Chester Gregory may have Yvette Cason, Paulette Ivory, and Bryce Charles singing the lovesick blues from dusk to dawn, but for audiences at The Wallis, Sheldon Epps’ 1982 Best Musical Tony nominee Blues In the Night proves this year’s feel-best musical revue.

 Mistreated and misused by The Man In The Saloon (Gregory), The Lady From The Road (Cason), The Woman Of The World (Ivory), and The Girl With The Date (Charles) have more than enough reason to belt out a couple dozen early 20th-century blues classics by Duke Ellington, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen, Vernon Duke, Gordon Jenkins, and torch song legends Alberta Hunter and Bessie Smith.

 Cason recalls her shimmying days of yore in “New Orleans Hop Scop Blues” and Ivory the nights she spent “Stompin’ at the Savoy” while the still hopeful Charles declares herself in the mood for “Takin’ A Chance On Love,” to which Gregory has no choice but to respond with “Wild Women Don’t Have No Blues.”

Sexual innuendo abounds in Cason’s “Take Me For A Buggy Ride” (Who knew a parasol could give a woman so much pleasure?) and double entendre reigns supreme in her “Kitchen Man” (“His frankfurters are oh so sweet. How I like his sausage meat.”), both songs courtesy of the one-and-only Bessie.

 Ivory’s “Rough And Ready Man” may be decidedly un-PC with lyrics like “I don’t want no man that’s lazy, no man that tries to shirk,” but what woman doesn’t want “a two-fisted, double-jointed, rough and ready man,” and just wait till Charles launches into “Willow Weep For Me,” an early-1930s Dinah Washington-Ella Fitzgerald-Nina Simone classic that the AMDA grad makes exquisitely her own.

 Gregory does show up now and again to give all three women reason to get hot-and-bothered with his silky, seductive “I’m Just a Lucky So and So,” “Baby Doll,” and the most irresistible smile in town.

Still, under Epps’ finely-honed direction, this is the gals’ show all the way.

Cason’s sassy, scene-stealing, been-there-done-that Lady From The Road dominates the evening while Ivory’s sultry, stunning Woman Of The World and Charles’s fresh-and-frisky Girl With The Date offer sensational support.

 Backed by conductor Lanny Hartley on piano, Randall Willis and Louis Van Taylor on reeds, Lance Lee on percussion, and Fernando Pullum on trumpet, the cast’s four superb, distinctive voices take flight under Abdul Hamid Royal’s pitch-perfect music direction* with sound designer Cricket S. Myers providing amplification so expertly subtle, you could almost swear you’re hearing unplugged voices throughout.

 Scenic designer John Iacovelli gives us three gorgeously appointed adjoining rooms, The Lady’s dominated by a much-used double bed, The Woman’s filled with perfumes and booze, and The Girl’s looking as untouched as she was before meeting The Man.

Dana Rebecca Woods costumes each character in nostalgic late-1930s/early-1940s period wear, Jared A. Sayeg’s 400-cue lighting design is as tour-de-force as lighting designs get, and Danielle Richter’s period wigs merit their own snaps.

 Jeffrey Polk is associate director. Casting is by Telsey + Company and Ryan Bernard Tymensky, CSA. Art Brickman is production manager and Tara Sitser is assistant stage manager. Amber Liekhus is female understudy.

Blues In The Night guarantees audiences two hours of musical magic at The Wallis. To borrow a lyric from Broadway’s Cry-Baby, misery, agony, helplessness, hopelessness, heartache and woe have never sounded so good.

*Original vocal arrangements and musical direction by Chapman Roberts. Orchestrations and additional vocal arrangements by Sy Johnson.

Lovelace Studio Theatre, Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, 9390 N. Santa Monica Blvd, Beverly Hills.
www.thewallis.org

–Steven Stanley
May 2, 2018
Photos: Lawrence K. Ho

Tags: Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith., Duke Ellington, Gordon Jenkins, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Los Angeles Theater Review, Sheldon Epps, Vernon Duke, Wallis Annenberg Center For The Performing Arts