Subtitle: 
With the Swingaroos
Images: 
Total Rating: 
***1/2
Previews: 
September 7, 2021
Opened: 
September 9, 2021
Ended: 
October 31, 2021
Country: 
USA
State: 
Florida
City: 
Sarasota
Company/Producers: 
Florida Studio Theater
Theater Type: 
Regional
Theater: 
Florida Studio Theater - Bowen Lab
Theater Address: 
Cocoanut & Palm Avenues
Phone: 
941-366-9000
Website: 
floridastudiotheatre.org
Running Time: 
90 min
Genre: 
Musical Revue
Author: 
Conc: Kimberly Hawkey & Assaf Gleizner
Director: 
Oversight: Catherine Randazzo
Review: 

In their fourth FST Cabaret End-of-Summer into Fall musical, The Swingaroos glory in presenting five decades of pop favorites in their signature swing style.  They show off the top 1920’s to 1960’s music that people ordered on juke boxes across the nation. No surprise, then, that Act I claims “Happy Days Are Here Again” and Act II starts with  “Put Another Nickel In” for “Music! Music! Music!”

With “The Band Played On” the group moves on to commemorate  the ’30s Chicago World’s Fair.  “The Strawberry Blonde” has Kimberly Hawkey sitting stylishly for the times on Assaf Gleizner’s piano, then asking “Bill Bailey, Won’t You Please Come Home?”  Appropriate lighting comes on for “My Blue Heaven”  and the oldest song, “I Ain’t Got Nobody” of 1915, plus a Billy Rose favorite from 1926. 

There’s a change of pace with 1941’s “Thanks for the Boogie Ride” in which Hawkey tries to resemble Anita O’Day and Uri Zeller does a great job on his drums as Gene Krupa.  Hawkey next romantically takes her time singing “Besame Mucho” followed by an unromantic Gene Autry favorite western tune. Michael Brownell throughout contributes both his instrumental bass and vocals. 

A big change comes with “Tennessee Waltz”.  It’s followed by a spectacular Chopin’s “Minute Waltz” that Gleizner plays and then riffs on for FIVE minutes. Next developments: Be Bop, the Black jazzy “Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby” featuring Oliver Bonie’s horn,  and the song everyone could play on piano with a friend (“Heart and Soul”).  The Swingaroos end Act I bringing their own style to Glen Miller’s  “Juke Box Saturday Night.”

In Act 2, after emulating fans juicing a juke box, The Swingaroos treat the audience to a “ride” on “Route 66.”  Hawkey takes on Julie London’s style with “Cry Me a River” and a bonus piano treatment by Gleizner.  Then “Rock Around the Clock”  engages all  the instrumentalists, with notable drumming by Zelig and even a tambourine by Bonie.  Hawkey does well not just imitating Elvis’s  famous “Hound Dog.” The audience spontaneously chimed in at the show I attended.

On  “Que Sera, Sera” Hawkey is quite comfortable, with a bit livelier help of Bonie on clarinet.  She moves to the piano to play as well as sing “Will You Love Me Tomorrow?”. Everyone’s in place and performing a final Jukebox Medley, emphasizing nostalgia for songs by The Beatles and other groups throughout the ‘60s.

The Swingaroos continue to relate well to their audience, with Gleizner making favorable eye contact (as he once did not), and as Hawkey and the other musicians do. Catherine Randazzo’s Artistic Oversight is favorably noticeable. 

The show owes its success partly to the excellent variety of kinds and colors of Andrew Gray’s lighting, including of Bruce Prices’s arch of textured back curtains, as well as stage and overhead.  Thom Korp turns in his usual fine job with sound.  The uncredited authentically dated costuming, especially for Kimberly Hawkey, deserves credit.  She has at first a fine period, grayish, mid-length dressy dress with black brimmed hat and gloves along with gold earrings, necklace, and high-heeled shoes. For Act II, she dons a spectacular silver sequined long gown.  Nice.

Cast: 
Kimberly Hawkey (Vocalist); Assaf Gleizner (Piano); Oliver Bonie (Sax,Clarinet,Vocals), Michael Brownell (Double Bass, Vocals), Uri Zelig (Percussion)
Technical: 
Set: Bruce Price;  Costumes: Uncredited; Lights: Andrew Gray; Sound: Thom Korp; Sound & Light Operator: Natalie Shadrick 
Critic: 
Marie J. Kilker
Date Reviewed: 
September 2021