sound that
help the songs become toe-tapping triumphs. Although most have more
presence in their sound than their line readings, each member's contribution
to the magic that is Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara cannot be
ignored.
-- Jonas Schwartz
' 2009 Theatermania.com
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The award-winning tuner "Louis & Keely Live at the
Sahara," created by thesps Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder, has
risen from its humble roots when it premiered last June at the tiny
Sacred Fools in Hollywood, transferring to the larger Matrix Theater
in October for a sold-out 15-week run. Now helmed by Oscar-nominated
film director Taylor Hackford ("Ray"), the star-crossed love/musical
affair between swing era bandleader Louis Prima (Broder) and teenage
thrush-turned-superstar Keely Smith (Smith) has been expanded for
its outing at the Geffen Playhouse...
Added plot points and additional characters amplify the history of
this duo... the true strength of this show [is] Broder's and Smith's
soaring reenactment of Louis Prima and Keely Smith performing live
at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas with tenor sax master Sam Butera
(Colin Kupka) and Louis' band, the Witnesses.
Broder and Smith have elevated their portrayals, offering a near transcendent
musical and comedic re-creation of the legendary Louis & Keely lounge
act that ruled the Vegas musical scene during the 1950s. They make
viable Louis' onstage proposal of marriage, Keely's mid-song pregnancy
announcement and their tempestuous battles over Louis' philandering,
all the while joyously ripping through such well-known Louis & Keely
fare as "Embraceable You," "Pennies From Heaven," "Them There Eyes,"
"That Old Black Magic," "I'm in the Mood for Love," "Just a Gigolo"
and more.
In solo turns, Broder effortlessly channels Prima's over-the-top vocals
and physical mannerisms ("Angelina," "Zuma Baca La," "Basin Street
Blues") while Smith continues to grow into Keely's dramatic musical
persona ("Autumn Leaves," "Don't Worry 'Bout Me").
...this production contains some added Louis & Keely gems ("I Wish
You Love," "Hey Boy, Hey Girl," "What Is This Thing Called Love,"
"I Can't Believe That You're In Love With Me")...
A hard-working Erin Matthews is a show unto herself as she rapidly
morphs into myriad females that affect the relationship of Louis and
Keely. One hilarious transition has Matthews slowly discarding her
clothes as she segues from Keely's severely attired, hyper-religious
mother to a scantily clad New Orleans stripper, all to Kupka's wailing
tenor sax rendering of Jimmy Forrest's jazz classic "Night Train."
Special kudos must go to the ultra-swinging onstage band, including
Richard Levinson (piano), Nate Light (bass), Paul Litteral (trumpet)
Dan Sawyer (reeds), Michael L. Solomon (drums) and Brian Wallis (trombone).
First-time legit helmer Hackford is striving to attain the same balance
of music and biography that proved so successful in Broadway's "Jersey
Boys" and his own feature, "Ray."
-- Julio Martinez
' 2009 Variety
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Los Angeles, California - I had missed the award-winning
musical last year when it appeared first at the Sacred Fool and then
at the Matrix. I particularly wanted to hear Jake Broder as Louis
Prima and, reading the reviews, anticipated the emotional dramatics
and the musical interaction of the two who not only created the show
but performed it: Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith.
I saw it on the last night of the previews and, unfortunately, Jake's
voice went out. The understudy went on'and that was okay. I had a
chance to see how an understudy steps in and carries the show, perhaps
not the same interpretation but still a strong performance.
Film director Taylor Hackford had been a longtime fan of Louis Prima's.
He'd heard of the show and was so interested in the subject that he
stepped in, brought it to the Geffen, did some reshaping and added
many songs. Hackford said that Jake Broder's performance was much
darker'but Michael Lanahan stepped into the role on that night, voice
not quite the same energy as Louis Prima but strong on its own. Voice,
energy, unique body movement'he played a great show.
So bravo to Michael Lanahan, who stepped into Jake Broder's part and
made it his own for that evening.
The Geffen's Audrey Skirball is small and intimate. You get two for
one ' a piece of musical history and a return to a great musical act
of the '50s.
The dramatic center of the musical began with a hospital bed in front
of a nightclub setting. Louis Prima has been two years in a semi-coma,
but the 'old black magic' of the music starts, he snaps his fingers,
rises from the bed and begins to tell his story. If the dramatics
of this performance were a shade off ' just a shade'not critical '
the evening was a musical high, lifted you out of your seat, and I'm
looking for a second view. I think audiences will do the same.
Prima has been a headliner since the '30s, but it's now the the '50s
and he needs something new. A teenager asks for an audition ' a shy
little kid with a promising voice. Prima sees her potential, begins
to shape her and mold her'but it's clear from the beginning ' it's
to augment him, not to enlarge her.
Prima and Keely Smith's stormy domestic drama is reminiscent of A
Star is Born. Prima, top of his field but on the downturn, finds a
young performer with promise. He creates her, weds her, she grows,
she outstrips him. His ego is wounded, he is a womanizer. She rises,
he falls.
Keely's affair with Frank Sinatra, although historically interesting,
was less effective. Sinatra's voice and style are so familiar, and
although Nick Cagle played it well'who can be Sinatra?
Sadly, Prima loses the love of Keely through his self-centered, ego-driven
life. Her career goes up, his takes a dive.
The heart of the show, well-directed and well-paced, thanks to Taylor
Hackford, is the bounce, the energy, the familiar standards, the quality
of both voices, and the audience is soon on its feet and clapping.
Lanahan captured his audience with Louis Prima's signature songs 'Just
a Gigolo' and the lively 'Angelina.' Keely's songs, in Vanessa Claire
Smith's velvety voice: 'Embracable You,' the hearthrobby 'Don't Worry
'Bout Me,' and the sadness of 'Autumn Leaves.'
This is a very likable show. Bravo to Michael Lanahan. The understudy
stood up and delivered.
-- Clare Elfman
' 2009 Buzzine.com
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'Louis' tops L.A. Drama Crix awards
Bio musical nabs four nods at annual event
by Julio Martinez
The Sacred Fools Theater Company staging of the bio tuner "Louis and
Keely Live at the Sahara" led the kudos at the 40th annual Los Angeles
Drama Critics Circle (LADCC) Awards, garnering four nods, including
outstanding production.
Ceremony, hosted by Vicki Lewis, was held Monday at North Hollywood's
El Portal Theater.
Read the full article!
From BACKSTAGE:
'Louis & Keely' Leads L.A. Drama Critics Circle's Awards
by Les Spindle
Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, which returns in a retooled
version this week at the Geffen Playhouse's Audrey Skirball Kenis
Theatre, continued its stellar showing in the L.A. theatre awards
arena. The hit bio-musical by writer-performers Jake Broder and Vanessa
Claire Smith earned four wins at the 40th anniversary Los Angeles
Drama Critics Circle Awards, held March 16 at the El Portal Theatre
in North Hollywood. This production, which previously earned a best
musical Ovation Award and six Back Stage Garland Awards, received
the most honors.
Read the full article!
Not only is the filmmaker tackling his first
stage project, he's bankrolling the Louis Prima/Keely Smith musical.
Louis Prima and Keely Smith are struggling to save a marriage. If
their relationship goes down in flames, so too might their lucrative
lounge act. They have joined forces to become a Las Vegas sensation,
but the emotions they tunefully profess in front of the microphone
-- infatuation, desire, fidelity -- are the very things that, away
from the audience, are tearing them apart.
"That was really good," director Taylor Hackford tells Vanessa Claire
Smith, who's playing Smith, after she and Jake Broder, co-starring
as Prima, rehearse an emotional scene of marital discord. "But you
can be a little testy there."
The 64-year-old filmmaker then turns his attention to Broder, coaching
him on how to shade his dialogue with some barely concealed contempt.
"It's said with a smile," Hackford tells Broder of a particular line,
"but it's meant to be daggers."
It's precisely the kind of intimate, soul-baring backstage banter
Hackford has gravitated toward in the music movies he has directed
and produced -- "Ray," "The Idolmaker" and "La Bamba." But the scene
between Prima and Smith was not unfolding in front of Hackford's cameras,
and there wasn't a cinematographer or a key grip in sight.
For the first time in his career, Taylor is directing a stage play,
and he's taking the leap from film to theater with no safety net:
He's personally bankrolling the Geffen Playhouse production, opening
Thursday.
"I feel very much at risk," Hackford says between run-throughs, as
he tries to pare the show's running time to about an hour and a half.
"We have to prime the pump and get people there at the beginning,
because if not, we'll be closed in five weeks. We are totally dependent
on ticket sales."
Hey boy, hey girl
At its most basic level, 'Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara' is the
story of how one random encounter can change a life.
Prima, a New Orleans jazz, swing and big band marvel, was watching
helplessly as his music was about to be eclipsed by rock 'n' roll.
Then Smith, a 16-year-old singer, met Prima, 21 years her senior.
The sum of their singing and comic parts -- a Sonny & Cher act years
before Sonny met Cher -- was far greater than any change in the country's
musical tastes could derail, and their high-energy act became an influential
Las Vegas sensation throughout the 1950s.
The musical's origin follows a similar chance meeting trajectory.
Vanessa Smith (who is not related to Keely) struggled making it as
a Los Angeles actress; her marriage had ended in divorce, and she
had given notice for her bartending job. She was pouring some last-week
drinks at Hollywood's M Bar and Restaurant in late 2007, days before
she planned to throw in the towel and return home to Monroe, La. But
that night, Broder was rehearsing at the bar's performance space,
playing the cult 1950s hipster comedian/singer in "Lord Buckley in
Los Angeles."
Smith liked what she saw and heard, and bought Broder a single-malt
Scotch after the show. She asked him if he might be interested in
being in a play about Prima and Smith. Broder said yes.
"Show me a script," he said.
"There is no script," Smith replied.
"Well, go write one," Broder answered.
Before long, she and Broder started assembling the piece together,
weaving live song performances ("That Old Black Magic," "Just a Gigolo,"
"I've Got You Under My Skin" and many more) with scenes of Smith and
Prima's meeting, falling in love, and separating. "Louis & Keely:
Live at the Sahara" gradually took shape.
"What we had was a very classical piece -- a tragedy -- that had in
its roots plays like 'Amadeus' and 'Pygmalion,' " Broder says. "It
was a version of 'A Star Is Born.'"
Says Smith: "All she ever wanted to do was please him and make him
happy. She ended up being an amazing vocalist, but he helped her find
that in herself. And he created his own destruction in making her
more appealing."
A few years before the encounter at the M Bar, Hackford, having recently
finished the Oscar-winning Ray Charles biography "Ray," was trolling
around for new movie ideas.
"My mother was a big Keely Smith fan," Hackford says of the singer,
who turned 77 last week and still does an annual Valentine Day's show
in Palm Desert. "I would listen to her incredible phrasing as a kid
wandering around the house."
Just like the performers and writers Smith and Broder, Hackford was
intrigued about what happened to Smith when she met Prima, and how
their personal and professional lives were transformed when they joined
together not only as an act but also as husband and wife.
"The interesting thing about Louis Prima," Hackford says of the showman,
who died in 1978 at age 67, "is that he reinvented himself with Keely."
Yet as their Las Vegas lounge act exploded in popularity, their marriage
was tested by the fame and fortune it engendered. Hackford saw the
same dramatic arc as Smith and Broder: "A Star Is Born." He met with
Keely Smith to discuss a movie, but nothing immediate became of it.
