Cabaret Scenes Theatre Review - Cotton Club Parade

It was “take-a-deep-breath-and-hold onto-your-hats” when New York City Center Encores! joined Jazz at Lincoln Center for a full-speed-ahead, joyful revue of Cotton Club Parade. For 90 non-stop minutes, a knockout cast of 28 paraded dizzying dance leaps, dazzling taps and some of the American Songbook’s greatest songs, accompanied by Wynton Marsalis and his splendid band. Warren Carlyle, who is showcasing estimable directing and choreography this season with Follies and Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway, again provided stylish leadership. A salute also goes to Jack Viertel, Encores!’s Artistic Director, who conceived the show and kept the momentum going with stylish entertainers in top form on City Center’s grand stage.

Performing to many of Duke Ellington’s original arrangements, the orchestra, singers and dancers evoked the past glory days of the 1920-30s’ Harlem Cotton Club, recalling performers like Ivie Anderson, Lena Horne, Ethel Waters and instrumentalists like “growl” trumpeter Bubber Miley. In those days, Ellington’s band had evolved into innovative blues moods, using crying reed instruments and various trumpet mutes, like the wah wah and Miley’s famed rough, toilet plunger mute. Marsalis’s brass and reed mates were expressive, soaring skyward and growling to the depths.

The use of both the orchestra and “singer as instrument” was an Ellington trademark, reflected here in the music and adding selected narrations from Langston Hughes’s Montage of a Dream Deferred. At the top of the show, the ensemble gathered for Ellington’s “Daybreak Express.” “Black and Tan Fantasy,” co-written by Ellington and Bubber Miley, merged different rhythms and featured Nicolette DePass’s fierce grace with Garth Fagan’s choreography. Ellington and Miley also co-wrote the delightful "East St. Louis Toodle-oo," including the eye-catching dancer Karine Plantadit from Come Fly Away. The band’s “Braggin’ in Brass” dazzled with speed and rhythm. “The Mooche” was Ellington’s study of a shadier side of society and “Rockin’ in Rhythm” rocked the program to its finale.

A nod went to Ellington’s songbird, Adelaide Hall, as Carmen Ruby Floyd vocalized fluently to Ellington’s haunting “Creole Love Call.” Sassy vixen Adriane Lenox warned “Women Be Wise” (Sippie Wallace) and don’t flaunt your man’s virtues or another woman may just grab him away. Lenox also recalled Ethel Waters’s and Sidney Easton’s caustic good riddance to a faithless lover, “Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night.” On the melancholy side, Brandon Victor Dixon crooned the silky long lines of “Ill Wind” by Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler, and Carla Cook followed with their “Stormy Weather.” Cook was outstanding with “I Can't Give You Anything But Love" (Jimmy McHugh/Dorothy Fields), delivering the story with a soft swing and scat as she strolled from one side of the stage to the other.

Imaginative props included red balloons giving a light, upbeat feeling to Dixon’s charming "I've Got the World on a String" (Arlen/ Koehler). Maneuvering a movable staircase, Everett Bradley, Monroe Kent III, T. Oliver Reid and Christian Dante White stepped, scatted and sang "Diga Diga Doo" (McHugh/Fields) to an arrangement by Ellington and the Mills Brothers. Dapper in black tie, Bradley, Jason E. Bernard, Christopher Broughton, Daniel J. Watts, Joseph Monroe Webb, and J.L. Williams creatively moved in tight unison to “Peckin’” (Harry James/Ben Pollack). "Happy As the Day Is Long" (Arlen/ Koehler) was exuberantly danced and sung by elastic tappers, DeWitt Fleming Jr. and Kendrick Jones, as was Johnny Hodges’s “Goin’ Nuts,” choreographed by and danced with the amazing Jared Grimes.

In the beautifully renovated City Center, scenic consultant John Lee Beatty used theatrical curtains, chandeliers and scrims to evoke a1930s nightclub ambiance. Exceptional lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski set the moods and Toni-Leslie James dressed the performers in bright costumes of the era.

Cotton Club Parade was an exemplary musical tribute to the elegant and innovative Duke Ellington. The only downside to the show was its brevity, a short run of seven days.

