A Night With Janis Joplin
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Cititour.com Review
If Mary Bridget Davies doesn’t break a piece of your heart in A Night With Janis Joplin, the accomplished bioplay-cum-rock concert now being smartly staged at Broadway’s Lyceum Theatre, your central organ is probably made of stone. And if she and her crackerjack band don’t get your hands clapping or feet stomping – well, then you’re definitely a statue.
Alternately vulnerable, slightly shy, and downright fierce, this heretofore little-known performer captures the raspy-voiced 1960s rock-blues singer with a force that can probably be felt all the way to 45th Street. Still, Davies never fails to remind us that, at her core, Joplin was a sweet, melancholy girl who never really left her solid, middle-class roots in Texas, no matter how far she roamed or how much whiskey she drank. (Joplin’s drug use is left curiously unmentioned.)
Indeed, it’s the “little girl blue” that dominates large sections of writer-director Randy Johnson’s rather overlong two-act piece. Davies doesn’t really get to catch completely on fire vocally until the show’s last 30 minutes with a string of stand-out numbers that begins with Joplin’s megahit “Me and Bobby McGee” and then continues with balls-to-the-walls renditions of “Ball and Chain,” “Kozmic Blues” and “Stay With Me.” (In case you’re wondering, “Mercedes Benz” isn’t forgotten. It’s foolishly saved for a sing-along encore, by which point some audience members have already wandered out the door.)
In fact, for much of the work, Janis is almost overshadowed by her blues idols, such as Odetta, Nina Simone, Bessie Smith. It’s not only that Janis talks so much about how they – and their art form -- influenced her; it’s that these legendary songstresses are embodied on stage by four dynamite performers, De’Adre Aziza, Taprena Michelle Augustine, Nikki Kimbrough, and the particularly amazing Allison Blackwell, each of whom are worthy of their own show. (Indeed, Blackwell’s “imitation” of Aretha Franklin is practically worth the price of admission!)
Still, for the few things “A Night With Janis Joplin” gets wrong, it gets plenty right For one thing, unlike some of the recent, cheesier exercises in 1960s nostalgia, the show offers a first-class physical production, from the clever lamp-filled set by Justin Townsend to Amy Clark’s beautiful, spot-on costumes and Darrel Moloney’s evocative projections.
Most of all, it introduces many of us to Davies, whose career should hopefully expand beyond recreating Joplin (which she previously did in “Love Janis”) into even brighter territory.
By Brian Scott Lipton
Visit the Site
http://www.anightwithjanisjoplin.com
Cast
Mary Bridget Davis, Taprena Michelle Augustine, De’Adre Aziza, Nikki Kimbrough, NaTasha Yvette Williams, Kacee Clanton, Allison Blackwell, Alison Cusano
Open/Close Dates
Opening 10/10/2013
Closing 2/9/2014
Preview Open/ Preview Close Dates
Preview Opening 9/20/2013
Closing Open-ended
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
Lyceum Theatre
149 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
Map
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