Not long thereafter, Hackford's talent agent came across a review
of Vanessa Smith and Broder's show, which was playing at Los Angeles'
tiny Sacred Fools Theatre. "There was no air conditioning, and it
was unbelievably hot," he says. "Everybody was sitting in pools of
their own sweat. But Jake and Vanessa just killed it. It was great."
Hackford wasn't the only person bowled over by the show, which subsequently
transferred to Hollywood's Matrix Theatre and won the 2008 Ovation
Award for best musical in an intimate theater.
"There were a lot of offers from a lot of people," Broder says. "There
were some New York offers, there were some Las Vegas offers, and some
regional offers. But we turned everything down. Because there is something
here that is worth working on -- and developing something is better
than exploiting something."
Hackford had been working to adapt the 1992 movie "Leap of Faith"
into a Broadway musical with composer Alan Menken ("Beauty and the
Beast") and lyricist Glenn Slater ("Sister Act: The Musical"), but
the show's opening was delayed, and Hackford couldn't wait.
But the "Leap of Faith" workshop experience had whetted his appetite
for stage work, and he saw in Smith and Broder's show "the potential
of something that could work even better," the director says. "The
emotions, the music and their feelings were right. But the facts weren't
always right. You had the form, but you wanted to accentuate the emotional
pain of their parting."
Having met with Keely Smith (Smith and Broder hadn't, and did most
of their research at the library), Hackford also knew something that
could give "Louis & Keely" a little more juice: a tantalizing, long-rumored
romance.
"Keely told me things that she hadn't told anyone," Hackford says.
Part of what she shared were details of the affair she had with a
singer even better known than Prima.
That was Frank Sinatra.
Expanded cast
"We have to create a feeling that we're in the past now," Hackford
says to his cast and crew, which in addition to Smith (who looks a
lot like her character) and Broder (who doesn't) now features two
more actors than the original production: Nick Cagle (playing Sinatra)
and Erin Matthews (Smith's mother and several of Prima's paramours).
"I don't know how we do that," Hackford says as he continues giving
notes, wandering around the 130-seat Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater,
the Geffen's smaller space for newer and experimental work. "There's
a little bubble here -- a flashback -- but how do we do that? If we
can't make it work, we'll think of something else."
It's a telling moment -- Hackford, the movie director, trying to figure
out how to replicate a cinematic effect without cinematic effects.
His demeanor offers an unusual comparison too. On movie sets, Hackford's
directing style is famously demanding -- "I'm fairly forceful," he
says -- but in the theater, he's collegial, collaborative.
"Theater is a different world," says Hackford, who recently completed
filming the independently financed "Love Ranch," which stars his wife,
Helen Mirren. "And I am working with the authors."
During that recent rehearsal, Hackford was trying to polish the play's
most personal moments. "This is the first time that I can actually
say the offstage drama is starting to cook," Hackford told his creative
team, which includes his "Ray" choreographer, Vernel Bagneris. "Now
you have to fit it into the music."
To keep the show's running time close to 90 minutes -- "I really believe
you should be able to see a play and have time to go out to dinner
afterward," Hackford says -- he has cut out several songs, including
"Tenderly" and "I've Got You Under My Skin." "We don't want any holes.
We want to keep it going. That's music to my ears."
In addition to gassing the play's pacing, Hackford is also trying
to guide the audience as much as possible. Because he can't rely on
his usual quiver of camera moves and montages and cuts, Hackford repeatedly
tells his actors how to draw attention to themselves or certain parts
of the stage. "He will say to us, 'I can't see you in this shot,'
" Smith says.
"When you do the kiss, people over here will just see your back,"
he tells Smith and Broder from a corner of the theater. "So try to
do it 50/50." Asked by the actors what that means, Hackford explains
that it's a filmmaking term describing a shot in profile.
Moving from a film set into a theater, says Geffen producing director
Gilbert Cates, is less tricky than the reverse. "I'm not saying one
job is harder than the other. I'm saying that the learning curve is
different," says Cates, who has directed movies, television and the
Geffen's productions of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and "A Picasso."
"Filmmakers are all comfortable with the responsibility," Cates says,
"and they know actors, they know script, they know how to tell a story.
But unlike film, you can't cut to a close-up. You have to make a point
of where the audience should look. But Taylor is very smart, and he
asks people, 'What do you think of this? What do you think of that?'
"
When the Geffen, which is struggling to raise money and sell tickets
to its mainstage shows, was unable to fund "Louis & Keely," Hackford
went out and raised the financing of more than $100,000 himself, pooling
his own money with funds from investors.
"Look at Broadway -- they had all these shows close -- there's not
a lot of expendable money out there," Hackford says. "I want to do
the show. I am obsessed with it. But it's part of the theater thing:
Everybody takes a gamble, and we'll see if it pays off."
-- John Horn
' 2009 L.A. Times
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Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith's heralded bio-musical, Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, gets a retooling from Taylor Hackford.
When 39-year-old Louis Prima met 16-year-old Keely Smith in 1949 in a Las Vegas nightclub, it led to a passionate but ill-fated marriage and a long-lasting singing partnership. Their work influenced the evolution of pop musical styles -- jazz, swing, big band -- of the 1950s and beyond. Some say their collaboration marked the birth of the lounge-act craze.
Flash forward to 2006 and another nightspot where another prodigious partnership emerged from a chance meeting. Actor-writer Vanessa Claire Smith, a member of L.A.'s Sacred Fools Theater Company, was preparing to move back to her home state of Louisiana following career disappointments. Shortly before her departure, she was waitressing at M Bar in Hollywood when actor Jake Broder performed his solo show Lord Buckley in Los Angeles. Smith had all but given up on her dream of playing Keely Smith in her long-planned bio-musical about the duo, but that night she realized she'd found the perfect Louis Prima.
In May 2008 -- after two years of false starts, much determination, and unflinching support from the Sacred Fools membership -- Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara debuted at the company's 99-Seat Hollywood venue, with Broder and Smith the writers and stars. It earned rapturous reviews and quickly sold out, becoming the biggest hit in Sacred Fools' history. The little-show-that-could ran all summer, reopened last October at West Hollywood's Matrix Theatre, and enjoyed an SRO run through January.
It has earned an Ovation Award for best musical, five L.A. Weekly Award nominations and four from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle, and most recently six Back Stage Garland Awards -- including for production, playwriting, and Broder's and Smith's performances. Now an extensively retooled version is set to bow March 19 at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood -- helmed by film producer-director Taylor Hackford (An Officer and a Gentleman, Ray), who is working closely with Smith and Broder to polish the show for its next step up the industry ladder.
"I originally saw Louis & Keely at Sacred Fools," says Hackford. "It was an incredible experience because the air conditioner had broken down and it was in the heat of summer, at 95 degrees. The actors were dripping. To see it under such uncomfortable conditions and yet still be knocked out by it was a wonderful credit to the performer-writers."
The Academy Award winner has an affinity for musical biographies. Beyond the 2004 Ray Charles biopic that earned him Oscar nominations for best picture and director and a statuette for Ray's lead, Jamie Foxx, Hackford produced the Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba and directed The Idolmaker, based on the life of promoter Bob Marcucci, who discovered Frankie Avalon and Fabian. "I grew up singing and playing the piano," Hackford says. "I was in innumerable singing groups and played in a rock 'n' roll band in Santa Barbara, where I grew up. I also did theatre in school, in shows such as Guys and Dolls. I have always been fascinated by the process of music -- not just musicians but songwriters too -- and how people conceive that magic. Musicians communicate in notes, not in words. They concoct this musical brew that somehow taps right into our souls, gets our toes tapping."
That Old Black Magic
Watching Louis & Keely, Hackford recalls, he felt that Broder and Smith were extremely talented and afterward called to congratulate them, but he also suggested improvements to the show, based partially on firsthand knowledge. "Three years ago I met with Keely, as I was thinking of doing a film with her," he says. "I've been a big fan of Louis and Keely forever. I loved talking to her. She was unbelievably candid with me, completely forthright. So when I saw the way Jake and Vanessa had dealt with the dramaturgy, I felt there were some things that didn't fit. Plus I knew a lot of things nobody else knew, because of my relationship with Keely. I told them the show could go a lot farther than it did. The true story has a perfect beginning and ending that encapsulates this career, kind of a star-is-born story. I told them I would tell them what my ideas were and they could decide whether they wanted to invite me on board. Luckily they did. We began working on it last fall, while they were at the Matrix. This was tough because we were rewriting the show during the same time they were doing the old version every night."
The collaborators are reluctant to spoil the surprises in the new version, but they say the changes are substantial. With Hackford serving unofficially as dramaturge, about 40 percent of the book has been rewritten. Songs have been added and others dropped. The score incorporates many of the duo's biggest hits, including "I Wish You Love," "Night Train," and "I Can't Believe That You're in Love With Me." Two actors have been added (Nick Cagle as Frank Sinatra and other characters, and Erin Matthews in multiple roles), but there are still seven onstage musicians, who also have lines of dialogue. Says Broder, "For those who have seen this before, there will be a new layer of things going on. There will be new things to tickle you and new things to be upset about."
The show has elements of a rousing cabaret entertainment, though it's enriched with hard-hitting drama. So is it a musical? Broder and Smith have debated the issue. "That question," says Broder, "underlines a belief on our part that this is a beautiful love story, a biography, and that what we're doing is all about stretching the form -- what's possible to do and how big a story can you tell with a few people." Adds Smith, "And in just 90 minutes." The two concur that music is an integral and indispensable part of telling the story, whatever genre you might assign it to.
The performers chose to avoid mimicry, opting instead to capture the psychological and temperamental essence of their characters. "I could never do an impersonation of Keely," says Smith, "because you just can't beat what she did. There are suggestions of physical things she would do." Broder adds, "Every time you create characters, whether imaginary or historical, you're not so much imitating physical attributes as going back to what made them the way they were. You ask yourself, 'If I had the same sort of preconditions and needs and wants as they did, how would that manifest truthfully in me?' Trying to split a fine line, you want to have enough physical fidelity so people don't walk out saying, 'That's wrong,' but at the end of the day, what carries, and what most people are coming to the theatre for, is to experience these people, the deep truth of them -- emotionally, spiritually, musically. When there's a choice between fidelity and truth, we go for truth."
Broder has earned widespread critical praise -- and award nominations -- for his boundlessly energetic portrayal, which captures the manic performing style that Prima was known for as well as the dark and tender sides of his personality. The actor says the role shares similarities with one he has played previously: the hyperkinetic Mozart, in a Broadway revival of Amadeus. Smith has also received good notices. With a cropped '50s wig and a sultry singing style, she creates an easygoing stage presence -- in contrast to her character's offstage hostility and the pain of a souring relationship with a domineering and philandering spouse. Prima died in 1978 from a brain tumor; Keely Smith still performs occasionally. Theirs is the quintessential story of a couple deeply in love who raise children and yearn for domestic bliss but who ultimately can't make their union work. Louis & Keely charts the blossoming of a legendary partnership and its step-by-step disintegration, juxtaposing galvanizing musical sequences and heart-wrenching peeks behind the scenes. "We've selected songs whose lyrics really express the emotions and sometimes the dramaturgy of where we are during particular moments," says Hackford. "It's really fantastic -- to hear a familiar song, but now told with a different meaning."
