Page 11 - Boca Exposure - August '23

Boca Exposure, Page 11
Five Guys Named Moe, Jazzy Tribute

To Musician Louis Jordan, At Kravis Center

MNM Theatre Company’s musical, Five Guys Named Moe, Performances: Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. Saturday Petion is the production stage manager, and Belicia Linder-
an exuberant tribute to Jazz legend Louis Jordan and his music, and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Tickets for Five Guys Named Long will create the costumes for the production. Lighting
will be on stage from Sept. 8 through 24 in the Rinker Playhouse Moe range in price from $45 to $55 and are on sale now at design is by Karalyn Fitzgerald, sound design is by Justin
at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach. www.kravis.org. For tickets: kravis.org, (561) 832-7469. Thompson, and the show’s set designer is Jordon Armstrong.
The show is based on a For group sales: (561) 651-4438 or (561) 651-4304. Clarke Peters (playwright) is an actor, singer and writer.
1943 musical short of the The show’s director, He earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a
same name by Louis Jordan Jacquez Linder-Long, is Musical for Five Guys Named Moe. As an actor, he has
himself. It had its UK debut a former Moe himself. appeared on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh (Theatre
in 1990 at Theatre Royal “I’m very excited to be World Award) and as Billy Flynn in the revival of Chicago.
Stratford East, running for presenting this show from Clarke’s London credits include Guys and Dolls, Ma
over four years in the West the ‘other side of the Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Passion and Dispatches at the
End, and then premiering on table’ this time around,” Royal National Theatre. His West End credits include Blues
Broadway in 1992, where he says. “It means a lot to in the Night, Porgy and Bess, The Witches of Eastwick and
it was nominated for two me because Louis Jordan Chicago. In regional theater he has appeared in Driving
Tony Awards. It was revived and the Tympany 5’s hits Miss Daisy, The Wiz, Bubbling Brown Sugar, Ma Rainey’s
in 2010 at the Edinburgh are what my grandmother Black Bottom, Carmen Jones and The Amen Corner. Clarke
Festival, starring the show’s Merdis Moore and I had is familiar to television viewers for his roles on The Wire,
playwright Clarke Peters and Louis Jordan echoing through my home Treme and The Divide. His film credits include Mona Lisa,
returned later in 2010 to the as a child. It is a big part of Jaquez Linder-Long Notting Hill, Marley & Me, Endgame, John Wick, Three
theatre in which it originally premiered. The musical won the where my style and love for Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Harriet, and Da 5
Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment. storytelling comes from.” Bloods. As a director, his credits include Blues for Mr.
As a bandleader in the 1940s, Louis Jordan pioneered a Linder-Long is a Dreyfoos School of the Arts graduate, Charlie, Fascinating Aida, King and Martin Luther.
wildly popular blend of jazz and blues. The swinging shuffle and a former student of MNM Theatre Company’s
rhythms played by singer/saxophonist Jordan and his Tympany Producing Artistic Director and CEO Marcie Gorman,
Five became known as “jump blues” or “jumpin’ jive,” and so being able to direct the show for MNM is particularly
served as a forerunner of rhythm and blues and rock ‘n’ roll. significant. “To me MNM means chance,” he says. “I came
At the height of his career, he scored 18 No. 1 hit records; four to Marcie Gorman and her company with my vision and
of his songs are in the Grammy Hall of Fame, which honors from day one we have been working to make that vision into
recordings of lasting qualitative or historical significance. reality: to present to audiences a show of African-American
Jordan performed songs that appealed to millions of Black and legacy and culture through timeless music, song and dance.”
White listeners. Able to “straddle the fence” between these Linder-Long, who will not only direct but will also
two audiences, Jordan emerged as one of the first successful choreograph the show, has cast James White as No Max,
crossover artists of American popular music. Torrey Linder as No Moe, Doriyan Caty as Eat Moe, T.J.
In this show, a character, Nomax, has run out of money Pursley as Little Moe and Leo Davis as Big Moe.
and his girlfriend has left him. He needs comfort, support and The Five Guys Named Moe musical director, Bobby Peaco,
advice. Emerging from his 1930s-style radio are Five Guys has assembled a top-notch band for the production, including
Named Moe: Big Moe, Four-Eyed Moe, Eat Moe, No Moe, Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino (saxophone), Julie
and Little Moe, who harmonize, croon, wail, tap and joke. .. Jacobs (drums) and Rupert Ziawinski (bass).
and provide Nomax with just what he needs, all in the form of Jazz Madison will serve as Five Guys’ assistant director,
Louis Jordan’s hit songs and music. and Annaya Osborne is the assistant choreographer. Harold

Fa Fun at eMuseum
Fa Fun at eMuseum
Fa Fun at eMuseum

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