Quiz Time At The Apollo

With two shows in a row Sunday, I wasn’t going to have much time between the Off The Wall show and the Rep Cabaret show. Little did I know that I’d have only roughly ten minutes to make it from Off The Wall’s studio theatre space, across the street, up the escalator and into the Milwaukee Rep’s Stackner Cabaret. With so little time to digest one show before seeing the other, I was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to focus very well on either. I was wrong. And though I’d been watching musical theatre for a little over four straight hours when Soultime At The Apollo ended, I never felt restless. Much of this I attribute to how brilliantly Writer/Director Kevin Ramsey puts together a show. Last year’s Fire On The Bayou had an amazing level of energy. This year, Ramsey pays tribute to the legendary 75 year-old Apollo Theatre in Harlem. It’s a cleverly-composed history lesson that quickly sweeps through highlights of the theatre's 75 years. And like any good show, Ramsey ended up choosing a blend of very familiar music that also mixes some of the more obscure hits from the history of the theatre.

Ramsey’s cleverest bit of writing here ends up being an audience trivia quiz near the end of the show. The cabaret musical revues always end up eliciting interesting responses from the audience . . . especially some of the more obscure songs. Listen closely and you’ll hear baby boomers and others in the audience make vocal tones of recognition. sometimes you’ll hear them mention artists, song titles and albums . . . as if some part of the music trivia had made an emotional impact on them and now that old mood has some sort of sparkle of relevant resonance. The name-that-artist quiz show written into Soultime makes for a really clever way of bringing that audible audience nostalgia aspect of a cabaret pop music revue into the spotlight. Ramsey’s work here is very, very sharp.

A concise, comprehensive review of Soultime At The Apollo runs in next week’s Shepherd-Express. The show runs through November 8th