Cheek to Cheek... to Cheek
Smith became fascinated with the singers while researching a screenplay, developed the Louis & Keely concept for several years, then worked closely with Broder to finish the script. What happens when a third artist enters the equation? "It's been a great collaboration," says Hackford. "Jake and Vanessa are very smart. When you get people who are talented and smart, they're not uptight or limited. If you express something that has validity, they see it. It's difficult to have created something that has worked and then have someone ask you to change it. You can dig in your heels and say no, but they've been unbelievably receptive. They're interested in growth. I offered not to destroy what they had created; that wasn't my intention. I wanted to build on and develop the foundation they had created. Anybody who saw the show before and loved it needs to see it [again], because this is the next step in its evolution."
Broder believes that the success of this endeavor has less to do with artists sharing a vision than with their being committed to honoring the story and being true to the intrinsic drama of what happened to these people. "We had fleshed things out in the writing so much that the energy and the nuance we thought we'd bring to the story deepened, and the script almost became an insufficient reflection of what the story was," he says. "With Taylor's help, we started to square off the edges of it. It was a delightful process. It was like the characters were bigger than the script and the script changed. We kept a lot of stuff and added a lot of new stuff. I don't think any creative process suffers from a re-examination of the basics of where one is coming from."
Smith adds, "Yet we also had to make sure we held on to whatever it was that people have been so drawn to."
"Yes," responds Broder, "but we also had to be brave enough to let the whole damn thing go, and kill babies -- murder litters of them -- and trust that our underlying principles of this story are true and that as we iterate and invent this on a deeper level, that will carry us."
Of the show's future, Hackford says, "I don't have any plans past this point, but I would like this run to be extended and play as long as possible. When people come, they're going to see a very polished show'. I'm not looking at this as a way station toward something else. I want this to be an opportunity to perfect what we have. If it turns out to have another life beyond this, fantastic."
Smith reports that several interested parties are "circling this show." Yet she and Broder emphasize that their focus is on doing the very best work they can. "We're aware we might be creating our legacy right now," she says, "so we're working very, very hard. It's sort of our magnum opus in a way."
Broder adds, "There are few times in life when you can feel the universe saying to you, 'Okay, show us what you've got. Give us your best shot, and the world will respond accordingly.' To me, this is the definition of success -- not accolades, not things coming back to you from others saying it's wonderful. It's the act of working in an environment like this and with colleagues who are dedicated to the act itself. It's a joy and a pleasure, and this right now is the very best thing there is for us."
-- Les Spindle
' 2009 BackStage
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L.A. Times: Taylor Hackford swings from film to stageto direct "Louis & Keely" - Feb. 11, 2009
READ THE ARTICLE
It isn't often that a Hollywood eminence sets out
to make a film, but winds up doing it as a stage musical instead.
Taylor Hackford, known for his biographical features about Chuck Berry
("Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n" Roll"), Ritchie Valens ("La Bamba")
and Ray Charles ("Ray"), says his vision for another '50s-rooted showbiz
saga, about the Las Vegas lounge duo, Louis Prima and Keely Smith,
unexpectedly jumped from the screen to the stage on a hot August night
in Hollywood.
In the first professional public stage-directing gig of his career,
Hackford will mount a retooled version of "Louis & Keely: Live at
the Sahara," which was a critical and box office hit last year in
two local 99-seat houses: Sacred Fools Theater and the Matrix Theatre.
Hackford has rewritten the book with the show's co-stars and co-creators,
Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder, and rented out the Geffen Playhouse's
Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater for a March 18-April 26 run. Recession-driven
budget woes had left the Geffen's 132-seat second stage dark and available
for what Hackford sees as a chance to spend at least six weeks developing
and debugging the show in hopes of taking it to further glory. The
film is still a long-range objective, he says, but for now the play's
the thing.
It became so when Hackford ventured to Sacred Fools after reading
strong notices for "Louis & Keely."
The director long had been a fan of Prima, who went from early stardom
as a 1930s swing bandleader and songwriter, to a 1950s revival paired
with his much younger wife, Smith. The marriage and performing partnership
broke up during the early 1960s. Prima died in 1978, after more than
two years in a coma caused by a brain tumor. About two years ago,
Hackford met with Smith in L.A. to discuss making a biographical film.
He found her likeable and "incredibly candid," sharing previously
untold tales.
Impressed by the sweat-soaked stage performance of writer-actors Smith
(who is not related to her character and namesake) and Broder, Hackford
asked if he could get involved with their show. They liked his ideas
for reworking the storytelling, and together with Hackford have revised
the book with an eye toward a more factual -- and dramatic -- narrative.
Two additional actors, Nick Cagle and Erin Matthews, will play various
roles opposite the co-stars, and the music, as before, will be fueled
by a seven-member, onstage band. The song sequence has been rejiggered
and expanded, from 17 to 19 numbers.
"If the show clicks, we'll see what the future is," says Hackford.
"It's too soon to say we're going to ask all these Broadway angels
to come" in hopes of raising the $10 million or more it typically
takes to open a Broadway musical. "We'll try to touch an audience
and see how the show plays." If it touches off enough ticket demand,
the six-week run could be extended indefinitely.
Hackford directed a workshop last year in New York, for a proposed
stage-musical adaptation of "Leap of Faith," a 1992 film, fired by
gospel music, that starred Steve Martin as a charlatan faith-healer.
The director says scheduling problems prevented him from continuing
with that project. Meanwhile, he's trying to develop an extreme rarity
-- a biographical film about a playwright, Tennessee Williams.
-- Mike Boehm
' 2009 L.A. Times
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O.C. Register: Louis Prima play struggled to be born
- Feb. 11, 2009READ THE ARTICLE ● SEE PHOTOS (Photos by Haven Hartman)
Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith bring crooner
and his wife to life in bio-revue.
Vanessa Claire Smith was getting ready to put Los Angeles in her rear-view
mirror when serendipity struck. Smith had been working on a show about
legendary bandleader and Vegas crooner Louis Prima, but she had just
about given up on finding somebody who could capture his wildly energetic
persona.
"I was intimidated by the fact that I thought no one could play this
man," Smith said. "So it remained just an idea in the back of my brain."
Then one night in December of 2006, only a few days before she planned
to leave town forever, Smith bartended as a favor to a friend at a
club that featured live music. That's when she heard singer Jake Broder
perform.
"I said to myself, 'Oh my God, that's my Louis Prima!' It was just
one of those feelings."
Smith's fortunes were blessed that night. Broder's manager happened
to be sitting at the bar.
"I asked him, 'Do you know who Louis Prima is? Would this guy be willing
to play him?'" The manager made introductions during a break. "I bought
him a shot of Macallen and said, 'I've got this really good idea about
a show. Would you like to see the script?' He said yes."
Smith laughed. "So then I had to go home and write it."
The result, "Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara," has been a big part
of Broder's and Smith's lives since it premiered last year, including
a sold-out run at the Matrix Theatre. It will kick off the 9th Annual
Newport Beach Jazz Party, playing Feb. 12 at the Marriott Newport
Beach Hotel. Smith plays Prima's wife and co-star, Keely Smith (no
relation).
Vanessa Smith was a member of Sacred Fools Theater Company, which
frequently produces work by its members. She knew that if she could
just come up with the right script, she'd have a guaranteed first
production.
Smith was interested in Prima because, like her, he was a New Orleans
native. "I was writing a screenplay about his early life. He was one
of the most influential figures in music history, but people these
days don't even know who he was. I became obsessed with the idea of
doing some kind of show about him."
Prima's career was long and many-chaptered. He started out with a
small Dixie combo in the 1930s, switched to big band music a decade
later, played successfully with a small lounge group at the Sahara
in Las Vegas in the 1950s and ended his career fronting a progressive
rock band. He proved a master of many musical genres, but everything
he did was marked by his raucous performance energy.
Songs such as "Just a Gigolo" and a memorable vocal part in Disney's
"The Jungle Book" have guaranteed Prima immortality. But his life
wasn't always a happy one, Broder said.
"As I learned more about the story I saw that there was a tragedy
here ' real tragedy about fame and about the kind of creature who
transforms to fit popular taste all the time. That can be a beautiful
thing but also a poison chalice. At the end of the day what's the
center, what is driving it? The kind of fame that burns very brightly
during one's lifetime can disappear and leave you with nothing at
the end."
Smith's show concentrates on Prima's Vegas years, which were spent
on stage with Keely Smith, the fourth of his five wives. Their act
contrasted her fetching voice and deadpan persona against his wacky-guy
stage image. It was a successful formula that served as a template
for future husband-wife duos such as Sonny and Cher.
When they first performed the show, Broder and Vanessa Smith were
surprised to find many people who remembered and even worked with
Prima and Keely Smith during their Vegas years.
"When Don Rickles came to the show, he told us he would go on between
every one of Louis and Keely's sets," Broder said. "He told us some
fantastic stories."
"It's actually good that we premi'red the show in Los Angeles," Smith
said. "People would come in droves and stay behind and tell us stories
' everyone from old managers to people who used to sub in. Everyone
had a different story. I never thought we'd get this kind of response."
Those visitors included Keely Smith, who outlived her ex-husband (he
died in 1978).
"She was gracious," Smith remembered. "She was wonderful. I didn't
know what to expect. I said, 'If she ever comes, don't let me know.'
Well, one night everyone was acting really weird. Watching her watch
me be her was one of the strangest experiences I have ever had as
an actor."
The show touched Keely Smith in unexpected ways, Broder recalled.
"She laughed at things nobody else laughed at. I loved that about
her."
-- Paul Hodgins
' 2009 O.C. Register
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L.A. Times: The music, fittingly, makes 'Louis & Keely' (Critic's
Choice) - June 27, 2008READ THE ARTICLE
View the article on the L.A. Times website
The small Sacred Fools Theater leaves the actors
no room for error. Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith are more than
up to the challenge.
They may not look much like Louis Prima and Keely Smith, but the two
actors channeling the famous lounge duo at the Sacred Fools Theater
are so good that you're bound to forget they're not the real thing,
at least for 90 minutes.
That's how long it takes for Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith
-- remember those names; they ought to be famous if there's justice
in this world -- to work their way through the showbiz couple's courtship,
marriage and breakup.
"Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara" is a simple biographical
story told with infectious retro pizzazz. It's also one of the best
musicals playing in town.
Told in a hallucinated flashback as Prima lies comatose in a hospital
bed, the show picks up in the late 1940s when the King of the Swingers
first encounters the ing'nue Keely at an audition. She lands a part
as a singer in the band just as Prima is about to move to Las Vegas
to set up shop at the Sahara.
What separates "Louis & Keely" from jukebox musicals
like "Jersey Boys" and "Mamma Mia!" is its scaled-down
simplicity. The intimate size of the Sacred Fools space forces the
actors to focus their voices and performances with ruthless precision.
You can't fake it when you're singing that close to the audience.
Together, the leads perform 17 numbers and nail each one.
Playing Prima with boundless energy, Broder captures his character's
obnoxious off-stage personality while suggesting that his faults were
integral to his on-stage appeal. Broder's athletic mimicry is a real
hoot to watch and he looks as if he loses 10 pounds just bouncing
around the stage. Equally good, Smith brings a stand-offish hostility
to her character that defrosts exquisitely when she performs songs
such as "That Old Black Magic" or "I've Got You Under
My Skin."
