In the opening number of “Cotton Club Parade,” Duke Ellington’s “Daybreak Express,” the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra re-creates the sound of a railroad train loudly barreling down the tracks. For the next ninety minutes of this dazzling musical revue celebrating the glory days of the legendary Harlem nightspot, the energy never flags.
This “Encores! Special Event,” conceived by Jack Viertel and directed and choreographed by Warren Carlyle, is such a potent dose of theatrical anti-depressant that a prescription should be required.
Paying tribute to Ellington’s years at the club during Prohibition, the show features songs by the famous composer and such contemporaries as Harold Arlen, Jimmy McHugh, Dorothy Fields and others, as well as selected texts by Langston Hughes.
Twenty-eight performers and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, featuring Wynton Marsalis, deliver nearly two dozen numbers, providing the perfect mixture of songs, instrumentals and dance numbers. The vocal highlights include Adriane Lenox’s caustic “Women Be Wise,” Carla Cook’s heartfelt “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and Brandon Victor Dixon charmingly crooning “I’ve Got the World on a String” as dancers tote red balloons behind him.
The dance numbers are dazzling. In “Peckin’ ” five performers execute tight unison moves while keeping their arms ramrod stiff, to hilarious effect. Jeremiah “Showtyme” Haynes, seemingly all limbs, and the mohawked Andrew “Dr. Ew” Carter have a fearsome face-off in “Hottentot.” And Jared Grimes lives up to the title of “Goin’ Nuts” for his ferocious tap dancing routine.
The orchestra, too, is given its chance to shine on such numbers as “The Mooche,” “Braggin’ in Brass” and the finale, “Rockin’ in Rhythm.”
This terrific show has been given a criminally short run, with only two performances remaining through tomorrow night. But it’s a safe bet that it will be back before too long, hopefully to liven up a dull Broadway musical season.