‘Poe & All That Jazz’
Poe & All That Jazz
Harman Center – The Forum
Remaining performances:
Saturday, July 19 @ Noon; Sunday, July 20 @ 8 PM
They say: “Helen Hayes Award-winning playwright Peter Coy explores undercurrents of abandonment in Poe’s tragic personal life, thinly veiled in art. Horrifying and humorous, ‘a delicious, confusing, delicate, sensual delight’; jazz, ghosts, poetry and song. A phantasmagoric ‘dream within a dream – none of this is real’ but it’s all true.”
Tabitha’s take: I don’t know if I should write a review or a term paper, but I was an English major, so it’s a happy conundrum. This is a little gem of a show. The concept of pairing standards with classics isn’t new, but Porter and Poe? Really? Well, yes. The songs are like punctuation marks, resulting from and driving the action while offering sly commentary.
What’s more, Poe is funny. Not all the time. If you want creepy Poe, you’ll get him, but the power of this piece is its emotional exploration. Here Poe is more than than a hollow-eyed tortured soul. He’s pitiful, pained, ebullient, cocky, angry, thoughtful – pretty human, actually. As Poe, Jon Cobb is riveting as he takes the audience through stories, poems, letters, and dreams. Equally mesmerizing is Patti Finn, who is the vocal part of all the jazz and plays the women in Poe’s life and work. They are aided flawlessly by Bob Bennetta on piano and Jim Ryan on bass. Together, the ensemble is thoroughly entertaining.
The play deliberately blurs the lines between dream and reality by transitioning invisibly from Poe’s life to his stories, so there may be a few confusing moments until you remember that no, Poe did not bury an ax in his wife’s head and build a brick wall around her, but that’s part of the fun.
I want to own, read, and mull this play. Oh, the discussions we could have about genius and madness, the school of psychological criticism, the layers of meanings behind the doll used in the production, and yes, there’s more, but I guess I’ll save it for the term paper.
See it if: You know a lot about Poe, or want to know more about Poe; heck, see it if you can spell Poe.
Skip it if: Thinking gives your brain an ouchie.
6:54 am
This show was awesome! The script, the use of the jazz standards, and especially the performances were outstanding. I loved it.
9:25 am
WOW! I knew it was going to be a great show when Patti Finn entered the room. She was radiant inspite of her ghostly makeup, but a banshee she was not. This lady brought it to the Harman in a delicious way. Jon Cobb’s suprise entrance got things rolling, and boy did he deliver. He made Poe feel so entirely unabstract. I don’t know where in the hell Nellysford Virginia is, but I know it is lucky to have Hamner Theater. Bravo!
10:10 am
A truly remarkable performance all around. I am by no means a Poe aficionado however this script really entertains. I found myself having to go home and read up on some Poe to clarify the excellently blurred lines of Poe’s life, letters and writings but it was well worth it. The highlight of the show was definitely the synthesis of Poe’s poetry and jazz classic. The alternating poetic lines with timed musical lines was masterfully handled by Bennetta & Ryan which is by no means an easy feat.
Both performers managed to translate every emotion of Poe’s life/stories without the often obvious transitional character gaps found in stage theater. Both performed amazingly the eerie, witty, love-torn, nuances needed to pull off such a unique piece.
Bennetta and Ryan’s touch and depth of musical talent added tremendously to the overall experience. Quite obviously the performance hinged on the succesful integration of music into the whole and their sensitively adept performance was sublime – Never overbearing always enhancing.
note* Unfortunately for any performers in the venue of the Harman Center Forum room, your are most likely to be forced to listen to the only slightly muted sounds of the neighboring amateur opera. Its sad that this brand new (and otherwise wonderful facility) was not able to appropriately deal with acoustics between performance rooms.