"Louis & Keely" tracks the usual showbiz ups and downs
rather mechanically (the lead actors also wrote the script). But it's
easy to forgive the clich's when there's so much musical mayhem to
distract you. The live, seven-member band plays with gregarious showmanship.
And director Jeremy Aldridge synthesizes it all into one shiny package.
This is musical theater at its most rousing and entertaining. Go twice.
-- David Ng
' 2008 L.A. Times
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View the article on the Variety website
[Also see Phil Gallo's Variety blog entry
on Louis Prima and Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara]
A swinging romp that parallels a Greek tragedy, Vanessa Claire Smith
and Jake Broder have neatly placed a biography within a Vegas lounge
act to create a bio-tuner that is often riveting and deserving of
further development. "Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara"
emphasizes story and performance far above impersonation, which gives
the piece a bit of "Jersey Boys"-like appeal: Regardless
of the auds' familiarity with the music or the personas, the substance
here is a story of love, fame, jealousy and broken hearts.
What distinguishes "Louis & Keely" is its exploration
of the pitfalls of maintaining no separation between showroom and
the home, how Louis Prima stayed keenly focused on satisfying an audience
even as it destroyed his family. The love of a wife can't compare
to the affection he cherished from his mother and the sound of applause,
which ultimately pushed away Keely Smith, a situation incomprehensible
to the star. It's both the most sharply written and performed section
of the show.
Prima, whose legacy has been revived by the Gap, Brian Setzer and
David Lee Roth, was keenly aware that he needed to continually alter
his act to keep seats filled. His younger days in New Orleans were
spent as a traditional jazz trumpeter; he was an originator of swing
in the 1930s in New York; he recorded Italian novelty tunes in the
1940s with his big band and became one of America's most popular entertainers;
and, in the 1950s, he downsized to a combo and created a lively, raucous
integration of all the styles he had covered in his first 20 years
in music. (Fearful that television would rob him of an audience, he
became a popular guest on variety shows, often re-creating his nightclub
act with Smith).
"Louis & Keely" covers all of this biography between,
and sometimes in the middle of, his signature songs: "Basin Street
Blues," "Angelina," "Sheik of Araby" and
"That Old Black Magic." Prima, when the show opens, has
been in a coma for two years. It is 1978, the year of his death, and
with the snap of his fingers, the calendar rolls back 30 years to
an artistic crossroads for the gravelly voiced Italian singer, who
at the time of his death was best known for his contributions to the
Disney pic "The Jungle Book."
Broder, as Prima, uses the snapping of his fingers to shift between
biographical and musical memories; Heatherlynn Gonzalez's lighting
pinpoints the action with clarity and makes the stage, set up as a
bandstand, feel like a multitude of locations.
Broder sets up the Prima milieu quickly: Mom runs the business from
back home; he's a womanizer involved in yet another divorce; he senses
his act is aging and needs a spark, the easiest solution being to
add yet another girl as a backup singer.
Enter Dorothy Keely (Vanessa Claire Smith), a 16-year-old thrush who
impresses Prima immediately. Prima hires her, instantly changes her
name to Keely Smith and takes on a Svengali role: She is to not do
anything without his explicit instruction.
That ultimately informs their life on and off the stage, and a good
hour of "Louis & Keely" explores the ramifications of
one individual establishing and enforcing ground rules for another.
Smith becomes his bride at 18 -- he was in his early 40s -- and, by
her mid-20s, a potential star trapped by the Prima style, which critics
have begun to harp on.
Packing all of the information into less than 90 minutes means sacrificing
a bit of biographical clarity, the strenuousness of the Vegas work
(performing from 11 p.m. until daybreak) and the initial emotional
connection between Prima and Smith.
And while it is abundantly clear that Prima wanted Smith to play deadpan
and act like the two were fighting -- they were a musical version
of Ralph and Alice Kramden and the model for Sonny & Cher -- we
never see the humor in full bloom. Were the tuner extended in length,
the story could have more dynamics; currently the only modulation
comes in moments of anger.
Ostensibly a two-hander with an onstage band that emphatically jumps,
jives and wails, Broder captures the manic wildness of Prima's stage
antics, a choreography based on the moves of boxers and monkeys in
trees. Smith, as Keely Smith, makes an impressive transformation from
awestruck teenager to angry and confused mother a decade or so later.
Her role, as well as that of saxophonist Sam Butera (Colin Kupka,
a better musician than actor), could be easily expanded.
Her "Embraceable You" with Prima's interjections is the
evening's spot-on perf though neither Broder nor Smith has the vocal
personalities of Louis & Keely. Prima was a nimble singer who
squeezed his bellowing voice into a register higher than his natural
tenor-baritone. Broder has a good voice but a smaller range and far
less gravel. He gets high marks for his command of the often-wordy
Prima delivery style.
Keely Smith is a tougher nut vocally, a unique blend of jazz and pop
that caressed the listener. There's an appropriate onstage coldness
that Vanessa Claire Smith plays well that extends to her vocals with
less success; the contrast between Smith's aloofness and the warmth
of her singing has not been wholly captured here. The Prima-Smith
vocal mix was one of divergent parts that made little sense in theory.
The distinction between the two vocalists could be driven home with
a bit more force.
Jeremy Aldridge's direction is as compact and tight as the script,
making good use of the entire performance space to isolate private
moments on the sides and place the public lives front and center.
-- Phil Gallo
' 2008 Variety
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View the article on the L.A. Weekly website
Sacred Fools' Soaring New Musical, Louis & Keely
Live at the Sahara
You can find several clips of singer-partners Louis Prima and Keely
Smith, with a small jazz combo behind them, on YouTube. The pair practically
invented the genre of the lounge act, playing as they did during much
of the 1950s at the Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas, lingering on the margins
of fame. Think of them as antecedents to Sonny and Cher, or a musical
version of Abbott and Costello. Smith was the 'straight-man' woman
and long-suffering wife of the hyperactive, philandering Prima, whom
you'll see hopping in front of the bandstand like a maniac, throwing
his entire body into each beat, a grin plastered across his face,
the biggest ham since Hamlet.
Keep these tiny-screen presences in mind when you see Vanessa Claire
Smith and Jake Broder's sublime new musical about the duo and their
tempestuous life on and off stage, Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara.
Certainly not the first musical to chronicle a musical group ' other
recent entries include Pump Boys and Dinettes and Jersey Boys ' this
has to be the first one to take a lounge act seriously, rather than
as a spittoon for gobs of ridicule.
In a glorious world-premiere production directed by Jeremy Aldridge
for Hollywood's Sacred Fools Theater Company, Prima and Smith are
re-created with accuracy and richness ' perhaps because the writers
are also the leading players. Vanessa Claire Smith's cropped brunette
'do apes that of Keely Smith's, a look that Liza Minnelli adopted
later ' though the silky, tender singing style of both Smiths couldn't
be more contrary to Minnelli's comparatively ostentatious, belting
interpretations.
Prima had a more gruff sound than that depicted by Broder, whose sculpted,
jazzy tones more closely resemble Bobby Darin's. What Broder delivers
in thunderbolts, though, is Prima's exuberant, maniacal self-choreography
' leaping, lurching, swaying and sashaying. Why this guy is jumping
around so much becomes the musical's central question. The answer
to that question could come with dismissing Prima as a narcissistic
clown. The creators, however, treat their subject with far more compassion
than that, as Prima's plight approaches tragedy. (Broder played Mozart
in the Broadway production of Amadeus, which provides a small window
onto the vainglorious hysteria that Broder depicts here so brilliantly.)
He croons in musical styles from '20s Dixieland jazz through '30s
swing, '40s big band and '50s scat ' and their accompanying lingo
('cats,' 'chicks' and 'gigs'). Broder's song-and-dance routine, capturing
Prima's cocky romantic domination over Smith, as well as his solipsistic
devotion to his music, is a bravura performance not to be missed.
And having an onstage, seven-piece backup band (doubling as supporting
players) doubles the impact, particularly with sounds so carefully
modulated by musical director Dennis Kaye. A piano, two saxophones,
a string bass, drum set, a trumpet and trombone, all on the stage
of this 99-seat theater, places us in the equivalent of a small recording
studio. When the band hits its stride with enveloping riffs of Dixieland
blues and Big Band stylings, hang on to your seat. The musical current
is that strong.
This journey through Prima's life comes on the eve of his death in
1978. (Smith is still alive and thriving.) Though it sweeps in biographical
details from the '20s ' his 'craziness,' he says, captured hearts
during the Great Depression ' the story kicks into gear during the
late '40s with its A Star is Born plot featuring Smith as the ingenue
who saves Prima's foundering big-band act and resurrects it with a
'50s spin in Las Vegas. And though he's doing all the jumping and
prancing, and giving all the orders, the newspaper reviews focus on
her talents, not his. Prima's jealousy erupts, not so much in offstage
screaming matches (he barely speaks to her) but in the tensions that
escalate on the stage, which everyone can see, and which perversely
renders their act more popular. He actually encourages the onstage
hostility, for just that reason.
And so, through 16 songs (ranging from 'Basin Street Blues,' 'That
Old Black Magic,' and 'I've Got You Under My Skin' to the song that
defined Prima's career, the medley of 'Just a Gigolo' and 'I Ain't
Got Nobody') one passionate love and cruel marriage is played out
almost entirely between the lines. If the purpose of musical theater
is to express in song what can't be expressed in mere words, this
is about as perfect as a musical can get. It's simple without being
simplistic, summing up 80 years of gender relations in 90 minutes.
Yet this is not just a musical about men and women but about life,
and art as an expression of it; the devastating costs of recklessly
turning a private life into a public one; and that old, blinding obsession
with fame.
Smith's desperate words accompany her tortured decision to leave her
husband, 'Life is happening right in your face and you don't even
notice. You don't hear anything unless it's in the key of B flat!'
I walked out of the theater wrenched by a depth of emotion that seemed
to make no sense, coming from a musical about the quaint saga of an
almost forgotten lounge act. That's when I realized I'd been punched
in the gut and didn't even know it. It was a delayed reaction to the
blow landed in Broder's reprise of 'I Ain't Got Nobody.' He just kept
on singing that refrain, as the band packed up and left him there,
until his death bed slowly rolled in.
What may first look like a musical comedy is actually a musical tragedy,
ancient Greek style: the deluded protagonist who's undone by hubris
and sent into exile.
Exile was a bad end for Oedipus, but imagine if Oedipus' delusions
included eternal celebrity from a Las Vegas lounge act.
The program cover contains the slogan, 'Nothing lasts forever.'
I hope this show does.
-- Steven Leigh Morris
' 2008 L.A. Weekly
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Backstage
West: Hot Saharan Nights - October 16-22, 2008READ THE ARTICLE
Louis & Keely's creators relish their
runaway success.
The 11-year-old Sacred Fools Theater Company offers eclectic fare,
though terms like edgy and offbeat provide apt summations
of the award-winning group's overall artistic vibe. Yet in summer
2008, when Rolls-Royces and Bentleys began pulling into the parking
lot in the theatre's funky east Hollywood neighborhood ' and fistfights
between octogenarian patrons over standing-room-only tickets broke
out in the lobby ' it became clear something extraordinary was afoot
there. That something is the explosively successful new biographical
musical Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara ' part nostalgic cabaret,
part Oedipal tragedy, charting the ill-fated romance of 1950s Vegas
lounge-singing partners Louis Prima and Keely Smith. After an extended
summer run at Sacred Fools, the show opened last month for an encore
engagement at West Hollywood's Matrix Theatre, where the frenzy continues.
