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The Artistic Team
Chuck Smith, Director S.S.D.C.
Francesco Milioto, Musical Director
Rita Vreeland, Stage Manager A.E.A.
Joel Moorman, Assistant Director
Joshua Horvath, Sound Designer
Gina Patterson, Lighting Designer
Keith Pitts, Set/Costume/Props Designer
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The Cast
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Felicia P. Fields (Ella Fitzgerald) returns to the Apple Tree stage having appeared here previously in Once on This Island , Ain't Misbehavin' , David's Mother , and where she is on the Artistic Board. She has just completed a run as Queenie in Showboat at Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre, where she has also been seen in Carousel , Damn Yankees , Big River , Elmer Gantry , Dreamgirls , The Goodbye Girl , The Wiz and Hot Mikado . Her theatre credits at The Goodman include The Rose Tattoo , The Amen Corner , A Christmas Carol , Ties That Bind and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom . She has also appeared at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre in Richard II ; at Drury Lane South in Sophisticated Ladies and Hello Dolly! ; at Drury Lane Oakbrook in It's a Wonderful Life , Hello Dolly! (Dolly) and South Pacific ; and at Theatre at the Center in Nunsense , Swinging on a Star and Some Like It Hot . She has received a Jeff Award (seven nominations) and a Black Theatre Alliance Award (three nominations). She can be heard on both Second City Diva CDs, as well as in commercials and voiceovers.
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Joe Plummer (Louis Armstrong) is an actor, singer, playwright, composer/lyricist, choreographer, sound designer and director. As an actor, his credits include Black Ensemble's national tour of The Jackie Wilson Story , All I Need to Get By , Precious Lord , Take My Hand , Perfect Duet , A Black Man Named Joe , Only the Strong Survive , The Other Cinderella , and The Story of Otis Redding . He has appeared in Infants of the Spring (Live Bait Theatre), Lynda Barry's The Good Time Are Killing Me (City Lit) for which he received a Jeff Citation. He will soon be seen in his first lead role in the motion picture, Dual Mania . As a sound deinger, his credits include Coffee Will Make You Black and Meridian for Cit Lit; Junk Food , Michael Warr's What's This in My Coke? , and Hero Worship for Live Bait; Smile Orange fo Victory Gardens Theatre; and The State of Mississippi vs. Emmett Till for Pegasus Players, Sundown Names and Night Gone Things and Red Death (Jeff nomination) for Chicago Theatre Company. As a composer, his credits include Hare Rambee (New Regal Theater Foundation), Rock and Roll Negro (also playwright--Chicago Dramatists Workshop), On the Block (Victory Gardens), Meridian and Deep Blue Fund (City Lit), and The Other Cinderella (Black Ensemble). As a choreographer, his credits indclude African American Theater , On the Block , and All I need to Get By . ETA's production of Get Ready (originally produced at Chicago Victory Gardens Theatre) earned Mr. Plummer, along with Jaye Stewart, a Black Alliance Award for Best Writing. The play also garnered him a 1994 Jeff Award nomination fo Best New Work/Adaptation. Mr. Plummer produces and directs the cable access show Vision, Voices & Views , and owns his own music publishing company, which is now producing a children's theatre tour called African Village Folk Tales in conjunction with Urban Gateways.
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Kenn E. Head (Johnny G.) is happy to be performing at Apple Tree for the first time. A veteran of the Chicago theatre scene, he has played a diverse number of stages including Second City, Steppenwolf, the Civic Opera House, and Victory Gardens, where his numerous credits include Thomas in Homeland Security , Big Bob in Unspoken Prayers , Palmroy in Waiting to be Invited , and John Ed Patton in Voice of Good Hope for which he received the BTAA Award for Best Featured Actor. He is also familiar to audiences in Indianapolis, St. Louis and Cincinnati, where he is especially proud of his run of Jesus Hopped the A Train at the Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival, where he played the role of Lucius Jenkins. He has done a number of episodes of the TV series Early Edition as well as appearing on an episode of ER. Enjoy the Show.
