Cafe Society Swing

December 25, 2014

Cafe Society SwingPart documentary theatre and part musical revue, Cafe Society Swing (written by Alex Webb, directed by Simon Green, and presented at 59E59 Theaters) tells of the legendary Manhattan supper club that broke the city’s color barrier beginning in 1938. The show is based on Terry Trilling-Josephson’s 2009 book Cafe Society: The Wrong Place for the Right People. For that book, Trilling-Josephson interviewed her husband, the late Cafe Society founder Barney Josephson, then augmented the story with remembrances of others who’d lived through the cabaret’s history.

When I read the book earlier this year, it occurred to me that it might make a good musical film or play. It’s certainly a story with historical sweep. Josephson’s father was a cobbler from Eastern Europe who immigrated with his family to Trenton, New Jersey and died at a young age. Young Barney seemed destined for a career in the family footwear business but instead veered into show business as a young man and eventually ran two controversial Cafe Society clubs, one in Greenwich Village at Sheridan Square, the other uptown on E. 58th Street. The saga of the first clubs in New York City with an interracial mix both onstage and in the audience is rife with dramatic possibilities, especially considering that the cast of characters includes such important and flamboyant entertainment figures as Billie Holiday, Paul Robeson, Count Basie, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughan, and Zero Mostel. There’s also a potent political subplot involving Josephson’s brother Leon, a Communist who was investigated by Richard Nixon and went to prison during the Red Scare in the late 1940s, tainting the reputation of Barney’s clubs.

All of this information (and more) is presented in Cafe Society Swing, but the play is structured in an odd and confusing way. And the music—though by and large expertly performed—is sometimes integrated into the mix in awkward fashion.

The dramatic core of the play (or, more accurately, the lack thereof) is provided via narration by actor Evan Pappas, who plays three characters. In the first act he takes on the role of an ambitious tabloid journalist dredging up Commie dirt on Cafe Society. In the second act he is an amiable barkeep at the club. And at the very end of the show, he portrays Barney Josephson himself. All but one of Pappas’s scenes are monologues, and there’s an artificiality suffusing them. Pappas seems always to be reminding us that his main purpose is to spew exposition. Why the multiple narrative points of view were felt necessary is puzzling. The brief moments in which Pappas plays Josephson are quite effective, so I’m not really sure why writer Webb decided Barney couldn’t serve as protagonist throughout the entire evening. Most frustratingly, the final days of Cafe Society (not to mention Josephson’s later operation of the Cookery club at University Avenue and 8th Street) are not fully dealt with. Instead, the show ends with a re-creation of Billie Holiday’s famous performance of the anti-lynching song “Strange Fruit” (Lewis Allan). As sung by Charenee Wade, the number is appropriately gripping, but it brings the show to an abrupt, downbeat, and highly unsatisfying conclusion. Perhaps “Strange Fruit” would have been more effective as a closer to Act I.

Despite the title, the music in Cafe Society Swing is not only jazz and swing. Besides stars like Holiday and Horne, Josephson brought a varied musical roster of lesser-known artists to his clubs, including a practitioner of gospel singing (Sister Rosetta Tharpe), a French pop sensation (Lucienne Boyer), and a specialist in antique English folk music (Susan Reed). These and many other performers are represented in the show. The bulk of the singing is assigned to three performers—Wade, Allan Harris, and Cyrille Aimée—all of whom have some strong turns. But the extent to which these singers are actually supposed to be portraying the various Cafe Society headliners (as opposed to just performing their material) remains fuzzy. Aimée sings Horne’s numbers and seems to be portraying her in the show’s single dramatic scene (opposite Pappas), but the script remains ambiguous on the point. At another point Wade performs Tharpe’s gospel song “Rock Me” (Thomas A. Dorsey) in a medley with Ida Cox’s “Wild Women Don’t Get the Blues.” Since the script doesn’t specify that the second number was Cox’s signature song, it seems as though Sister Rosetta has suddenly broken loose from her churchy repertoire in an alarming way. Maybe it would help if images of the performers being saluted were projected during their respective numbers.

Despite these dramaturgical flaws, there is much to enjoy in the show. Musical highlights (in addition to the aforementioned performance by Wade of “Strange Fruit”) include Aimee’s wistful take on Boyer’s “Parlez-mois d’amour” (Jean Lenoir) and Harris’s rich rendition of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life.” Some original songs penned by Webb, including “Cafe Society” and “Wrong Place, Right People” are bright, tuneful surprises. The eight-piece band, led by Webb (who also serves as pianist), plays rather coolly and politely, for the most part. However, two musicians—trumpeter Benny Benack III and tenor saxophonist Camille Thurman—generate moments of excitement in their solo spots.

59E59 Theaters  –  December 16 – January 4

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About the Author

Mark Dundas Wood is an arts/entertainment journalist and dramaturg. He began writing reviews for BistroAwards.com in 2011. More recently he has contributed "Cabaret Setlist" articles about cabaret repertoire. Other reviews and articles have appeared in theaterscene.net and clydefitchreport.com, as well as in American Theatre and Back Stage. As a dramaturg, he has worked with New Professional Theatre and the New York Musical Theatre Festival. He is currently literary manager for Broad Horizons Theatre Company.