This attraction recently netted four Ovation Award nominations: for
musical in an intimate theatre, director Jeremy Aldridge, and writer-performers
Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith, who are more surprised than
anyone at the show's euphoric reception.
In an era of blockbuster jukebox tuners, it's astounding that no one
thought of dramatizing this fascinating true story before. Backed
by a sassy jazz combo, Louis and Keely thrived as a headlining duo
at the Sahara Lounge in Las Vegas from 1948 through 1961. Their influence
on musical styles ' from jazz and swing to easy listening and rock
' was profound, and their fame has steadily mushroomed over the years.
The charismatic Louis, whose manic performing style is legendary,
brought Keely into his act when she was 16. Their subsequent passionate
though turbulent marriage eventually failed, largely due to Louis'
philandering and his career obsession. Louis died in 1978, and Keely
still occasionally performs. The play juxtaposes galvanizing musical
sequences ' that re-create the duo's most popular numbers ' to heart-wrenching
behind-the-scenes episodes depicting a great romance gone sour. The
piece starts on Louis' deathbed, then takes a stylized spin back to
yesteryear, recounting the blossoming of a marvelous professional
partnership followed by its step-by-step disintegration.
How did Broder and Smith's labor of love commence? "About five years
ago," says Sacred Fools member Smith, who plays Keely, "I was writing
a screenplay about Depression-era New Orleans and was looking at historical
figures who lived in the area. That's when Louis Prima [played by
Broder] was a teenager, so I started to research him. I found a documentary
that told his story prior to meeting Keely. I remember being introduced
to that music when I was a kid and then being reminded of it when
I was in college, when I became more drawn to the Keely story than
to Louis' younger life. I decided this would be a great story that
I would love to tell, but I also wanted to portray Keely. But I thought
I dare not write the script until I could find someone to play Louis.
These were huge shoes to fill, requiring not only a mastery of language
but also the sensibility of music and being able to conduct a band.
And the actor needed star quality."
Smith was working as a waitress at the M Bar in Hollywood two years
ago, where Broder was performing his acclaimed show Lord Buckley in
Los Angeles, a bio-cabaret about the 1950s comedian. Smith says she
instantly knew she had found her perfect Louis. She approached Broder
about it, and though it sounded very interesting to him, he wanted
to see the script, which Smith hadn't written yet. She began work
on it by herself initially, as Broder finished other commitments,
and they ultimately joined forces to craft their vehicle. Though both
performers consider themselves actors before singers, they love music
and have experience singing, and they say they felt at home portraying
nightclub entertainers. Broder found certain psychological similarities
among the driven creative artist Louis and other characters the actor
has played, such as Lord Buckley and Mozart in Amadeus on Broadway.
The element that took this piece out of the realm of crowd-pleasing
cabaret entertainment ' though it succeeds fabulously on that level
' is its links with classic stories of tragically mismatched couples.
Says Broder, "We looked at Pygmalion, A Star Is Born, that
sort of canon. This story speaks very much to actors and artists.
We have so many choices to make between career and personal life and
relationship. That's what drew me to the story. [Louis] chose the
love of the audience, the popularity ' which were the things he needed
the most. What we are putting forth in this show is sort of a devil's
bargain. In this day and age, for everyone it's sort of 'Fame, fame,
fame, look at me.' That's paper-thin ' glorious and yet horrific."
The collaborators had a simpatico working relationship from the start.
They say their overriding concern was telling the story in the most
truthful and compelling way possible, rather than obsessing over their
egos or personal stakes in the project. Smith says, "The whole experience
has sort of been that if I get chills and feel something in my gut
about something, it was the right way to go. You know the universe
is telling you something. That's certainly the way I felt when I found
Jake. When we were in about draft three and I was downloading everything
I knew about Prima, I told Jake about the incident when Louis was
in the hospital in a coma. He then suddenly said, 'That's it! That's
our bookend!' " The production now starts and ends with scenes of
Louis in a hospital bed.
The development of the characters posed interesting challenges for
the duo. How do you convincingly play real-life personalities at least
some members of the audience will remember, without resorting to impersonation?
"I would never want to do an impression of Keely, because you just
can't beat what she did," says Smith "There are suggestions of things
she would do. I worked to capture her essence ' trying to figure out
why she [scratches] her nose all the time, for example ' not to do
as an impression but convey things she did for a reason." Broder adds,
"Every time you create characters, whether imaginary or historical,
you're not so much imitating physical attributes as going back to
what made them the way they are. If I had the same preconditions and
the same sorts of needs and wants as they did, how would that manifest
truthfully in me? Trying to split a fine line, you want to have enough
physical fidelity so people don't walk out saying, 'That's wrong,'
but at the end of the day, what carries, what people are coming to
the theatre for, is to experience these people, the deep truth of
them ' emotionally, spiritually, musically. When there is a choice
between fidelity and truth, we go for truth."
Wide-ranging audiences ' from baby boomers out for a nostalgically
fun Saturday night to hip theatregoers who like experiencing what's
currently hot ' are packing the Matrix, getting swept up into the
show's great music and infectious energy, only to be socked in the
solar plexus when the stark tragedy sinks in. Smith says that before
the show premiered at Sacred Fools, she worried it was not going to
find its audience when people she spoke to didn't know who Keely is.
But she stopped worrying when she saw how much toe-tapping was going
on during the first performances and as she watched the standard Sacred
Fools crowds diversify into widely varying demographics. Yet, Broder
remarks, "This is one of the first times in my life I, like, kicked
it out there and worked as hard as I could but didn't really care
what followed. It was all about the experience." Smith concurs. "I
love the music. I love this story. So if I can put it out there and
introduce it to people, I'm satisfied." Broder expresses gratitude
for the support of Sacred Fools: "This is a testament to that company's
importance in this city, as well as other companies like it. The amount
of sacrifice of time and energy that people put into launching this
show was incredible, and all by a completely unpaid volunteer staff.
The result is the most successful show in Sacred Fools' history. On
Craigslist, there were people begging for tickets."
What about the show's future? "It's looking good," says Broder. "We're
tossing around a lot of ideas. There's a fundraiser coming up in December.
There are some really interesting people circling the show right now.
I'm hoping by the end of November we will have formalized plans to
take this to points east, perhaps even far east. We will see. We want
to do a workshop and then end up in New York." From Vegas to Hollywood
to the Big Apple, the Louis and Keely legend is thriving. Same goes
for the dreams of two prodigious writer-actors.
-- Les Spindle
' 2008 BackStage West
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View the article on the L.A. Times website
Capturing the volatile chemistry of Prima and
Smith was no easy task. Nor was getting it produced.
LOUIS & KEELY, TOGETHER AGAIN
by Charlotte Stoudt, Special to the Times
July 13, 2008
SHE WAS Martin to his Lewis, a shrug to his stampede. Singers Louis
Prima and Keely Smith packed Vegas houses in the 1950s with their
droll cabaret show. They were Punch and Judy for the cocktail set,
a witty cold war waged between Smith's seeming disdain and Prima's
hepcat eagerness. Their chemistry has sparked a vibrant new tribute,
"Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara," at Sacred Fools
Theater Company.
Writer-performers Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder, working with
director Jeremy Aldridge and a seven-piece combo, serve up a lounge
act that deconstructs itself in mid-performance, a dissonant love
story and jazz hit list, all in 90 hyperkinetic minutes of song and
dance.
"Louis & Keely" has the go-for-broke vibe of a show
that almost didn't happen -- twice. Smith (no relation to Keely),
raised in New Orleans, had long wanted to write about fellow Crescent
City native Prima, but had never found the right format.
"I was on a total career down-slide," Smith says of her
recent years in L.A. "I was mentally preparing myself to move
back home to Louisiana. I'd been through a divorce." In fall
2006, she'd given notice from her job mixing drinks at the M Bar,
but decided to fill in for one last shift after another bartender
got sick.
That evening, Broder was performing "Lord Buckley in Los Angeles,"
a cabaret about the groundbreaking monologuist who influenced Bob
Dylan and many others. "I watched Jake perform and . . . I couldn't
believe it: This was my Louis Prima," Smith says. "Jake's
agent and manager happened to be sitting at the bar, so I started
telling them about my idea."
Broder laughs. "I thought the whole thing was finished -- she
even had a flier. Then she told me she hadn't written it yet."
Star-crossed partners
THE FAMOUSLY Italian Prima may be best known for his novelty songs
("Angelina," "Buona Sera") and as the voice of
orangutan King Louie in 1967's "The Jungle Book," but he
had a wide-ranging sense of musicality. "This guy was like Madonna,"
raves Broder. "He constantly reinvented himself. He encompasses
all of Americana from jazz to vaudeville."
Prima, at 39, was on a career downswing when he added Keely Smith,
a 16-year-old Virginian of Irish and Native American descent, to his
act. They married a few years later. But the hit duo led a double
life: Onstage, the Sicilian wooed the Cherokee to no avail; offstage,
it was Smith who tried to keep the relationship together despite Prima's
compulsive philandering.
Long after the two split, Prima was diagnosed with a brain tumor and
slipped into a coma. For two years, his eyes were open -- doctors
believe he could see and hear everything around him -- but was imprisoned
in his body, an unthinkable fate for someone as ferociously kinetic
as Prima. "After two years, he closed his eyes," Aldridge
says. "He lived for another year, then slipped away. That was
the kernel of the original idea: What allowed him to let go and die?
What was going through his mind in that last moment?"
"Louis & Keely" imagines Prima's consciousness in those
final seconds -- his life, lived primarily onstage, flashes before
him in a series of quick cuts.
When Sacred Fools member Smith pitched her show to the company, they
jumped at it, says Padraic Duffy, who just completed his fourth season
as an artistic director. "The story was economical, very clean,
and a great way to showcase the music. We just had to figure out a
way to raise the money. Musicals are very expensive."
"Louis & Keely" was set to run in November 2007. But
just before rehearsals began, the team realized they didn't have sufficient
funds to pay the band. "We did everything we could," says
Smith. "But things just collapsed."
She went home to Louisiana, but kept rewriting. Her parents recognized
the intensity of her dedication to the project and kicked in some
cash. Sacred Fools passed a hat and raised enough money to buy her
a plane ticket back to L.A. She slept on friends' couches. And kept
rewriting. "We wrote a new proposal," she says, "and
Sacred Fools still hadn't filled their last season slot."
By spring 2008, the script changed radically. "There were eight
drafts," remembers Aldridge. "The first seven were expansive,
with long monologues. Jake wasn't satisfied with the story structure.
So Vanessa handed over what she had -- and he ripped it right down
to the bones. Whereas before the music was on its own track, now it
served to move the story along."
Three's the crowd
BRODER, whose credits include playing Amadeus opposite David Suchet
on Broadway, and a stint in the Reduced Shakespeare Company, calls
the show's rapid-fire aesthetic "constructivist. We cut out the
fat." The story, he says, is "a lover's triangle where the
third party is the audience."
Aldridge concurs. "Each song is a scene with its own conflict.