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Don Shell (Smiley) is happy to be back at Apple Tree after last performing here in Big River . He was recently featured in Steppenwolf Theatre's Time of Your Life (his stage piano-playing debut). Working with Madison Repertory Theatre, his reading of a repressed, middle-class black man struggling to retain his identity in corporate America ( Sans-Culottes in the Promised Land ) has been picked up for production. When not acting, Don has been the national anthem soloist for the Chicago Cubs, White Sox, and Philadelphia Phillies. He is also lead singer of the calypso band, Jamaican Breeze.
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Press
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Chicago Tribune Review
ChicagoCritic.com Review
Chicago Sun-Times Review
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Pioneer Press Review
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Highlights from the Chicago Tribune Review by Chris Jones
Joseph Plummer…turns in a decent approximation of the trademark Armstrong vocal style, replete with a lively scat and a likable twist of the mouth in homage to the king of jazz's lippy vibrato. Better yet is Felicia P. Fields, a stalwart of the Chicago musical theater who's often cast as a comic diva. Fields' lower register is in gorgeously rich shape, and here she gets a rare chance to offer quiet, moving and lusciously nuanced renditions of "What Is This Thing Called Love?" and "The Man I Love." The show [is]…a melodic show chock-full of songs worth hearing again and again: "It's Only a Paper Moon," "S'wonderful" and the like. There's solid musical support from the onstage band. And there's an especially big and striking set from the young designer Keith Pitts, who evokes the backstage look of the era in remarkable detail.
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Highlights from the ChicagoCritic.com Review by Tom Williams
Apple Tree Theatre was swingin' with Ella and Louis and a cool four-piece band. Jammin' with Pops ( Louis Armstrong ) is structured similar to the bio-musicals of the Black Ensemble and sounds as fine. The lose story finds Sachmo and his All-Stars back stage relaxing when out of the blue comes Ella Fitzgerald to visit Armstrong. Louis gets Ella to sing to relax her, as she appears down-in-the-dumps. The resulting jam session is filled with over twenty of the greatest jazz numbers sung by Ella and Louis . With an outstanding combo anchored by the mellow piano of Francisco Milioto, the sweet drum work of Walter Kindred and the bouncy bass from Malcolm Ruhl. Kenn E. Head offers some guitar work to go along with his fine acting as the new band member who is just learning Louis' ‘old ways' of performing jazz.
Felica P. Fields scats some strong rhythms and reaches new depths as she does a fine Ella style rendition of numbers like ‘S'Wonderful', ‘Our Love is Here to Stay', ‘I Got Rhythm' and ‘What is this Thing Called Love.' She nailed ‘The Man I Love' that sent goose bumps down my back. Fields voice never sounded so fine. Her duets with Joseph Plummer , who had Armstrong's raspy voice and large grin down pat, was believable as Louis Armstrong . Plummer has the charm, which become charisma that exudes the loose carefree attitudes Louis often took toward life. Plummer and Fields click on stage and deliver their tunes with energy. From blues to up-tempo show tunes, Berlin , Porter, Waller and Gershwin swung so melodiously that I was toe tapping throughout.
The show has just enough narrative bio info about Ella and Louis to satisfy the youngsters who don't know about these giants of the Jazz world. But Jammin' With Pops is a musical treat with a variety of 20's, 30's, 40's and 50's music that is an terrific opportunity to introduce these sounds to the next generation. I grew up listening to Ella and Louis along with the swing big bands. Later I graduated to combo jazz. Jammin' with Pops is a revue of legendary personalities and their music. Take a teen to experience two giants of jazz. They'll hear cool combo jazz at its finest.
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Highlights from the Chicago Sun-Times Review by Hedy Weiss
Take a pair of gifted Chicago performers who can conjure the spirit and musical style of two even more prodigiously gifted and legendary performers, and let them give voice to more than two dozen of the finest standards in the American popular songbook.
Plummer is a small, solid, compact man who deftly conjures Armstrong's upbeat energy, broad smile and uniquely gravelly voice. Fields, a strongly built woman who looks resplendent here in an elegant aqua satin cocktail dress (courtesy of designer Pitts), expertly taps into the velvety melancholy of Ella's style and flies with the playful, rhythmically complex scatting that was the singer's trademark.
When the two of them dance -- whether in the spirited "A Tisket a Tasket" or the more romantic sounds of the Gershwins' "Our Love Is Here to Stay" and "S'Wonderful" -- she accurately stands a head above him, but they are wonderfully matched, and Marla Lampert's casually stylish choreography fits them perfectly.