(Pictured: Jason E. Bernard, Christopher Broughton, Daniel J. Watts, Joseph Monroe Webb, J.L. Williams. Photo by Joan Marcus)

Elizabeth Ahlfors
Cabaret Scenes
November 19, 2011
www.cabaretscenes.org



	Cotton Club Parade City Center New York, NY
It was “take-a-deep-breath-and-hold onto-your-hats” when New York City Center Encores! joined Jazz at Lincoln Center for a full-speed-ahead, joyful revue of Cotton Club Parade. For 90 non-stop minutes, a knockout cast of 28 paraded dizzying dance leaps, dazzling taps and some of the American Songbook’s greatest songs, accompanied by Wynton Marsalis and his splendid band. Warren Carlyle, who is showcasing estimable directing and choreography this season with Follies and Hugh Jackman Back on Broadway, again provided stylish leadership. A salute also goes to Jack Viertel, Encores!’s Artistic Director, who conceived the show and kept the momentum going with stylish entertainers in top form on City Center’s grand stage. Performing to many of Duke Ellington’s original arrangements, the orchestra, singers and dancers evoked the past glory days of the 1920-30s’ Harlem Cotton Club, recalling performers like Ivie Anderson, Lena Horne, Ethel Waters and instrumentalists like “growl” trumpeter Bubber Miley. In those days, Ellington’s band had evolved into innovative blues moods, using crying reed instruments and various trumpet mutes, like the wah wah and Miley’s famed rough, toilet plunger mute. Marsalis’s brass and reed mates were expressive, soaring skyward and growling to the depths. The use of both the orchestra and “singer as instrument” was an Ellington trademark, reflected here in the music and adding selected narrations from Langston Hughes’s Montage of a Dream Deferred. At the top of the show, the ensemble gathered for Ellington’s “Daybreak Express.” “Black and Tan Fantasy,” co-written by Ellington and Bubber Miley, merged different rhythms and featured Nicolette DePass’s fierce grace with Garth Fagan’s choreography. Ellington and Miley also co-wrote the delightful "East St. Louis Toodle-oo," including the eye-catching dancer Karine Plantadit from Come Fly Away. The band’s “Braggin’ in Brass” dazzled with speed and rhythm. “The Mooche” was Ellington’s study of a shadier side of society and “Rockin’ in Rhythm” rocked the program to its finale. A nod went to Ellington’s songbird, Adelaide Hall, as Carmen Ruby Floyd vocalized fluently to Ellington’s haunting “Creole Love Call.” Sassy vixen Adriane Lenox warned “Women Be Wise” (Sippie Wallace) and don’t flaunt your man’s virtues or another woman may just grab him away. Lenox also recalled Ethel Waters’s and Sidney Easton’s caustic good riddance to a faithless lover, “Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night.” On the melancholy side, Brandon Victor Dixon crooned the silky long lines of “Ill Wind” by Harold Arlen/Ted Koehler, and Carla Cook followed with their “Stormy Weather.” Cook was outstanding with “I Can't Give You Anything But Love" (Jimmy McHugh/Dorothy Fields), delivering the story with a soft swing and scat as she strolled from one side of the stage to the other. Imaginative props included red balloons giving a light, upbeat feeling to Dixon’s charming "I've Got the World on a String" (Arlen/ Koehler). Maneuvering a movable staircase, Everett Bradley, Monroe Kent III, T. Oliver Reid and Christian Dante White stepped, scatted and sang "Diga Diga Doo" (McHugh/Fields) to an arrangement by Ellington and the Mills Brothers. Dapper in black tie, Bradley, Jason E. Bernard, Christopher Broughton, Daniel J. Watts, Joseph Monroe Webb, and J.L. Williams creatively moved in tight unison to “Peckin’” (Harry James/Ben Pollack). "Happy As the Day Is Long" (Arlen/ Koehler) was exuberantly danced and sung by elastic tappers, DeWitt Fleming Jr. and Kendrick Jones, as was Johnny Hodges’s “Goin’ Nuts,” choreographed by and danced with the amazing Jared Grimes. In the beautifully renovated City Center, scenic consultant John Lee Beatty used theatrical curtains, chandeliers and scrims to evoke a1930s nightclub ambiance. Exceptional lighting design by Peter Kaczorowski set the moods and Toni-Leslie James dressed the performers in bright costumes of the era. Cotton Club Parade was an exemplary musical tribute to the elegant and innovative Duke Ellington. The only downside to the show was its brevity, a short run of seven days. (Pictured: Jason E. Bernard, Christopher Broughton, Daniel J. Watts, Joseph Monroe Webb, J.L. Williams. Photo by Joan Marcus) Elizabeth Ahlfors Cabaret Scenes November 19, 2011 www.cabaretscenes.org

Cotton Club Parade

City CenterNew York, NY

City Center
New York, NY