Take 'Tenderly': It comes after Louis has found Keely dozing between
shows with one of the musicians. It could be innocent, but Louis is
paranoid. So when they sing, he attempts to control her during the
song. She resists. She even mimics his style, taking some of his territory.
His reaction? No sharing. It looks like a duet, but it's really a
power struggle."
When they finally got to rehearse, the team threw themselves pell-mell
into performance. They could only afford the musicians twice a week,
and went into previews after a mere 10 rehearsals. Broder recalls
sitting on his bathroom floor in the middle of the night, newborn
in one hand and script in the other: "It was the only free time
I had, between 3 and 6 in the morning."
The sleeplessness paid off. Duffy remembers watching a dress rehearsal
and looking over at a fellow company member. "I said, 'I think
this might be really great.' "
For Smith, "it wasn't until we started performing that I knew
how much she loved him. My divorce is in there. I understand Keely's
sense of loss. What she and Louis could have had is heartbreaking."
After his relationship with Smith ended, Prima married another young
singer, a fan who'd carried his photo in her purse. Aldridge shakes
his head. "Everyone loves Louis. But he's the ungettable get."
"Louis & Keely" is Sacred Fools' bestselling show ever;
inevitably, outside interest has been expressed. "We're in an
active search for the next venue," says Aldridge.
And still rewriting. "We put in new stuff every night,"
says Broder. "Eventually I'd like to do what Louis did -- call
the song in the moment. He wouldn't give his musicians a set list.
He didn't tell the crew what the lighting cues would be. Louis just
said, 'Follow me.' We're trying to re-create that energy in this show.
To have a different set each performance? That's the ideal. But we
have to earn that."
' 2008 L.A. Times
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Backstage
West (Critic's Pick) - June 5-11, 2008READ THE ARTICLE
View the article on the BackStage West website
Bandleader Louis Prima and his fourth wife, Keely
Smith, revolutionized the Las Vegas lounge act, becoming a must-see
act at the Sahara during the 1950s. Their onstage antics, offstage
turmoil, and immense talent are ideal fodder for a stage show, which
Vanessa Claire Smith was wise enough to realize. Smith created, co-wrote,
and co-stars in this tight, exciting, vibrant 90-minute homage to
the groundbreaking couple. Her writing collaborator, Jake Broder,
is a bundle of energy and a singing powerhouse as Prima. They sing
nearly 20 standards, backed by a sharp seven-piece band that plays
outstanding arrangements'and there's still time left to flesh out
these enigmatic icons thanks to Jeremy Aldridge's snappy direction.
Opening in the 1970s as a comatose Prima (Broder) lies in a hospital
bed, the story is told through his eyes as he flashes back to 1948.
That's when a 16-year-old Smith (Smith) joins the band and jump-starts
Prima's career. They wind up in Las Vegas , and Prima creates an act
where his silly, spastic style contrasts sharply with Smith's unflappable
attitude. Prima runs around on Smith and isn't a good parent, but
their anger toward each other translates into laughs onstage, as they
inject songs such as 'I've Got You Under My Skin' and 'That Old Black
Magic' with lots of humorous asides.
Perhaps 80 percent of the performance is musical'all of it wonderful.
Broder doesn't fall into the trap of trying to be a Prima impersonator,
instead capturing his essence, from the nonstop jumping around to
the way Prima would slingshot in tempo and key. Broder's charisma
matches Prima's, and his singing skills are superb. Equally impressive
is Smith, whose stern glances and soaring vocals echo Keely's without
trying to copy each nuance; her rendition of 'Pack Your Clothes' is
unforgettable. The dialogue between the two is a bit stilted and Broder
appears more comfortable as the onstage Prima, but those are minor
quibbles.
It's rare that a 99-Seat premiere seems destined for bigger things,
but Louis & Keely could have appeal similar to the long-running Rat
Pack's, while it offers more emotional depth and more-exciting musical
performances.
-- Jeff Favre
' 2008 BackStage West
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View the article on the L.A. CityBeat website
A jazzy jolt of adrenaline surges through this extraordinary bio-musical about the postwar lounge duo that consisted of the jittery dervish Louis Prima (Jake Broder) and his deadpan-wielding wife Keely Smith (Vanessa Claire Smith). The two primary actors wrote the show for themselves, but it gallops past the limitations of most showcases and star bios to become an exquisite evocation of the joys and the sorrows of a performance-obsessed life, staged by Jeremy Aldridge. The stars and Dennis Kaye's onstage, seven-man band bring breathless revelations to 16 oft-heard standards.
-- Don Shirley
' 2008 L.A. Citybeat
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Ask Chris Pick of the Week: After extending the musical for the last time, this week is your absolute last chance to see Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara, which tells and sings the story of the '50s Las Vegas lounge duo'from their glitz-and-glam success on the stage and their turbulent marriage off of it. Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder star as the famous couple; they also cowrote the script. Chris guarantees a moving story and an experience of Vegas as it no longer is today, which is fitting for Louis & Keely's slogan: 'Nothing lasts forever.'
-- Cara Le
' 2008 Los Angeles Magazine
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article by Steven Leigh Morris, critic/theatre editor
for the L.A. Weekly
My People, My People:
I write this trying not to patronize Los Angeles ' you're perfectly
capable of doing that yourself ' but as a way of underscoring the
unprecedented number of new musicals being developed here ' rock musicals,
jazz musicals. You can't get out of your car without bumping into
a new musical.
To qualify: Like in many of the regions, there was a recent, mercifully
bygone era when L.A. glommed onto parodies of bad movies and TV shows,
then set them to music, then sent them to New York, where they were
understandably crucified for being glib and obvious. Reefer Madness
tops that list. There are others, but there's no reason to belabor
that point other than to discredit the myth that New York receives
the best work from around the country. Not true: It receives the work
from the most aggressive producers, which is quite a different matter.
There's no shortage here of soulful, explosive, scintillatingly deranged
theater that stays here thanks to the surfeit of local producers who
specialize in transferring works of aggressive vacuity instead. Producers
in Chicago and Seattle and San Diego simply have a better eye, and
a better heart, for identifying which shows deserve to travel. Maybe
it's the L.A. smog or the aesthetic reach of our entertainment industries
that so corrupts sound assessments of which theater warrants a spotlight.
Steven Berkoff once referred to an L.A. gene ' a strand of DNA that
blows in with the Santa Ana winds and then gets absorbed into the
bloodstream, creating a subtle mental deficiency ' accompanied by
the overwhelming desire to sip lattes in sidewalk cafes, and to wish
everyone a good day. The downside of this gene is how it conspires
against allowing our best theater to receive the credit it deserves...
Off-Off-Off-Off-Off-Off Broadway
One great production that's staying here for the time being: Louis
and Keeley: Live at the Sahara 'Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake
Broder's new musical about
Louis Prima and Keeley Smith (Sonny
and Cher of the 1950s). It opened earlier this year at east Hollywood's
Sacred Fools Theater (a troupe created by Seattle ex-pats) and has
now transferred to the slightly larger Matrix Theatre on Melrose Avenue.
And so, through 16 songs (ranging from 'Basin Street Blues,' 'That Old Black Magic,'and 'I've Got You Under My Skin' to the song that defined Prima's career, the medley of 'Just a Gigolo' and 'I Ain't Got Nobody') one passionate love and cruel marriage is played out almost entirely between the lines. If the purpose of musical theater is to express in song what can't be expressed in mere words, this fits the bill, summing up 80 years of gender relations in 90 minutes. Smith's desperate words accompany her tortured decision to leave her husband, 'Life is happening right in your face and you don't even notice. You don't hear anything unless it's in the key of B flat!'
I walked out of the theater wrenched by a depth of emotion that seemed to make no sense, coming from a musical about the quaint saga of an almost forgotten lounge act. That's when I realized I'd been punched in the gut and didn't even know it. It was a delayed reaction to the blow landed in Broder's reprise of 'I Ain't Got Nobody.' He just kept on singing that refrain, as the band packed up and left him there, until his death bed slowly rolled in. ("Nothing lasts forever" is the show's promo pullquote.) What may first look like a musical comedy is actually a musical tragedy, ancient Greek style: the deluded protagonist who's undone by hubris and sent into exile. Exile was a bad end for Oedipus, but imagine if Oedipus' delusions included eternal celebrity from a Las Vegas lounge act.
If this had opened in Chicago, it would be in New York by now.
(Webmaster's note: the original article included a condensed quotation of Steven Leigh Morris' L.A. Weekly review of the show found elsewhere on this webpage. Click here if you would like to to read the Playgoer version.)
Neither Jake Broder nor Vanessa Claire Smith come close to recreating the vocal gravel of Louis Prima or the sultry smoke of Keely Smith, but they adroitly portray the prickly essence of one of the entertainment world's original mismatches; a duo that essentially created the Vegas lounge act and the dynamic that Sonny & Cher later, um, "borrowed." The show, which the pair wrote as well, both entertains and engages. Broder's energy is boundless and his style undeniable as he captures Prima's manic insecurity, and while Smith the actress comes off as a bit too pert at times as Smith, the famously imperturbable singer, she looks like a million (OK, not so much the wig). Under the direction of Jeremy Aldridge, the two do a fine job in creating the chemistry that drives the production. The band is superb, and the sound that musical director Dennis Kaye draws from them is spot on. Oh, and do check out the promotional matchbooks.
-- Wenzel Jones
' 2008 Frontiers Magazine
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If Ray Charles Live! had a book as good as Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, it would be on Broadway right now. Because Louis & Keely does what Ray Charles Live! never really managed to do: combine carefree and electric performance numbers with a portrait of a talented musical artist looking back on his life with a measure of regret.
Here, the artist in question is Louis Prima, and the musical has him looking over his life from a coma (from which he would never recover). Played by Jake Broder, Louis explains to us why he did the things that he did, and then magically places himself back in time and shows us. He switches between the two time frames with something as quick as a snap of the fingers (and an instantaneous lighting change), in order to make a wry comment on the action, and then drops right back into it. And this works because Broder gives an absolutely committed performance. When he's the young Louis performing, he is a Louis who gives his all for the audience, energetically singing, scatting, and improvising with his band. When he's the older Louis at the end of his life, he is still Louis the performer'he's just Louis the performer with a little bit of wisdom.
The story itself isn't particularly unique. It tracks Louis's professional and personal relationship with Keely Smith, his musical partner and fourth wife. And even if you don't know anything about Louis and Keely's years in Vegas, when they ran five shows a night starting at midnight; and even if you don't immediately associate them with many of the standards they performed ("That Old Black Magic," "Come Rain or Come Shine," "Just a Gigolo"), their story will have elements of the familiar: Older successful singer hires teenage girl with a big voice to add something youthful to his act; she falls for him and he encourages it because it's good for the show; and his difficulty in perceiving any life outside their show ultimately causes his downfall.
The tale needn't be illustrated in any great detail'with the ghost of Louis available at the snap of a finger to sum up problems with a witty and perceptive line or two ("Keely always had a way of sayin' what was on her mind; I had a way of pretending not to listen"), the plot moves quickly and leaves time for nearly 20 performance numbers. And while Broder enthusiastically sells Louis's solo numbers, he is well matched by Vanessa Claire Smith as Keely. Smith's Keely has the perfect smooth and sultry nightclub voice; she induces chills on "Come Rain or Come Shine." She also has a terrific delivery of Keely's deadpan comic zingers, and together, Broder and Smith successfully recreate some of the magic that must have taken place five times a night at the Sahara lounge.
