Singers, dancers, musicians shine 'After Midnight'
Broadway homage a showcase for great artists past and present
NEW YORK -- It is a sight not seen that often on a Broadway stage: the face of a musician, savoring an instrumental solo or a moment of camaraderie with other orchestra members.
In the new Broadway production After Midnight (three and a half out of four stars), which opened Sunday at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre, a big band shares the spotlight with the singers and dancers, moving front and center for several numbers. The Jazz At Lincoln Center All-Stars, as they're billed, were assembled by that group's artistic director, Wynton Marsalis; and you will be struck as much by their intensity, playfulness and sheer joy in making music as you are by their technical virtuosity.
An updated version of Cotton Club Parade, Jack Viertel's 2011 homage to Duke Ellington's years holding court at the Harlem nightspot in the 1920s and '30s, Midnight isn't a book musical. It does incorporate Langston Hughes' poetry, but chiefly to string together Ellington's compositions and other noted songs of the era, crafted by the likes of Harold Arlen and Dorothy Fields.
Thus while the show has a distinct air of social and cultural consciousness, there is no hagiographical account of an artist's life, no ludicrous plot tossed off to accommodate a catalog of tunes, as a jukebox musical might offer. Instead, you get 90 minutes of honest, vital entertainment, delivered with enough breezy wit to mitigate the flashes of pomp.
Dulé Hill sets the tone as our master of ceremonies, reciting Hughes' reflections on life, and death, with appropriate dignity while also locating their earthy, sometimes rueful humor. A tap-dancing prodigy long before he acted on TV's The West Wing and Psych, Hill joins several performers in meticulous, exhilarating routines choreographed by Warren Carlyle, who also directs.
Carlyle shows off both the particular strengths of his dancers -- among them the slippery-footed Julius 'iGlide' Chisolm and the mighty Alvin Ailey alumna Karine Plantadit -- and their capacity for precision and reserve. Hill and the company present I've Got the World On A String as a study in subdued elation, while the trio showcased in a medley of Raisin' The Rent and Get Yourself A New Broom bursts with giddy energy.
Fantasia performs in Broadway's AFTER MIDNIGHT.(Photo: Matthew Murphy)
The singers are showcased with equal savvy. The gifted Adriane Lenox overdoes the sass a bit romping through Women Be Wise and Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night, but guest star Fantasia Barrino's I Can't Give You Anything But Love and On the Sunny Side of the Street have a silvery charm that only an ogre could resist. (k.d. lang will begin a stint as guest Feb. 11, followed by Toni Braxton and Kenny 'Babyface' Edmonds on March 18.)
k.d. lang and Wynton Marsalis of AFTER MIDNIGHT. k.d. lang will begin a stint as a guest Feb. 11. Marsalis is The Jazz At Lincoln Center All-Stars' artistic director.(Photo: Jenny Anderson, After Midnight on Broadway)
Isabel Toledo's bright-hued costumes lend extra sparkle and whimsy. The jazz All-Stars are more conservatively attired, but no matter: You'll find a rainbow of colors and expressions in their playing, from bluesy to blissful. And you'll revel in all of them.
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