Winter blues got you down? Just take Broadway’s own giant happy pill — the terrific revue “After Midnight.”
Paying tribute to Duke Ellington and the heady days of Harlem joints like the Cotton Club, this thrilling jukebox musical has gotten even tighter since opening in November. Guest star Fantasia Barrino is gone, but she’s been replaced by torch singer k.d. lang, who adds a sassy new gender-bending twist.
“After Midnight” doesn’t bother with a plot. Rather, it’s a fast-paced series of numbers backed by the swinging Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars big band — which sits in full view onstage, and deservedly earns some of the night’s biggest applause.
Conceived by Jack Viertel and choreographed/directed by Warren Carlyle, the show blends dance and vocal styles, all performed with joyful virtuosity. Adriane Lenox brings down the house with a couple of saucy comic songs, while Julius “iGlide” Chisolm and Virgil “Lil’ O” Gadson fluidly incorporate hip-hop moves in their slo-mo dance battle.
As the emcee who strolls in now and then, former “West Wing” star Dulé Hill seemed a little stiff during previews, but has grown a lot more comfortable in the role.
One of his duties is introducing segments with excerpts from Langston Hughes poems. A new one has been found for lang: “Golden girl/In Harlem town/Gold ‐not brown/But college boy smart.”
Lang performs the same four songs Barrino did, but the vibe couldn’t be any more different.
Barrino rode the beat with a jazz instinct, whereas lang — making a confident Broadway debut — has a clean, smooth pop approach. Her voice is so buttery on “Stormy Weather” that you could spread it on toast.
A bigger difference is that Barrino was a sultry siren wrapped in Isabel Toledo’s gorgeous gowns, while lang cuts an androgynous figure in a black tux or white tails — not as novel as you’d think since Harlem Renaissance singer Gladys Bentley wore men’s clothes, too. It’s as if lang had turned into her mentor, Tony Bennett.
And she throws herself into the action with great relish, dancing about the place in “Zaz Zuh Zaz” and flirting with a pair of sexy chorus girls in “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”
Sadly, lang’s leaving mid-March, when Toni Braxton and Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds take over. But hey, look on that sunny side: This gives us an excuse to see “After Midnight” again.