Actually, that's not entirely correct. The magic is not recreated by Broder and Smith; it's recreated by Broder, Smith and the band. The musicians appear onstage, have lines, and are credited as members of the cast. As well they should be. The performance numbers in Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara often put the music center stage'just watch Broder trade notes with Dennis Kaye (as Doc) on the sax in "Pennies From Heaven," and it is apparent that Louis and Keely would not have been "Louis and Keely" if they had been singing to canned tracks, without the excitement that live music generates.
This show is a perfect fit for the Matrix'a theatre with a great big stage that these performers can fill'but a shallow enough house so that you can feel the intimacy of the lounge act. And it's one of the very few shows where I put down my critic's notebook and just watched. Louis is presented as someone who needs an audience, but Louis & Keely give the audience a hell of a show.
-- Shannon Perlmutter
' 2008 Talkin' Broadway
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Louis Prima was New Orleans' other famous
Louis. Like the great "Satchmo" Armstrong, Louis Prima was born in
the Crescent City at the beginning of the last century. He worked
throughout the jazz decades as both a singer and bandleader, but by
the early 1950s the gigs had dried up. With a pregnant fourth wife
(singing partner Keely Smith) and in serious need of a regular paycheck,
Prima called up Bill Nelson who booked for the Sahara in Las Vegas.
Though his friend, fellow bandleader Cab Calloway warned him they
would hate working the cramped Sahara lounge, Prima and Smith agreed
to a contract of five shows a night starting at 11 p.m. They'd finish
up each morning around 6 a.m. just as the Strip's famed all-you-can-eat
breakfast buffets got hopping.
Nowadays, this kind of show has been eclipsed by Montreal circuses
and overproduced celebrity mega-acts, but in its heyday the Vegas
lounge act pioneered by Louis Prima and Keely Smith was an iconic
fixture on the Strip, reaching its zenith in the famed late-night
impromptu performances of Sinatra's "Rat Pack" in the lounge of the
old Sands Hotel.
In Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara, now onstage at the Sacred
Fools Theater in Los Angeles, performer/authors Jake Broder and Vanessa
Claire Smith pay homage to the original act and its stars. They knock
the roof right off the joint. The little theater is a perfect venue
-- about the size of a typical Vegas lounge in the 1950s (alas, without
the beverage service). Ms. Smith and Mr. Broder deftly recreate the
original act, a lively blend of husband/wife insult comedy and bop
renditions of standards like "Angelina, "That Old Black Magic" and
"Sheik of Araby."
Mr. Broder and Ms. Smith portray the pair with great respect and fidelity.
They absolutely nail the famed stage personas of Louis and Keely -
her deadpan putdowns and his zany goofiness. (Sonny and Cher lifted
their act wholesale from these two)... both performers are top notch.
Jake Broder captures the frenetic onstage energy of Louis Prima along
with his jaw dropping vocal virtuosity. His is not a big voice, but
it is agile and exciting, especially when imitating Prima's dizzying
jazz scatting. His rendition of Prima's signature "Just a Gigolo/I
Ain't Got Nobody" (with which David Lee Roth made a small fortune
via a video cover in 1985) is alone worth the price of a ticket. Vanessa
Claire Smith portrays Keely Smith's onstage charm beautifully. Her
renditions of "Come Rain or Come Shine" and "Embraceable You" are
gorgeous.
The band is terrific. They're all solid musicians and have rehearsed
to within an inch of their lives. As bandleader Sam Butera, tenor
saxophonist Colin Kupka is a standout. Call the butcher -- this guy
has chops. His command of the instrument's jazz idiom is masterful.
No less dexterous, Jeff Markgraf plays a mean slap bass and pianist
Richard Levinson seems to be one of those guys with extra fingers
on each hand. Others in this talented ensemble, who also provide background
vocals and portray minor characters, include musical director and
saxophonist Dennis Kaye, drummer Michael L. Solomon, trombonist Brian
Wallis and trumpeter "Hollywood" Paul Litteral.
-- Trevor Thomas
' 2008 Edge Los Angeles
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Following their critically-acclaimed, sold-out run at Silverlake's Sacred Fools Theatre recently' Louie and Keely are back! A highly-entertaining, exuberantly performed nostalgic and musical 'blast to the past,' Los Angeles fell in love with this show! Tickets were like 'gold' to get last time around, and countless offers to take it on the road followed. Now re-opened on Hollywood's trendy Melrose Ave., you have another local chance to catch it, before it shines internationally. Hip and saucily written by Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder, (who also 'star') it chronicles the careers and rocky romance of Louis Prima and Keely Smith' 'The wildest act in Vegas.' Playing multiple sets together nightly at The Sahara for 13 years, their public fame and private lives took many dramatic turns. Stepping into Prima's act at only 16, and soon after becoming his fourth wife and mother of two, Keely eventually divorced him, due to his ego-maniacally controlling and philandering ways. Not exactly a full-on biography, or even actual impersonations of these two beloved Vegas mega-stars' but a riveting and voyeuristic view of the rise and fall of a magic coupling, both on and off the stage. Backed by a 'fab' band, who also has dialogue in the show, we rock out to many of their familiar 'hits,' (I've Got You Under My Skin,' 'That Old Black Magic,' and 'Just A Gigolo,' to name a few.) Kudos to Musical Director Dennis Kaye and his smokin' band! Under the compelling and lively Direction of Jeremy Aldridge' these two phenomenal performers triumph! As Prima, a man who truly had a 'love affair' with his audiences, but an emotionally crippled inability to commit to a woman, Jake Broder is devilishly dynamic! A powerful singer/actor who works his tail off, he's a wonder to behold. As Keely, the adoring 'wife in the wings' of his life, Vanessa Claire Smith gives a flawlessly pure, pitch-perfect, deliciously dead-pan performance! This duo was born to play these roles' Book a seat today!
-- Pat Taylor
' 2008 The Tolucan Times
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The best show in Los Angeles at the moment is Louis
and Keely Live at the Sahara, currently playing at the Matrix
Theatre in Hollywood. Following a sold-out run at the Sacred Fools
Theatre, they have moved this smash show to the Matrix through November.
The show concerns the "wildest act in Vegas," which featured the wild
antics of Louis Prima and the stony-faced song stylings of Keely Smith.
The pair started as a side attraction and eventually moved to the
main room at the Sahara, where they played multiple sets night after
night from 11 PM to 6 AM between 1948 and 1961.
Unless you are a "boomer" you may not know who they were - though
you may have caught Keely singing "That Ole Black Magic" with Kid
Rock earlier this year at the Grammys. Prima and Smith were as famous
for their bickering as for their singing. The bickering eventually
turned real, and Prima's philandering and lack of dedication to family
caused Keely to leave. Prima went on to try his luck at animation
voices for Hanna Barbara, and was most notably the voice of the orangutan
King Louie in Disney's Jungle Book. He died of a brain hemorrhage
in 1978.
The show was written by its two stars, Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake
Broder. Vanessa captures Keely perfectly, from the deadpan look to
the smooth singing. I finally discovered that Keely Smith's blank
expression was part of the act and not her personality. It would be
interesting to know what the real Keely would think of the portrayal,
but so far she hasn't shown up. Perhaps it's too painful.
Jake Broder, too handsome to look like Prima, still does am amazing
job recreating his performance. He is all tics, fingers, and feet,
but always in rhythm. His performance is a real triumph. I knew Jake
when he played Mozart on Broadway with David Suchet. Little did I
know then that besides a similar wildness in the two characters, Broder
was also such a damn fine musician.
Speaking of musicians, the band assembled for this show plays some
mean jazz. Dennis Kaye is the musical director and plays the tenor
and baritone sax. Colin Kupka plays the tenor sax as well and does
some really hot solos. Richard Levinson plays piano, Jeff Markgrag
strums the bass, Brian Wallis wails on the trombone, Michael L. Soloman
is the drummer, and Paul Litterai plays the jazz trumpet. They're
a great band, and they act too!
The director, Jeremy Aldridge,he keeps the place jumping. My only
caveat about this great evening is that the extent of Louis and Keely's
fame is not covered. They were regulars on Ed Sullivan (where I saw
them, being too young and far away for Vegas), and Keely starred in
a couple of movies.
If you want to hear some of their hits, like "Embraceable You," "Pennies
from Heaven," "Sheik of Araby," and "That Old Black Magic," head for
the Matrix for some of the old Vegas until November 30.
-- Robert Machray
' 2008 The Tolucan Times
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Listen to an MP3 Podcast of this story
(Excerpt) You know the economy is hurting
when even the entertainment industry is forced to make cutbacks. Fewer
major studio films are being slated for production and the number
of scripted TV shows continues to dwindle, too. The "finer arts" are
suffering even more, with small-venue theaters ' once booked months
in advance ' sitting empty and museums being forced to scale back
exhibitions.
Despite the wealth of bad news, the past year proved that ' in good
times and bad ' there's still a place for wonderful creative expression
in Los Angeles...
Best play or musical, small venue
"Louis & Kelley [sic] ' Live at the Sahara," Sacred Fools Theater/The
Matrix Theatre. Bandleader Louis Prima and his fourth wife, Keely
Smith, revolutionized the Las Vegas lounge scene, and their onstage
antics, offstage turmoil and immense talent proved to be ideal fodder
for a play with music. Creators Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder
starred as the tumultuous couple, backed by a sharp seven-piece band,
which accompanies them on nearly 20 standards.
-- Jeff Favre
' 2008 Ventura County Star
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The most popular show in town right now, 'Louis
and Keely Live at the Sahara', starring Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake
Broder is being performed at West Hollywood's Matrix Theatre. Just
days ago it was announced that the show is nominated for four Ovation
Awards ' making it a must-see.
We arrived minutes before showtime to a nearly sold-out house. When
you hear the show is popular, you have no idea until you see Leonard
Maltin sitting front and center and Famke Janssen (from X-Men and
Nip/Tuck fame) seated one row in front of you. There is a demand.
People want to see this show.
It's a Show
A spotlight on snapping fingers. From moment one, the air is thick
with confidence. Coming from Sacred Fools Theater, this show did something
extraordinary, it outgrew itself. It was so beloved, that it needed
a reprise. And a bigger, badder location for its growing audience.
Jake Broder plays the iconic showman Louis Prima, a lounge singer
and big band frontman. Vanessa Claire Smith portrays Keely Smith,
his 1950s Vegas partner and eventual fourth wife.
It's Alive
Early on, for one of Broder's first stage shows, he stumbles out,
pauses himself and seems to break character for a moment. You see
it, but you don't wanna believe it. You want him to perform better.
He casually walks back to his mark and arrives again, pauses, still
doesn't like it. Puzzled glances are exchanged. As he makes his way
back, once again to his start mark, a member of the band makes a gesture.
Louis wants a reaction. This time as Broder arrives, the audience
instinctively cheers for him. He bathes in the love and starts his
show.
That is how you know this is no ordinary show. It's alive. It's pulsing.
This is no projected screen. No cardboard cut-outs. When you breathe,
they breathe. And if you're not breathing, it ain't alive. The audience
participation only grows through the evening.
The Fabulous Mr. Broder
Jake Broder is unstoppable here as Louis Prima. Dare I say, he seems
to control the copyright ' he owns it. Back and forth for 98 minutes
he delivers a tour de force performance that is unlikely to be matched
by anyone.
