Page 31 - Boca ViewPointe - August '23

August 2023
Five Guys Named Moe, Jazzy Tribute
To Musician Louis Jordan, At Kravis Center
MNM Theatre Company’s
musical, Five Guys Named
Moe, an exuberant tribute to
Jazz legend Louis Jordan and
his music, will be on stage
from Sept. 8 through 24 in the
Rinker Playhouse at the Kravis
Center for the Performing Arts
in West Palm Beach.
The show is based on a
1943 musical short of the
same name by Louis Jordan
himself. It had its UK debut Jaquez Linder-Long
in 1990 at Theatre Royal
Stratford East, running for over four years in the West End,
and then premiering on Broadway in 1992, where it was
nominated for two Tony Awards. It was revived in 2010 at
the Edinburgh Festival, starring the show’s playwright Clarke
Peters and returned later in 2010 to the theatre in which it
originally premiered. The musical won the Laurence Olivier
Award for Best Entertainment.
Viewpointe, Page 31
As a bandleader in In this show, a character, Nomax, has run out of money
the 1940s, Louis Jordan and his girlfriend has left him. He needs comfort, support
pioneered a wildly popular and advice. Emerging from his 1930s-style radio are Five
blend of jazz and blues. Guys Named Moe: Big Moe, Four-Eyed Moe, Eat Moe, No
The swinging shuffle Moe, and Little Moe, who harmonize, croon, wail, tap and
rhythms played by singer/ joke. .. and provide Nomax with just what he needs, all in
saxophonist Jordan and the form of Louis Jordan’s hit songs and music.
his Tympany Five became Performances: Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m. Saturday
known as “jump blues” or and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Tickets for Five Guys Named Moe
“jumpin’ jive,” and served range in price from $45 to $55 and are on sale now at www.
as a forerunner of rhythm kravis.org. For tickets: kravis.org, (561) 832-7469. For group
and blues and rock ‘n’ sales: (561) 651-4438 or (561) 651-4304.
roll. At the height of his Louis Jordan The show’s director, Jacquez Linder-Long, is a former
career, he scored 18 No. 1 Moe himself. “I’m very excited to be presenting this show
hit records; four of his songs are in the Grammy Hall from the ‘other side of the table’ this time around,” he says.
of Fame, which honors recordings of lasting qualitative “It means a lot to me because Louis Jordan and the Tympany
or historical significance. Jordan performed songs that 5’s hits are what my grandmother Merdis Moore and I had
appealed to millions of Black and White listeners. Able to echoing through my home as a child. It is a big part of where
“straddle the fence” between these two audiences, Jordan my style and love for storytelling comes from.”
emerged as one of the first successful crossover artists of Linder-Long is a Dreyfoos School of the Arts graduate,
American popular music. and a former student of MNM Theatre Company’s Producing
Artistic Director and CEO Marcie Gorman, so being able to
direct the show for MNM is particularly significant. “To me
MNM means chance,” he says. “I came to Marcie Gorman
and her company with my vision and from day one we have
been working to make that vision into reality: to present to
audiences a show of African-American legacy and culture
through timeless music, song and dance.”
Linder-Long, who will not only direct but will also
choreograph the show, has cast James White as No Max,
Torrey Linder as No Moe, Doriyan Caty as Eat Moe, T.J.
Pursley as Little Moe and Leo Davis as Big Moe.
The Five Guys Named Moe musical director, Bobby
Servicing PETS of Boca Raton Peaco, has assembled a top-notch band for the production,
for over 20 years including Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino
“Caring is our Specialty” (saxophone), Julie Jacobs (drums) and Rupert Ziawinski
(bass).
Complete medical, Surgical and Dental Jazz Madison will serve as Five Guys’ assistant director,
Facility SPA Bath & Grooming and Annaya Osborne is the assistant choreographer. Harold
Petion is the production stage manager, and Belicia Linder-
Long will create the costumes for the production. Lighting
design is by Karalyn Fitzgerald, sound design is by Justin
Thompson, and the show’s set designer is Jordon Armstrong.
Clarke Peters (playwright) is an actor, singer and writer.
He earned a Tony Award nomination for Best Book of a
Musical for Five Guys Named Moe. As an actor, he has
appeared on Broadway in The Iceman Cometh (Theatre
World Award) and as Billy Flynn in the revival of Chicago.
Clarke’s London credits include Guys and Dolls, Ma Rainey’s
Black Bottom, The Passion and Dispatches at the Royal
National Theatre. His West End credits include Blues in
the Night, Porgy and Bess, The Witches of Eastwick and
Chicago. In regional theater he has appeared in Driving
Miss Daisy, The Wiz, Bubbling Brown Sugar, Ma Rainey’s
Black Bottom, Carmen Jones and The Amen Corner. Clarke
is familiar to television viewers for his roles on The Wire,
Treme and The Divide. His film credits include Mona Lisa,
Notting Hill, Marley & Me, Endgame, John Wick, Three
Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, Harriet, and Da 5
Bloods. As a director, his credits include Blues for Mr.
Charlie, Fascinating Aida, King and Martin Luther. 