"Holiday Show With the Swing Club Band'

Broadway "jukebox musicals" traditionally stitch together old songs and link them with silly plots. The highly entertaining Holiday Show with the Swing Club Band makes no such pretense. This original production by Theatre Horizon even succeeds, subtly and casually, in getting us to care about the performers and what happens to them.

Instead of pretending to tell a story, this production simply recreates a nightclub as it would have appeared on the last night of 1949. A suave emcee introduces three singers who are accompanied by a small band playing in the style of the late '40s, when echoes of the Swing Era still dominated commercial music. (Bebop and progressive jazz were heard in small dives but hadn't yet infiltrated nightclubs such as this.)

Songs and dances are interspersed with banter between the emcee and the band's drummer, who serves as his comic foil. He puts me in mind of the flippant bandleader Phil Harris, who filled that function with Jack Benny (whom Harris called "Jackson").

As the clock ticks toward midnight, a romantic attraction develops between the emcee and one of the singers, and we're amused by a nerdy errand-boy's attempts to join the performers on stage. Despite his innocent goofiness, the kid displays real talent and wins everyone's hearts.

Just before Korea

An earlier edition of this show, set during World War II, was presented by Theatre Horizon two years ago. That one took a poignant turn when one of the stars announced that this would be his last appearance before he joined the army. The current show, set five years later, exudes a different sort of nostalgia: This was the last New Year's Eve of a triumphant America at peace.

After the victory over Germany and Japan we had four years of tranquility and optimism. Postwar prosperity found Americans moving to homes in the suburbs and buying new cars every year. But around the corner in 1950, the Korean War would start, the atomic spies Klaus Fuchs and the Rosenbergs would be arrested, and Joe McCarthy would launch his witch-hunts. It was a time of blissful blindness, epitomized by a song that became a hit at the end of 1949, "With My Eyes Wide Open I'm Dreaming." (That scarcely remembered song isn't included in this show, but it could have been.)

A touch of Harlem

Matthew Decker directs with a fine eye for detail. The actions of the principals"“ and their ad-lib interactions with the club's patrons"“ sound authentic. All of the performers are talented and personable. Ted Powell is the smooth emcee, Sarah Glicko is the sultry brunette singer who attracts him, Janet Rowley is a leggy blonde who taps and sings with equal skill, and Ryane Nicole Studivant is a belting vocalist who brings a touch of Harlem to this nightclub, most notably in "Gimme Some Skin, My Friend," by Don Raye and Gene DePaul, which captures the culture of the period.

Mike Reilly (who wrote the script) is the hip-talking drummer, Ryan Touhey is a consummate pianist and conductor of the band, with Josh Anderson taking some great trumpet solos. Peter Hilliard deserves credit for arranging the music.

The fine young actor Michael Doherty deserves special mention as the mild-mannered oaf who becomes a success. Doherty played one of the students in the recent Arden production of The History Boys; he also played the lead in Theatre Horizon's Honk. It takes exceptional talent to appear to be a clumsy simpleton before revealing his skills.♦


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