Plummer's zestful rendering of "When the Saints Go Marchin' In" and "The Heebie Jeebies" is countered by Ella's quietly aching "How High the Moon," "What Is This Thing Called Love," "The Man I Love" and "Why Was I Born?" A second-act medley from "Porgy and Bess" is a highlight and makes you think the Marriott Theatre should consider a revival of it.
Supplying comic relief are Johnny G. (the beguiling Kenn E. Head), the sassy, hot-tempered new guitarist who becomes the victim of Louis' laxative cure (a joke that, pardon the pun, runs on and on), and Smiley (a charming turn by Don Shell), a West Indian man who serves as motherly manager of the band. The "real" band, onstage throughout, includes first-rate pianist-musical director Francesco Milioto, drummer Walter Kindred and bassist Malcolm Ruhl.
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Highlights from the Chicago Reader Review by Kelly Kleiman
Shows featuring early-20th-century African-American music--blues, jazz, and swing--almost can't help being great. They also can't help reminding us of the continuing impact of racial divisions on our society. if not for "urban renewal" projects on the south side, audiences might still be going there to hear brand-new music in those traditions. But the clubs our hipster grandparents frequented are long gone. And though it's easy to giggle at the idea of the North Shore as a repository of black culture, in fact the efforts of theaters like Apple Tree and Northlight help keep the music alive.
For those of us familiar only with Armstrong's late, clownish turns in the movies, Joe Plummer's performance is a revelation. He does a remarkable job of showing how Armstrong's mannerisms flowed naturally from and complemented his musicality. Plummer's acting and singing are so strong that we can feel fulfilled by a show in which a great trumpeter doesn't play the trumpet, accepting the proffered excuse--that Armstrong's lip is sore--almost without question.
As Fitzgerald, Felicia P. Fields rescues the great artist from the miasma of her final years, when she was reduced to imitating herself. Fields has the kind of singing voice we all have in our dreams: effortless, soaring, perfectly modulated. it's thrilling to listen to her, and she and Plummer blend extremely well. They may be merely acting the part of old friends, but their mutial respect as musicians is clearly genuine. They're also blessed with a first-rate sound design (by Josh Horvath), a tight band gently led by pianist Francesco Milioto, and fine comic supporting performances by Kenn E. Head and Don Shell. Marla Lampert's charming, understated period choreography reminds us that this music was made for dancing.
...Chuck Smith stages [Barry Harman's script] briskly, and the music is so superb that the text really doesn't matter.
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Feature from the Chicago Tribune by Nina Metz
Something interesting happens when musical opposites blend. Combine two singers with vastly different styles and tonal qualities and you might get a mess--or an entirely distinctive and magnetic sound.
Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham come to mind. But no one found more success mingling musical styles than Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong, who recorded together often during the heyday of their careers.
What was it like to see these two perform together live? "Jammin' With Pops," the musical revue currently in previews and opening Monday at Apple Tree Theatre in Highland Park, seeks to re-create the dynamic between Fitzgerald, a.k.a. the First Lady of Song, and Armstrong, a.k.a. Satchmo, a.k.a. Pops.
"It's a very loose narrative," says director Chuck Smith. "It's called 'Jammin' With Pops,' but what I call it is Ella-meets-Louis-backstage. That's basically what this play is all about. They're great friends. And when Ella hears that Louis is in town, she just happens to feel a little low and needs some cheering up. So she goes on by to see her old buddy and knows that when they get together, they're gonna sing a few tunes."
And few singers are as individually recognizable as these two. Fitzgerald with her creamy sound and effortless scat; Armstron with that gravely voice and a tendency to smear his lyrics with oohs and yeahs, as if he were riffing on his horn instead of singing.
Decades after their iconic collaboration, Fitzgerald-Armstrong recordings have become the music of choice in coffeehouses across the nation.
But this show, set in the 1960's, resues the music from the doldrums of cookie-cutter cafes; here the duo--well, two actors who portray the duo, Felicia fields and Joe Plummer--is featured front-and-center.
