Review: 'Louis & Keely' at the Geffen Playhouse

He’s an Italian American jack-in-the box with unerring instincts for scat and swing. She’s a pageboy bob with perfect pitch and a cool-as-a-cucumber delivery. Together, their lounge act diverted the casino herds in the 1950s, inspiring the Rat Pack and leading the way to Sonny & Cher.

“Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara,” last year’s musical sensation performed and written by Vanessa Claire Smith and Jake Broder, is back in a revamped version of the show about the novelty jazz duo, Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Newly arrived at the Geffen Playhouse’s Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater under the direction of filmmaker Taylor Hackford, the production sounds better than ever in its new home, which has been transformed into a quasi-nightclub space that will have you happily mistaking Westwood Village for the Vegas strip.

I enjoyed the show when I saw it last summer at the Sacred Fools Theater (it subsequently moved to the Matrix Theater in the fall). But it’s been a while since I found myself swaying from beginning to end in my seat, unable to sit still as the terrific seven-piece band, front-loaded with fabulous horns, kept the room aloft. And it’s as a concert musical that “Louis & Keely” thoroughly captivates — the thrilling rise of an act and the inevitable collapse of a marriage told through the flowing feeling of seemingly improvisatory riffs.

Less successful is the way the piece has been dramatically tweaked here and there to resemble a bio-pic. Various projected settings, including a silly-looking golf course and a few new characters, most notably (and ineffectively) Frank Sinatra (a casual Nick Cagle), attempt to expand the work’s sight lines and scope. Hackford seems to be testing whether the material has the makings of another “Ray,” the Oscar-winning film he directed on the life of singer Ray Charles. (It might, but a movie would entail starting from scratch.)

The strength of “Louis & Keely” doesn’t lie in its narrative (or potential cinematic) breadth but rather in its performance intensity. The good news is that, despite the groping around for new dramatic possibilities, Hackford is loyal to the work’s theatrical core. The newly added clumsy scenes replacing the old clumsy scenes aren’t allowed to overshadow that old black magic of the couple’s act. Hearing “Embraceable You,” "Just a Gigolo,” or “I Got It Bad (And That Ain’t Good)” miraculously clears the air of all the false starts and awkward missteps.

Better still, Hackford gets more disciplined work out the leads, particularly Broder, whose dervish energy and profuse sweat haven’t abated, yet who is less anarchic, more strategically deployed than before. It’s amazing, given the physical (and ethnic) differences, how well Broder succeeds in conjuring Prima’s frenetic style — the melange of Italian zaniness, New Orleans jazz, and big-band pizazz, wired by a desperate insecurity that could only be appeased by regular applause and constant women. (Erin Matthews quick-changes to give us a sense of the adoring floozy hordes.)

Having recently discovered the assured wonder of Keely Smith’s style, I’m more taken by this tribute to her than worried that the actress impersonating here isn’t as singular a vocalist. Whenever a distinctive musical artist is portrayed, there’s going to be a gap in the talent quotient. (If geniuses were so easily duplicated, they wouldn’t deserve being immortalized in this way.) And Smith (no relation to Keely) has an appealingly tender stage presence, an attention-grabbing voice and an ability to make lyrics pierce through their listener.

What’s especially moving about the work is the way it shows how two people can be so professionally right for each other and personally so wrong (cue Keely’s tear-jerking rendition of “Autumn Leaves”). Louis was raised to be a stage animal. His mama taught him, “Play pretty for the people and you will have famiglia. Amore. Always.” And he seems to have judged his value by headline billings and lucrative contracts.

Keely needed a Svengali to tinker with and launch her talent. But emotionally, she was relatively uncomplicated. She desired a normal life with a husband and kids, albeit one in which she was performing two shows a night to the cocktail crowds. She wanted love and found fame; Louis wanted fame and found he was incapable of steady love.

But what a memorable musical blend they achieved, two disparate interpretive approaches to song harmonizing into pure originality. Of course it had to end some day. And after Keely’s more traditional gifts snared Sinatra’s eye and ear, her growing stardom, which was both abetted and resented by Louis, signaled that a romantic forever wasn’t meant to be.

The production containing this happy-sad tale is by and large vividly pulled off. Joel Daavid’s sets and projections are most effective when they colorfully situate us in a club. Anne Militello’s lighting and Lindsay Jones’ sound design intensify the performing atmosphere. And Melissa Bruning’s costumes help establish the right retro tone. But it’s the snazzy live music that lifts “Louis & Keely” into a realm of tingly exuberance.

