A year after its record-breaking Sondheim Celebration, Pasadena Playhouse gives Jelly Roll’s Jam as spectacularly staged and phenomenally performed a 33rd-anniversary revival as any lover of rarely produced musicals could wish for.

The Jelly Roll in question is neither the tasty sponge cake confection you might pick up at the local bakery or the American rapper of the same name but Jelly Roll Morton (1890-1941), the self-proclaimed “inventor of jazz.”

He was also a Louisiana Creole of Spanish, French and African descent who refused to be categorized as anything other than that, steadfastly maintaining that there “ain’t no black notes in my song,” much to the displeasure the African Americans who ate up his music like the sweetest of jelly rolls.

Book writer George C. Wolfe starts, not at the very beginning, but at the end, the very end, of Jelly Roll’s too-short life, his corpse hidden from view by a white sheet, though it doesn’t take long for Morton (John Clarence Stewart) to rise from the dead for a journey back in time, a mysterious, imposing figure known only as Chimney Man (Cress Williams) serving as his escort down memory lane.

Transformed into Young Jelly (Doran Butler), Morton relives his youthful passion for the street rhythms of early 20th-century New Orleans, in particular the music of ragtime cornetist Buddy Bolden (Grasan Kingsberry) and blues vocalist Miss Mamie (Summer Nicole Greer), much to the displeasure of his imperious Creole grandmother Gran Mimi (Karole Foreman), who promptly disowns him for crossing over to the bad black side of the street.

From then on Jelly travels to Chicago, where he meets his soon-to-be best friend Jack the Bear (Wilkie Ferguson III) and falls head over heels for the beautiful Anita (Jasmine Amy Rogers), both of whom he ends up betraying all the while spitting out racist slurs to do a Klansman proud.

In other words, talented or not, Jelly Roll Morton is not the nicest guy to spend time with, which is why it’s essential to find the right leading man to bring him to three-dimensional life, and for his innate likability alone (showcased in TV’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist), Stewart is precisely that leading man, director Kent Gash surrounding him with the most fabulous of triple-threat casts and the most visually striking of production designs.

That’s not to say I love Jelly’s Last Jam (The Musical) unreservedly. It’s rather a bit too dark for my tastes, its lead character is indeed hard to embrace, and the musical genre being spotlighted isn’t one I go wild for.

Still, it’s impossible not to cheer the revival Pasadena Playhouse has given it thirty-three years after its Mark Taper Forum World Premiere and thirty-two after its Broadway debut scored eleven Tony nominations and three wins.

Leading man Stewart may not be the trained tap dancer Gregory Hines was on Broadway, which is probably why choreographer Dell Howlett leaves most of the tapping to Jelly’s costars, in particular to the downright stupendous Butler, who scores by far the evening’s longest and loudest ovation when Young Jelly dances to do The Nicholas Brothers and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson proud, but in all other respects Stewart’s Jelly delivers the goods in a powerfully acted, gorgeously sung star turn.

Williams’s Chimney Man is a commanding presence throughout the show as Jelly’s (and our) guide through his checkered past, Rogers is a sultry sensation as Anita (her “Play The Music For Me” is a bona fide sizzler), the always fabulous Fergusson does powerhouse work as the butt of Jelly’s self-hating racism, and Foreman (who originated the role of Miss Mamie at the Taper, played here by an on-fire Greer) is a force to be reckoned with as Grand Mimi.

Cyd Charisse Glover-Hill, Janay Mahealani Jones, and Naomi C. Walley are red-hot as the girl-group Greek chorus known as “The Hunnies,” while Eric B. Anthony (Three Finger Jake), Chante Carmel, Kingsberry (a standout as Buddy Bolden), Amber Liekhus, Davon Rashawn, Joe Aaron Reid (Foot0in-Yo-Ass Sam), and Hannah Yosef (Too Tight Nora) prove the most talented and tireless of ensembles in tracks that have them singing and dancing up a nonstop storm throughout the show.

Production designers Edward E. Haynes, Jr. (set), Rui Rita (lighting), Samantha C. Jones (costumes), and Sheila Dorn (wigs) may start evening off in stark black-and-white, but it doesn’t take long for Jelly’s Last Jam to turn as richly hued as Jelly’s own decidedly colorful life.

Music director Darryl Archibald makes a triumphant return from Broadway to Pasadena, conducting a jazztastic ten-piece orchestra while sound designers Danny Erdberg and Ursula Kwong Brown provide a crystal clear mix of vocals and instrumentals as the cast perform songs by composers Ferdinand La Menthe “Jelly Roll” Morton and Luther Henderson and lyricist Susan Birkenhead.

Joy DeMichelle is intimacy coordinator. Casting is by Ryan Bernard Tymensky, CSA. lark hackshaw is stage manager and David S. Franklin, Miriam Mendoza, and Jessica Keasberry-Vnuk are assistant stage managers. Davidson & Choy Publicity are publicists.

At a time when many if not most American regional theaters are scaling back on their seasons not to mention virtually eliminating musicals from their lineups, Pasadena Playhouse, under Danny Feldman’s inspired, inspiring artistic directorship, has opted to buck that trend, and how!

Jelly’s Last Jam’s triumphant return to our local stages more than three decades after its Center Theatre Group debut is an event worth celebrating with sold-out houses and standing ovations galore.

Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena.
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
June 2, 2024
Photos: Jeff Lorch

Tags: George C. Wolfe, Jelly Roll Morton, Los Angeles Theater Review, Luther Henderson, Pasadena Playhouse, Susan Birkenhead