By Sean Dalton
sdalton
Twitter: @seankdalton
When Dexter-based Encore Musical Theatre Assistant Director Steven Debruyne compared upcoming “Smokey Joe’s Café” to 2010’s “Forever Plaid,” I got excited about what makes live theater so wonderful.
Performing arts are at their best, in my opinion, when the creators and producers involved are being innovative with the medium.
Some people probably remember “Forever Plaid” for incorporating the audience as a character: the fictional audience of an ethereal Big Band concert performed by the dead-and-gone-to-Heaven group of the same name.
“Club Morocco’s” nightclub noir drama, with its tongue-in-cheek hilarity, was greatly enhanced by actual audience members dancing during the band’s musical numbers, but also a sense that the audience was at the club, too.
When fantasy and reality begin to blur together, the potential for viewer immersion is through the roof, and when this kind of musical presentation is involved, it’s like getting a show and a concert for the price of one.
Without having directly talked to any of the production people involved in the Encore’s production of “Smokey Joe,” at this point, I get a feeling that people like me, who count the aforementioned shows among their favorites, will have a blast starting off the New Year with this first 2012 Encore show.
“My first thought about ‘Smokey Joe’s Café’ was, ‘Huh? What’s that?'” Debruyne admits in the show announcement.
“Smokey Joe” promises to be similar to “Plaid” and “Morocco” in that being an audience member is a much less passive position to be in, making for a good time and expressing it with smiles, laughter and applause actual plot participation that is exhilarating and positive.
“Smokey Joe’s” is another trip for the imagination to the times and music of the 1950s, during which classics such as “Yakety Yak,” “Charlie Brown” and “Stand By Me” were topping the charts. That’s the sort of musical fair that the Encore is promising for the show.
“If you enjoyed ‘Forever Plaid’ at the Encore, then you will love ‘Smokey Joe’s Café,'” Debruyne promised.
The production stars Broadway’s Amy Smidebush and will run Feb. 2 through Feb. 26.
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