Broadway has a new hit musical on it’s hands and it’s a jazzy rocking good time that is drawing praise from fans and theater critics alike.
“After Midnight” is a throwback to the days of the Harlem Renaissance and the Cotton Club. Speaking of the Cotton Club, if you caught the “Cotton Club Parade” in 2011 or 12, “After Midnight” may feel a bit familiar. That production, the first partnership between City Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center, is the basis for “Midnight.”
The jump to Broadway has brought a few changes: There is the completely new name (due to licensing issues), new costumes by designer Isabel Toledo, plus an interchanging list of new performers, including R&B star Fantasia Barrino who headlines through Feb. 9.
Aside from those few minor changes, the production remains the same. Warren Carlyle returns as director and choreographer. Legendary jazz man Wynton Marsalis takes up musical director duties and is spot on with the music including some of the era’s best tunes such as the Duke Ellington favorites “Daybreak Express” and “Creole Love Call”.
Other classics by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields (“I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”) and Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler (“I’ve Got the World on a String”) further enrich the musical experience.
Marsalis has literally transformed Fantasia from a wailing R&B powerhouse into a playful jazz songstress. Her renditions of the aforementioned “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love”, “Stormy Weather” and cover of Cab Calloway’s “Zaz Zuh Zaz” are particularly choice and decidedly without the dramatics usually expected of soul singers.
Dulé Hill, star of the hit USA network show “Psych” shows off his tap dancing talents and interweaves the words of poet Langston Hughes throughout the show. The poetry acts as an anchor to the revue helping to keep it centered.
Rounding out the cast are Adriane Lenox, who gives dizzying performances of “Women Be Wise” and “Go Back Where You Stayed Last Night,” and “So You Think You Can Dance” alums Julius (iGlide) Chisolm and Virgil (Lil’ O) Gadson.
Just when you think, you’ve had all you can take, the incomparable Jazz at Lincoln Center All Stars Orchestra end the show on the highest of notes that sends the audiences floating out the theater.
“After Midnight” is currently playing at the Brooks Atkinson Theater in NYC through March 2014.
