Day: February 2, 2023

“Downstairs in the bar is the charismatic “Man in the Saloon” (Elijah Rock). He epitomizes that handsome, low-down, cheatin’, heart-breakin’ fancy man. He is too fly to stay with just one woman so he shares his charms with all the ladies.”

“Blues in the Night” is a winner! While news travels fast when a red-hot musical comes to town, keep in mind this show will only be at North Coast Repertory in Solana Beach until Feb. 12.

It’s another breezeless night in the south in the summer of 1930. As the “Hotel” sign flashes in yellow neon below her window, a sultry chanteuse, known only as a “Woman of the World” (Karole Foreman), gazes out her window sipping warm wine lamenting her bad luck. Meanwhile on the floor below a velvety voiced “The Lady from the Road” (Anise Ritchie) waits for her agent to call her with another booking.

Downstairs in the bar is the charismatic “Man in the Saloon” (Elijah Rock). He epitomizes that handsome, low-down, cheatin’, heart-breakin’ fancy man. He is too fly to stay with just one woman so he shares his charms with all the ladies.

Across the hall, “The Girl with a Date” (Ciarra Stroud) idlily waits. Stroud is perfectly cast as the naïve ingénue. Sweet and likable.

This small but mighty cast was put together by director Yvette Freeman Harley, who stuffed the stage with talent.

Sitting above and behind the singers is conductor/pianist Kevin Toney counting out “3,4,5” as the red-hot musicians hit their licks; Roy Jenkins is on bass, Danny King drums, with Malcom Jones on reeds, and Thomas Alforque finessing the trumpet.

“Blues in the Night” was conceived by and originally directed by Sheldon Epps. Collège Chapman Roberts did the vocal arrangements and acted as musical supervisor. This dynamic duo has earned multiple Tony Award nominations as well as multiple successes on and off Broadway, London’s East End, and between them they’ve pretty much covered the world in song.

For this local production, kudos go to musical director Lanny Hartley, choreographer Roxane Carrasco, and set designer Marty Burnett.

“Blues in the Night” sizzles with snappy tunes and torch songs. It’s what’s best about the South without the chitlins. There is not a bad seat in the house, so get your tickets at 858-481-1055 or https://northcoastrep.org/. The theatre is at 987 Lomas Santa Fe Dr. Suite D, Solana Beach. Lots of free parking, too. Rated 9 out of 10.

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“Adding a bit of swagger and humor is Elijah Rock, symbolizing all that’s wrong with those darned men who keep giving women more blues to sing. And of course, he finds plenty to sing about when it comes to women … and does so boldly.”

The blues is a style of music, created in the early 1900s in the deep South.  Not surprisingly, The origins of the blues are poorly documented. According to Britannica, blues developed in the southern United States after the American Civil War (1861–65). It was influenced by work songs and field hollers, minstrel show music, ragtime, church music, as well as the folk and popular music of the white population. Numerous sources tell us that the term “the blues” probably originated with the 17th-century English expression “the blue devils,” for the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. The bottom lines is that it’s about channeling what’s wrong in a way that gives it an out — in a sharable, connecting way.

Creator Sheldon Epps’ Blues in the Night is the lamentations of four black people living in a poor residence hotel in 1938, and Marty Burnett’s set design at North Coast Rep suits that to a T. The reality is that this program isn’t really a musical in the conventional sense.  It’s far more of a musical revue tribute to these classic songs. There’s no plot to speak of, though the foursome certainly do a lot to act out each song all its worth; and many of the songs themselves tell a bit of a story. There’s little connection between one song and the next, other than each is a classic piece of blues history.

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