Keely Overhauled
The new and improved ‘Louis & Keely Live’
By Don Shirley
Seldom do the big fish in the L.A. theater world acknowledge the presence of the little guppies. Here’s a thrilling exception to the rule – the big-deal Geffen Playhouse is hosting a new and substantially improved version of Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, one of the small theater scene’s greatest hits of 2008.
The venue itself provides some of the improvements. The play’s principal settings are the mind of the dying singer and bandleader Louis Prima in 1978 and, more literally, a Las Vegas lounge in the ’50s. The production’s two previous, sub-100-seat homes, Sacred Fools Theater and the Matrix, suggested Prima’s interior monologue well enough. But they couldn’t pass as Vegas lounges nearly as credibly as the Geffen’s smaller theater, the Audrey Skirball Kenis.
It has been re-configured into a room vaguely resembling a nightclub, with a capacity of 134 including additional seating in the area that’s often occupied by the lip of the stage. A few tables and drinks would have made the illusion even more obvious – but they also would have cut back the space available for theatergoers, and it’s useful for this crowd to be somewhat bigger than, say, 99, in order to amplify the jolts of musical electricity that surge through the audience.
It also helps that the arrangement of the new space creates prominent aisles on two sides and across the center. Taylor Hackford, the movie director who engineered this new version of the show, uses the aisles extensively in ways that enhance intimacy, despite the larger size of the audience.
The script of the Geffen version is about 40 percent changed. It covers Prima’s pre-Vegas years in New Orleans and on tour with much greater detail and provides some photographic documentation in projections on the backdrop, designed by Joel Daavid. These sections more explicitly establish the black roots of Prima’s sound, among other points.
But the biggest difference is that the new show increases the importance of the ampersand in its title. The earlier script could have been titled Louis With Keely, but here Keely Smith – the younger singer who’s now discovered in Virginia Beach (her provenance was previously murky) before becoming Prima’s deadpan partner and more animated wife – is more clearly an equal partner in the drama.
The real Keely Smith had disclosed details of an affair with Frank Sinatra to Hackford, according to a Hackford interview in the L.A. Times. For the show’s latest edition, Smith no longer is left to exchange flirtations with a relatively anonymous sax player (Colin Kupka) in response to her husband’s philandering. Instead, she now gets to play around with Ol’ Blue Eyes himself – and not only in the bedroom. We also see Sinatra flying Smith to Hollywood to personally supervise the recording of her solo album that supposedly helped drive a wedge into her relationship with Prima.
This clash of more equally powerful partners is the dramatic ingredient that lifts this show above the star-obsessed scenarios of the recent musicals focused only on one big-name singer (Ray Charles, Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald).
The scorching performance of Jake Broder as Prima and the cooler but equally vibrant performance of Vanessa Claire Smith as Keely are intact from the previous version, as are many of the same band members who not only heat up the house instrumentally but say a few lines (Broder and Paul Litteral are the musical directors).
But additional actors now appear as well. Nick Cagle plays Prima’s brother and then Sinatra. Erin Matthews makes a smooth transition from Smith’s churchgoing mother into a stripper (but Prima’s powerful mother remains offstage). In a sizzling number choreographed by Vernel Bagneris, Matthews and Crystal Keith serve as Prima’s dancing partners behind Smith’s back, as the jilted wife sings “What Is This Thing Called Love?”
In other words, the new Louis & Keely is richer in its staging as well as in its script. We can also guess that co-creators Broder and Smith as well as the other artists are being compensated more appropriately than they were in the 99-seat theaters. So far, at least, this is a model of how a show can expand and thrive without leaving the L.A. theatrical environment.
Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood, (310) 208-5454. GeffenPlayhouse.com. Tue.-Thur., 8 p.m.; Fri., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 3:30 and 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. $15-$65. Closes Sun., April 26.
Published: 03/25/2009
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