Reviewed by Laura Kennelly
Sweetly elegiac, The Devil’s Music: The Life and Blues of Bessie Smith, offers a highly entertaining snapshot of one night in Memphis in 1937, the night before Smith died as a result of an automobile accident.
In this Cleveland Play House show, which runs through March 10, Miche Braden plays Smith (dubbed the “Empress of the Blues”) and imagines possible happenings that night. Smith reminisces and sings about herself, a preacher’s daughter who gave into the call of “wicked” jazz music and the fast lifestyle that often went with it. Braden’s sassy character has plenty of fun (and so do we). From the minute she rises up and starts talking to the audience, she shows who is boss [she is] and whose story it is [hers]. Bessie Smith lived large, as the show and a stage full of songs point out. We hear “St. Louis Blues,” “Need a Little Sugar in My Bowl,” “Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do,” and (best of all) “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” and more.
The terrific trio made up of George Caldwell (piano), Jim Hankins (Bass), and Keith Loftis (saxophone) add more than mere accompaniment as they banter and flirt with Braden’s Bessie. Loftis and Braden have huge fun with a suggestive duet of Braden’s own song “Devil Dance Blues (Sho Nuff Daddy).”
The only trouble with this show is that from what I’ve read, Bessie Smith wasn’t half as sweet and likeable as Braden plays her. If you listen to Smith on Youtube, singing “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out “(1929) there’s an edge of gritty earthiness that seems missing. Janis Joplin’s version of “ Nobody Knows” suggests that Joplin gets the pain and desperate energy and makes it both her own and a tribute to Smith in a way that Braden hasn’t yet mastered.
But Smith’s is a story worth telling and director Joe Brancato and playwright Angelo Parrar sketch in only 90 minutes how Smith’s talent flourished despite prohibition and prejudice. A beautiful stage set with a bar, room for a trio, and several levels, all decorated in rich deep burgundy reds and browns suggests elegant decadence thanks to Michael Schweikardt (Scenic Design), Todd Wren (Lighting Design), Patricia Doherty (Costume Design), and James C. Swonger (Sound Design).
Tickets are available by calling 216-241-6000 or online at http://clevelandplayhouse.com. Reviewed on 2/20/2013.
Laura Kennelly is a freelance arts journalist, a member of the Music Critics Association of North America, and an associate editor of BACH, a scholarly journal devoted to J. S. Bach and his circle.Listening to and learning more about music has been a life-long passion. She knows there’s no better place to do that than the Cleveland area.