The last time we saw Parrish Collier performing on the Cabot Theatre stage in the Broadway Theatre Center, he was playing an anarchist and part time philosophy professor whose cross-dressing lover was dying of AIDS. It was "Rent," the Skylight Music Theatre's final production of the 2009-10 season, and his voice was crushed velvet.
Now he is back at the Cabot as a song and dance man in the service of George Gershwin and some of the composer's 1930s contemporaries. The show is a musical revue, "Gershwin and Friends," and the Skylight opened it last weekend.
Collier chose the songs and assembled the show with singer Cynthia Cobb, his onstage partner. They selected mostly standards from George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller and Harold Arlen. Skylight artistic director Bill Theisen helped shape the piece.
Adding accompanist and singer Paul Helm, they staged "Gershwin and Friends" for a short run in the Broadway Theatre Center's Studio Theatre last year. It was a critical and box office hit.
When the Skylight unexpectedly needed to fill a hole in its Cabot Theatre schedule this season, the company decided to produce an expanded version of the revue in the larger space. Several songs were added, and each of the two acts got a full set. Two more musicians, Michael Lorenz and Tom McGirr, joined the show.
The revue is exclusively Gershwin in the first act. The setting is his New York home in 1936, and the conceit is that Collier and Cobb are in the kitchen, catering his birthday party. Helm wanders in wearing a tuxedo, sits down at a piano, and the show begins.
Act 1 started slowly and Cobb was vocally shaky early on opening night. She hit her stride by the seventh song, "Someone to Watch Over Me," and then she was off to the races. "But Not for Me" was strong, as was Cobb's duet with Collier on "Fascinating Rhythm/I Got Rhythm."
While Collier and Cobb fill the typical male-female, singer-hoofer roles in the revue, Helm performs, usually at the keyboard, with a twinkle in his eye. He's a refreshing change of pace and demonstrates his singing ability with his only first act solo, "Bidin' My Time."
After the Gershwin birthday party is over, the performers move uptown to Harlem for some jazz club action in Act 2, and the revue kicks into overdrive. The setting is glitzier, and the energy level rises several notches. Ellington, Waller and Arlen are added to the mix.
Cobb delivers a powerful "Stormy Weather"; Collier takes the lead on a beautifully poignant "Mood Indigo." Bassist McGirr and vibist Lorenz each get the spotlight on an individual number – "Slap that Bass" and "Over the Rainbow."
"Gershwin and Friends" is a solid piece of entertainment that fits into the Skylight's broad buffet of music theater.
From UWM to Broadway
Chike Johnson didn't plan to be an actor when he enrolled in UWM after serving in the military, but the Franklin High School grad made his Broadway debut in a high profile production last week. He plays the small role of a hospital technician in the revival of "Wit," which stars former "Sex and the City" actress Cynthia Nixon.
"Humble beginnings, but the cast and director are wonderful, and I'm really excited to be on a Broadway stage," Johnson said in an email.
The actor happened to take a theater class while at UWM, and he liked it. He became a protege of actress and Renaissance Theaterworks co-founder Raeleen McMillion, who is on the school's theater faculty. Johnson completed the UWM Professional Theatre Training Program, found work with Renaissance and the Rep, and moved to Chicago, where he was cast in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama "Ruined."
When the Chicago production moved to an off-Broadway theater in New York in 2009, Johnson went with it. He has steadily climbed the national theater ladder since, acting at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. and New York City Center, and winning the Sidney Poitier Award for best actor in Chicago for his work in "Sizwe Banzi is Dead" at the Court Theatre there.
Damien has been around so long, he was at Summerfest the night George Carlin was arrested for speaking the seven dirty words you can't say on TV. He was also at the Uptown Theatre the night Bruce Springsteen's first Milwaukee concert was interrupted for three hours by a bomb scare. Damien was reviewing the concert for the Milwaukee Journal. He wrote for the Journal and Journal Sentinel for 37 years, the last 29 as theater critic.
During those years, Damien served two terms on the board of the American Theatre Critics Association, a term on the board of the association's foundation, and he studied the Latinization of American culture in a University of Southern California fellowship program. Damien also hosted his own arts radio program, "Milwaukee Presents with Damien Jaques," on WHAD for eight years.
Travel, books and, not surprisingly, theater top the list of Damien's interests. A news junkie, he is particularly plugged into politics and international affairs, but he also closely follows the Brewers, Packers and Marquette baskeball. Damien lives downtown, within easy walking distance of most of the theaters he attends.
