A Dreamy ‘All Night’ Celebration

×

Expand

UWM Peck School of the Arts 'The All Night Strut'

The UWM Peck School of the Arts opens a brief and dreamy celebration of the early 20th century with.a stylish staging of The All Night Strut. Scenic Designer Stephen R. White’s set looks a bit like the Primal Art Deco of the Gods. Cool blue 8-sided lights hang in the darkness above everything amidst a pair of whe pillars overlooking a black stage decorated with a casually dazzling pattern of red circles in white lights lines. Sophia Roth emerges onstage in the role of a mime named Coda who promptly conjures a five-piece band. Music is played, prompting a full cast to swing and roll through some of the most popular comic music from the jazz age to the Great Depression to World War II and beyond. 

Roth serves as a brilliantly nuanced and emotionally engaging heart to a whimsical cascade through a powerful era in song and dance. Director Steve Decker finds a deeply earnest heart to what could all too easily have fallen into the realm of a lightly inconsequential jukebox musical. Music director and choreographer Ryan Cappelman modulates the energy with a splashy collage of rhythms and motions. Cappelman and company slickly slide through playful deviations against cliche. A sultry skewing of “Minnie the Moocher,” makes quite an impression. A pair of women sing a gorgeously wistful rendition of “As Time Goes By.” Decker and Cappelman find a sweet space somewhere between the dreamily familiar and the strikingly new. They deftly populate that space with a production that takes advantage of the rare opportunity to truly celebrate the heart of performance that beats in and within the pulse of every moment. 

The All Night Strut runs through March 12 at the MainStage Theatre, 2400 E. Kenwood Blvd. For more information, visit uwm.edu/arts/event/all-night-strut.