Stage Preview: Actress ready to put her stamp on 'Smokey Joe's Cafe'
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Deb Lyons, left, Terry Burrell and Bob Gaynor rehearse for Pittsburgh CLO's production of "Smokey Joe's Cafe."
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A veteran African-American actress and singer with more than a half-dozen Broadway credits, Terry Burrell has played many ethnicities. In the national tour of Barry Manilow's "Copacabana," produced by Pittsburgh CLO, she was Conchita, a Cuban showgirl ("I talked like theees," she laughs, hamming up the accent). In "Thoroughly Modern Millie," she played the villain, a Chinese woman. And she has often played Julie, the tragic mulatto in "Show Boat."
But now she's playing a role without any ethnicity or even narrative story other than what she chooses to bring with her, as one of the nine performers doing "Smokey Joe's Cafe," opening tomorrow for a week at the CLO. This is the revue of some 40 songs by chameleon songwriting geniuses Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller that ran for more than 2,000 performances on Broadway, 1995-2000, then toured extensively.
- Where: Pittsburgh CLO at Benedum Center, Downtown.
- When: Tomorrow through Sun.; 8 p.m. Tues.-Fri., 2 and 8 p.m. Sat., and 2 p.m. Sun.
- Tickets: $18.50-$59.50.
- More information: 412-456-6666 or pittsburghclo.org.
No one has to be introduced to the music, which is part of our pop music heritage. "Kansas City," "Fools Fall in Love," "On Broadway," "Yakety Yak," "Charlie Brown," "Hound Dog," "Jailhouse Rock," "Love Potion No. 9" and "Spanish Harlem" are just some of the titles.
But this is "Smokey Joe's" first staging by CLO, and it's Burrell's first experience of the CLO sprint -- staging and rehearsing a musical in just one week. But she says director Barry Ivan, with whom she worked on "Thoroughly Modern Millie," is "very structured; I feel I'm in capable hands."
It's not a "juke box musical," where a story is written to accommodate the treasures of one composer's songbook, but a revue. So it falls to the actors to find the attitude behind each song.
Talking over the lunch break during just the second day of rehearsal, Burrell said Ivan helps by approaching the cast as actors, not just singers. The result is a freedom to reinterpret the songs rather than re-create what the original Broadway performers did.
In spite of her connection with CLO through "Copacabana," Burrell says she was surprised to be asked to audition for "Smokey Joe," because "I clearly can't sing like B.J. [Crosby]," who first played her part. "She's much more gospelly, bigger, with a brassier voice. I've had to make it my own."
She worked on the lyrics before she came to Pittsburgh for rehearsals. "I'd wake up at 2 a.m. and go, 'Oh, boy, I've got to go over my lyrics!' So I'd put on my headphones and study, finally going back to sleep about 4:30."
Of course she was already familiar with the music, as anyone of a certain age must be. "When you remember it, it takes you back to that time -- your carefree youth. It's nostalgic." Its lyrics are also full of potential double-meanings, some obscured by the pop lightness of the melodies, leaving it up to the performers how much of that to bring out.
One of Burrell's songs is "Hound Dog." Like most of us, she's most used to Elvis Presley's version. But before he made the song famous, there was Big Mama Thornton with her big, gravelly, assertive voice. Burrell says when she sings the song, it's more sly, the singer "reading" her man. "He's a hunter, going after his prey, and she's telling him off: 'You can wag your tail, but you ain't no friend of mine.' "
In another song, "Dance With Me," Burrell says she plays "sexy and womanly," not as comic as it was on Broadway. And in a third, "Fools Fall in Love," she first sings up-tempo, as a confession that she's been a fool, and then, in a reprise, she's more introspective.
"I think the challenge with this music is to approach it as an acting piece, not a sing-along," she says. "It's whatever story the actors give it."
That can be a challenge. She was then working on her part of the opening number, "In the Neighborhood," wondering to what extent this is a real neighborhood, "or is it a state of mind?"
Looking forward, after her week in "Smokey Joe's," Burrell returns to her home in Atlanta, where she will be in a version of "For Colored Girls." Then she goes to Massachusetts' North Shore Playhouse to play Julie again in "Show Boat." And beyond that, there's a New York workshop of "Side Show," the real story of Siamese twins dramatized by the creators of "Dreamgirls," which might be due for a Broadway revival.
First Published July 14, 2008 12:00 am
