By Dale King
The Wick Theatre has jumped into its second season in grand fashion with a pumped-up production of Swing!, a musical tribute to the era of big-name jazz and high-stepping dance.
The show, featuring an on-stage, eight-piece live band, runs through mid-November at the venue on North Federal Highway in Boca Raton.
Swing! celebrates the music of various artists who made their mark on the music scene from the 1930s to the mid-1940s. Featuring well-known tunes by artists like Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Benny Goodman and others, it received a Tony Award nomination in 2000, a year after it premiered.
On opening night, Marilynn Wick, who acquired the former Caldwell Theatre 18 months ago and has done yeoman duty getting it in shape for its first two seasons, recalled to the audience the ups and downs of the first year. She also praised 102-year-old philanthropist Countess Henrietta de Hoernle for personally stopping at the theater last spring when finances were tight and donating $250,000. The countess originally gave $1 million for construction of the building, which she named for her late husband, Count Adolph de Hoernle.
Wick also promised to use live bands in this season’s shows, which are all musicals. The theater depended on pre-recorded tunes — to the chagrin of some audience members and critics — until she rolled out live musicians at last year’s closing show, Ain’t Misbehavin.’
Swing! starts with the curtain going up on a bevy of dancers stomping, rocking and romping to a medley of the Basie’s “Jumpin’ at the Woodside,” Benny Goodman’s “Air Mail Special” and “It Don’t Mean a Thing if it Ain’t Got That Swing,” Ellington’s perfect period tune and the likely inspiration for this show.
The production features two vocalists who have power and panache, Alix Paige and Michael Ursua. While Paige is making her debut at Wick, Ursua spent the past year doing musical production tasks at the theater.
On the energy scale, Swing! is equivalent to The Sound of Music, the show that excellently kicked off the first season at the Wick. This paean to swing doesn’t have a story line. Each tune blends into the next without dialogue, but the song-and-dance combos seem to be built around internal tales.
Ursua’s rendition of “Throw That Girl Around” is taken quite literally by the dancers. And the nostalgic ballad, “I’ll Be Seeing You” presents Paige singing while Lindsay Bell and Charles South do a Gene Kelly kind of ballet.
“Kitchen Mechanics Night Out” is a delightful fantasy, with Ursua taking over the piano duties while dancers Amanda Myers Tonsilleri and Andy Frank toil in a kitchen setting, downtrodden until they realize they can get out and dance.
You won’t find a better rendition of “Cry Me a River,” than the one by singer/dancer Amelia Millar, standing in the hot spotlight, just in front of Jason Pyle, who plays trombone in fine style.
The show includes music and dance styles from early swing, West Coast, other jazz styles and even hip-hop, as shown in an all-guy version of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” featuring Phillip Attmore and the other male dancers dressed as soldiers, taking their beat from Dwane Earnhardt on trumpet.
“Bugle Boy” moves the show into the World War II years as a USO banner drops down from above the stage. Songs include Johnny Mercer’s “G.I. Jive” by Mandy Modic, Millar and Tonsilleri; “I’ve Got a Gal in Kalamazoo” by Tommy Joscelyn and the dancers, and a USO finale that features the full company stomping and singing Glenn Miller’s popular “In the Mood” and the Andrews Sisters’ favorite, “Don’t Sit Under the Apple Tree.”
Act II ramps up the glitz, with more campy dances and funky costumes. The influence of country music begins to show in songs like “Take Me Back to Tulsa,” “Stay a Little Longer” and “Boogie Woogie Country,” with Chris Brand, Chris Patterson, Modic and the dancers donning cowboy gear. “The Blues in the Night” draws out the women, garbed in slinky, black gowns for this torchy tune.
“Caravan” gives each musician a chance to solo and the tap dance crew led by Phillip Attmore pounds the floor big-time in “Bill’s Bounce,” a Charlie Parker number. Ursua and Paige get the chance for one last duet with “All of Me/I Won’t Dance.”
All those busy feet are the responsibility of Kelly Shook, choreographer and director. Sean McClelland has crafted a visually pleasing set, with the band set on risers in the rear and a frame of lighted panels in front modulating between purple and pink. The musical direction by Paul Reekie is right on point — and very much welcomed.
Swing! plays through Nov. 16 at the Wick Theater & Costume Museum, 7901 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton. Tickets ($58 and $62) are available by calling 561-995-2333 or visiting www.thewick.org.