He has a Will Ferrell feel to him. High energy and affable. A goofy
ball of fun. But slowly he takes his audience to a dark, dark place.
Something that Mr. Ferrell has not yet been brave enough to do.
The amount of energy, love and passion he exudes is that of nearly
a freight train on full speed. You don't want to get in his way, merely
stand along side and cheer as it passes by. Throughout the evening,
he gives off over a decade and a half of life's journey and you feel
it with him.
That's maybe Mr. Broder's gift to us. He allows every adoring fan
to take this trip and watch him. Bathe in his love, thrill in his
excitement and ultimately wallow in his own hell, the one that he
built for himself. And yet, the last words of the evening, he leaves
us feeling optimistic. He's still got a chance.
There's Something About Vanessa
Vanessa Claire Smith's name may be too long for a marquee, but it
certainly belongs there. It's a name you should know already, but
you probably don't. It's okay, though. You'll know her very soon.
She has an uncanny resemblance to Sandra Bullock, a smile from Julia
Roberts via 'Pretty Woman' and the formidable presence of Glenn Close.
Honestly, yeah, she's that good. A rare range of talents. She's under
complete control of her body, every move and mannerism is tuned (we'll
touch back on this soon.) Her eyes provoke you. Her singing voice
is a deep sultry drink of wine; tasty and full.
From her starring turn in the microbudgeted 'Chase The Slut', you
see what is ultimately one of her strongest assets. She's incredibly
likeable and watchable. You can't take your eyes off her.
In 'Louis and Keely', Broder has the marathon performance, but Keely
brings so many pieces to the puzzle. Watching her work and manipulate
herself and everything she touches is a master's class on subtletly.
Her face as she stiffly and shyly sings in the beginning. Her fingers
flexing a flask as she watches Louis seduce an audience member, the
tight brace she holds of her dress while Louis flits with her at one
moment on stage. Ms. Smith is keenly aware of every inch and she's
done her homework.
Their chemistry is remarkable. Two lightning bolts on Kansas farmland.
Bold and vibrant alone, but when they hit together, sparks enough
to fill acres of dark sky.
During 'That Old Black Magic' Broder grabs her and together sing while
holding each other. It's enough of a moment to see the whole show
again just to experience. When you're that good. Well, we should just
thank you.
'Autumn Leaves' is a declaration of independence and Smith plays it
well. See, that stiff little girl no longer needs the boisterous man.
She understands energy and presence and, while maybe influenced by
him, she holds her own just fine. And it leaves Broder with one more
juicy moment as he watches his own star slowly lose a bit of its shine.
Who Shines the Spotlight
Jeremy Aldridge. The last few paragraphs have been a testament to
his work. While Broder and Smith garner the glory, Aldridge makes
sure the light is just right on them. And he does a truly exemplary
job.
For aspiring actors and actresses, find this guy and beg to be in
his next show. Why? 'Cuz he won't lead you astray. He works a stage,
he works his performers and he delivers. What more can you ask for?
Them Pesky Ovations
So, yes, 'Louis and Keely Live at the Sahara' is nominated for four
Ovation Awards. Lead Actor for Jake Broder. Lead Actress for Vanessa
Claire Smith. Direction, Jeremy Aldridge. And Musical in an Intimate
Theater.
I've seen several of the other shows nominated in these categories,
but not all. As of this moment, and politics not withstanding, all
four votes would be cast in honor of 'Louis and Keely', yes it's that
good. Without a doubt it should be honored with the Franklin Levy,
musical in an intimate theater award. You present me the last show
that fills a room so substantially, that earns your emotion so grandly
and that satisfies so thoroughly.
Until then' Ms. Smith, Mr. Broder, Mr. Aldridge, your awards are waiting
for you.
-- Joe Wehinger
' 2008 L.A. Splash
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Louie Prima and Keely Smith were star performers
in their day and Jake Broder as Louie and Vanessa Claire Smith as
Keely (also Nurse) bring them to life in this hit production at the
Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles. In an earlier run at the Sacred Fools
Theater, it was sold out and impossible to get tickets. Because it
was such a hit, L & K Productions moved it to the larger venue and
now I suggest you get your tickets as quickly as you can.
You won't want to miss this absolutely wonderful evening of entertainment
where you will feel that you are watching a lounge show in Vegas.
Of course, there is a bit of a storyline to accompany the music, but
fortunately, the music makes up most of the production. And such wonderful
singers, musicians and music to keep you toe tapping and feeling a
bit of nostalgia at the same time..
Broder and Smith wrote the show. (I refer to it as a show, not a play,
because that is my take on it.) The best thing about it is that Broder
doesn't try to imitate Prima, (he actually has a better voice) but
his style and energetic antics give one the impression of watching
the late performer. He really puts on a show for the entire 90-minutes
and gives it his all. Smith is adorable, has a beautiful voice quality,
and she does make one think they are seeing Keely Smith in the flesh.
Her short cropped hair, her big eyes and her dead-pan expression are
completely reminiscent of Ms Smith.
What story there is basically is about their stormy relationship.
When the show opens, Prima is lying in a hospital bed where he has
been in a coma for two years due to a brain aneurism. But in this
condition, he goes back to the beginning when he was a musical hit
with his band, but felt a need for a female singer. He discovers Keely
when she was 16-years old. After working together for some time, they
get married (his fourth!). The more Keely is exposed the more critical
acclaim she reaps, which becomes a thorn in Prima's side. He begins
having affairs, neglecting his family, and accusing Keely of infidelity.
And as the program suggests, 'nothing lasts forever.' Back;in the
hospital bed, Louis Prima succumbs to his illness.
Just to add more interest, some of the wonderful songs that are sung
are Embraceable You, That Old Black Magic, Come Rain or Come Shine
among the twenty that are presented. The great jazz musicians are
Colin Kupka (Sam, Tenor Sax), Brian Wallis (Jimmy, trombone/intern),
Jeff Markgraf (Eddie, bass/doctor), Richard Levinson (Pee Wee, piano),
Dennis Kaye (Doc, tenor & baritone sax), Michael L. Solomon (Rocco,
drummer), 'Hollywood' Paul Litteral (soup, trumpet). Also in the cast
is Terry Tocantins as Maitre d' and Nurse, all under the superb direction
of Jeremy Aldridge.
-- Steven Stanley
' 2008 StageSceneLA.com
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Louie Prima and Keely Smith were star performers
in their day and Jake Broder as Louie and Vanessa Claire Smith as
Keely (also Nurse) bring them to life in this hit production at the
Matrix Theatre in Los Angeles. In an earlier run at the Sacred Fools
Theater, it was sold out and impossible to get tickets. Because it
was such a hit, L & K Productions moved it to the larger venue and
now I suggest you get your tickets as quickly as you can.
You won't want to miss this absolutely wonderful evening of entertainment
where you will feel that you are watching a lounge show in Vegas.
Of course, there is a bit of a storyline to accompany the music, but
fortunately, the music makes up most of the production. And such wonderful
singers, musicians and music to keep you toe tapping and feeling a
bit of nostalgia at the same time..
Broder and Smith wrote the show. (I refer to it as a show, not a play,
because that is my take on it.) The best thing about it is that Broder
doesn't try to imitate Prima, (he actually has a better voice) but
his style and energetic antics give one the impression of watching
the late performer. He really puts on a show for the entire 90-minutes
and gives it his all. Smith is adorable, has a beautiful voice quality,
and she does make one think they are seeing Keely Smith in the flesh.
Her short cropped hair, her big eyes and her dead-pan expression are
completely reminiscent of Ms Smith.
What story there is basically is about their stormy relationship.
When the show opens, Prima is lying in a hospital bed where he has
been in a coma for two years due to a brain aneurism. But in this
condition, he goes back to the beginning when he was a musical hit
with his band, but felt a need for a female singer. He discovers Keely
when she was 16-years old. After working together for some time, they
get married (his fourth!). The more Keely is exposed the more critical
acclaim she reaps, which becomes a thorn in Prima's side. He begins
having affairs, neglecting his family, and accusing Keely of infidelity.
And as the program suggests, 'nothing lasts forever.' Back;in the
hospital bed, Louis Prima succumbs to his illness.
Just to add more interest, some of the wonderful songs that are sung
are Embraceable You, That Old Black Magic, Come Rain or Come Shine
among the twenty that are presented. The great jazz musicians are
Colin Kupka (Sam, Tenor Sax), Brian Wallis (Jimmy, trombone/intern),
Jeff Markgraf (Eddie, bass/doctor), Richard Levinson (Pee Wee, piano),
Dennis Kaye (Doc, tenor & baritone sax), Michael L. Solomon (Rocco,
drummer), 'Hollywood' Paul Litteral (soup, trumpet). Also in the cast
is Terry Tocantins as Maitre d' and Nurse, all under the superb direction
of Jeremy Aldridge.
-- Carol Kaufman Segal
' 2008 Stagehappenings.com
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View the below article on the Stagehappenings.com website
This is my favorite show of 2008, hands down! Heck,
I'll even throw 2007 in there! Perfect through and through! L & K
Productions presents an exhilarating musical, which begins with the
sound of a heart monitor. Imprisoned by a coma, lying in a hospital
death bed in the late '70s, Louie Prima begins to snap his fingers
to the beeping beat. His band joins in, initiating Prima to stand
on his feet and begin to narrate the story of his life and times at
the famous Las Vegas casino where he and Keely Smith become a sensation.
Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith wrote and perform "Louis and
Keely, Live at the Saraha," directed by Jeremy Aldridge. This triunity
has created one of the most pleasurable evenings of musical theatre
currently west of the Mississippi--and, hopefully, soon on both sides.
Let's not assume everyone knows who the titled duo are, especially
anyone younger than 50 years old. However, this is a fantastic way
of reintroducing to the world an almost forgotten phenomenon. Outrageously
entertaining performers, James Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith, limn
this story so perfectly, inviting us to forget the current year and
join them on their journey through time.
V.C.S. regales us with a voice envied by the lights above and a character
tuned finer than the seven-piece, live, big-band instruments accompanying
her songs. This is the role that will make Smith a star alongside
co-genius Jake Broder.
Broder's energy is unimaginable, co-mingled with an astounding voice,
unquestionably inspiring each and every audience member of the constantly
Sold-Out performances, currently in its sixth month.
The band doubles as performers, and talented there too, they are:
Colin Kupka, Brian Wallis, Jeff Markgraf, Richard Levinson, Dennis
Kaye, Michael L. Solomon, and "Hollywood" Paul Litteral.
Extravagantly gorgeous lighting design by J. Kent Inasy and impeccable
music direction by Dennis Kaye. Stage managed by Suze Campagna.
-- Paul Storiale
' 2008 Stagehappenings.com
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SHORT TAKES:
* Called "...inspired... a combination cabaret show/heartbreaking bio-musical that's clearly destined for a fabulous future" by BackStage West critic Les Spindle on his blog
* Named among The Best in L.A. Theatre for 2008 by "Grigware Talks Theatre" - Top Production and Best Lead Performance
* The West Seattle Weisenheimer, a Seattle-based theatergoer, has nominated Louis & Keely for "Best Play" in his self-titled Wisey Awards. And here's his review of the show, from his blog, in which he calls the show "a truly fantastic production... an interesting, touching story."