Smokey Joe's Cafe (revue)

Smokey Joe's Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, including rock and roll and rhythm and blues songs written by songwriters Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller.

Conceived by Stephen Helper, Jack Viertel and Otis Sallid,[3] Smokey Joe's Cafe premiered at the Doolittle Theatre in Los Angeles, where it ran from November 1994 to January 22, 1995.

Directed by Jerry Zaks with choreography by Joey McKneely and vocal arrangements by Chapman Roberts, the original nine-person cast featured Ken Ard, Adrian Bailey, Brenda Braxton, Victor Trent Cook, B. J. Crosby, Pattie D'Arcy Jones, DeLee Lively, Frederick B. Owens, and Michael Park, and later included Deb Lyons (replacement for Jones) and Matt Bogart (replacement for Park), both of whom performed in the final filmed DVD performance on January 18, 2000.

), Cristian Centurión (Adrian), Mariano Condoluci (Victor), Emmanuel Degracia (Ken), Daniela Flombaum (Pattie), Diego Jaraz (Michael), Patrissia Lorca (DeLee), Sofía Val (Brenda) and Sebastián Ziliotto (Fred).

In 2016, a production took place in a new season in Buenos Aires, Argentina, directed by Diego Jaraz, musical supervision by Federico Vilas, vocal coaching by Katie Viqueira, and choreographed by Delfina Garcia Escudero.

), Cristian Centurión (Adrian), Mariano Condoluci (Victor), Emmanuel Degracia (Ken), Daniela Flombaum (Pattie), Patricio Wittis (Michael), Patrissia Lorca (DeLee), Sofía Val (Brenda) and Sebastián Ziliotto (Fred).

"[4] Ben Brantley, in his review for The New York Times wrote that the revue "is a strangely homogenized tribute to one of popular music's most protean songwriting teams...There has obviously been a decision not to go for literal period nostalgia, so the songs are freed from their distinctive original contexts...Too often, though, the performers are simply singing into space without any ostensible reason for being there.

"[12] According to Peter Marks, reviewing in The Washington Post, the revue "never quite attained smash-hit status," but it made popular the musical fashioned on the existing work of "pop composers already beloved by baby boomers.