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Highlights from the Pioneer Press Review by Dorothy Andries
Written by Barry Harmon and directed by Chuck Smith of the Goodman Theatre, this is a musical revue like no other. Tapping deep into the talents of its two stars--Felicia Fields as Ella and Joseph Plummer as Louis, a.k.a. Pops--the show was packed to overflowing with some fo the best songs ever written...
...Fields, clad in an aqua satin dress with matching high heels, and Plummer, his bow tie long since loosened, did a rapid-fire scat duet to "How High the Moon" which was interrupted three times with applause on opening night.
Fields carried herself with all Ella's dignity, and her "Why Was I Born?" simply tore your heart out.
Plummer became "Satchmo"--sandpaper voice, toothy smile and all. His "Heebie Jeebies" dance was full of kangaroo hops and all too short, as was his acrobatic "Lady Be Good."
The supporting cast of Kenn Head as the irreverent young guitarist Johnny G and Don Shell as Smiley, the band's resident mother hen, kept the comedy soing.
Music director was Francesco Milioto, who was also the piano player. With Walter Kindred on drums and Malcolm Ruhl on bass, the trio's sound was as smooth as a satin lapel.
Set designer Keith Pitts got the backstage clutter and grime just right. And when Louis asked the audience to join him in serenading Ella with "I Can't Give you Anything But Love," we felt as if we were backstage, right there jammin' with Pops too.
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Highlights from the New City Review by Nina Metz
There is nothing like the sight of Joseph Plummer, as Louis Armstrong, arms and knees bent, bouncing down the length of the stage on the balls of his feet like a cat burglar on speed, singing "The Heebie Jeebies." When the show clicks into gear with moments like these, Apple Tree Theatre's production of "Jammin' with Pops" proves its worth...
Under Chuck Smith's direction, [Joe] Plummer and [Felicia] Fields are all about specificity. Armstrong was an incredibly accessible performer and Plummer is able to convey this with ease, filling out Armstrong's personality without turning it into caricature. Fields gives her Fitzgerald a sort of lumbering beauty, but once she launches in to "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," she be-bops around on that stage with the best of them. And nothing surpasses their memorable duet of "How High the Moon" that morphs into a full-on, rapid-fire, call-and-response scat-a-thon.
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Highlights from the Windy City Times Review by Mary Shen Barnidge
...a stellar company assembled by director Chuck Smith, starting with Felicia P. Fields, whose vitality and charisma amplify Fitzgerald's mannerisms to transcend simple mimicry. In the role of Pops himself, Joseph Plummer replicates his persona's gravel-bottomed voice and blurred delivery with uncanny accuracy, even when the icons join in a medley from George Gershwin's American opera, Porgy And Bess (written for baritone and soprano, but who's quibbling?)
Providing textual harmony are Don Shell as fussy sidekick Smiley and the protean Kenn E. Head as swaggering guitarman Johnny G. Add a salt-and-pepper trio of accompanists —Malcolm Ruhl on bass, Walter Kindred on drums, and musical director Francesco Milioto on piano—dress it up in Keith Pitts' museum-accurate scenery and costumes, with Marla Lampert on hand to keep the joint jumping, and what you get is an invigorating survey course for geographically deprived jazz fans in the north suburbs.
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Photos
(photos by Michael Brosilow)
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Louis Armstrong and The All Stars
(L-R) Francesco Milioto, Kenn E. Head, Joe Plummer, Walter Kindred, Malcolm Ruhl |
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A Tisket A Tasket
(L-R) Don Shell, Joe Plummer, Kenn E. Head, Felicia P. Fields |
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"Reform school!"
(L-R) Don Shell, Joe Plummer |
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Louis and Ella dancing
(L-R) Joe Plummer, Felica P. Fields |
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"Oh I've got the Heebies, I mean the Jeebies!"
(L-R) Kenn E. Head, Joe Plummer |
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Louis listens to Ella on the radio
(L-R) Joe Plummer, Felica P. Fields |
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Ella with the band
(L-R) Joe Plummer, Francesco Milioto, Kenn E. Head, Felica P. Fields, Walter Kindred, Malcolm Ruhl |
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Louis Armstrong and The All Stars
(L-R) Francesco Milioto, Walter Kindred, Joe Plummer, Kenn E. Head, Malcolm Ruhl |
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Ole Satchmo
Joe Plummer |
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