-- Charles McNulty

"Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara," Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood; 8 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Fridays, 3:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2:30 and 7:30 p.m. Sundays; $55 to $65; (310) 208-5454; running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Photo: Nick Cagle, from left, Jake Broder and Vanessa Claire Smith. Credit: Lori Shepler/Los Angeles Times.

Comments

[Kirk Tracy]

Wait a minute........no mention of Sam Butera???
The show is called Live at the Sahara...but the marqee at the Sands used to be listed as Louis Prima and Keely Smith with Sam Butera and the Witnesses. The show didn't really cook until they got Sam Butera from Louie's home town of New Orleans to lead the band behind them. Those words came from Keely herself in an interview for the documentary Louis Prima the Wildest. Was Sam Butera really left out?

Kirk Tracy

[rosamond weinberg.]

I enjoyed the show on Friday very much, however as a former hairstyle condsultant, I would have loved five minutes with Keeley's hair to make it more authentic. Also I thought she needed more deadpan, and distain in her delivery. but Oh what a voice. I am sure Taylor Hackford will do some tweaking here and there, and just wanted to add my five cents with. By the way, what a treat to know the words to all the musical numbers. Good luck with he show. roz. w.

[Norman Mishkin]

Sam Butera is indeed a character in this play, albeit more of a minor character than he was in the original run at Sacred Fools Theatre. The new version keeps Sam in the band and wailing on sax throughout, but he's now a background character; the dramatic purpose he served is now served by the Frank Sinatra character (who wasn't in the original).

[barry]

I enjoyed the jazz musicians most of all, especially the clarinetist. He really swings. I'm guessing he's an artist in his own right. The musicians deserved some credit. They were an integral part of the enjoyment the evening had to offer.

[Kirk Tracy]

Clarinet???

There was no clarinet in The Witnesses!
I'm going to see the show in a few days and I'm going in with a lot of questions!
I'm hearing about a clarinet and I see pictures of a baritone sax.....both instruments were not played in the band behind Louis Prima and Keely Smith at The Sahara! How much liberty did they take with musical history?

Did they even watch the documentary Louis Prima The Wildest?

[Jools]

The clarinet is only played during Prima's early days in New Orleans, not as part of the later Witnesses band.

[Kirk Tracy]

I saw the show and I came away with mixed feelings. Smith doing Smith was amazing....she was great! The band was great and there is a Sam Butera in the band and he is fantastic!

I just felt uncomfortable with how a life story can be altered so much for the sake of a show.

This show portrayed Louis as being broken and defeated after Keely left. It portrayed him as being alone when he went into a coma following brain surgery in 1975. The only problem with that is the fact that after the divorce of Keely Smith, Louis married Gia Maione a fantastic singer who sang with Louis and stayed married to him until he went into a coma in 1975. During the Gia Maione years things were not as successful as the Keely Smith years, but they did have a lucrative performing career as well as a recording career. They also made some television appearances with Gia Maione as their "girl singer". A highlight of these years is an appearance on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW in 1962!

I just felt it was strange to play things off like he was alone at the end of his life when in fact he was with his 5th wife at the end of his life. A wife that was a great asset to his show in the final years of his career.

Musically things were confusing as well. In the show once Keely joined the group Louis Prima stopped playing trumpet. (There is a lot of footage with Louis playing trumpet with Keely in the band available for viewing on you tube.) Also, why did the fantastic doubler in the band go to baritone sax in the Vegas years....was there a baritone sax in The Witnesses?.....I haven't seen any footage with a baritone sax in The Witnesses.

All that being said it was entertaining and the band was fantastic!
There is a wonderful documentary out on Louis Prima's true life story and there are a lot of You Tube videos available.

The thing I'm trying to wrap my head around is that this show would naturally attract Louis Prima fans. But, any fan of Louie Prima would see the liberties taken with his life story and have objections.

[Diane Finn]

I really enjoyed the performers and the music, it was very enjoyable. 5-30-09). Really well done. Congratulations on a job well done by all actors, authors, musicians, and crew. Wish Sinatra could have pantomimed the smoking in such a small theatre where we could not escape the secondhand smoke.

[John Doey]

Amazing!!!!...There was another actress substituting for vanessa claire smith, but was great nonetheless. You have got to see this, the song acts alone are worth the price of admission, but the story is icing on the cake!

GO NOW!