Director Tomas W. Jones II has assembled a team of four talented vocalists and a fine jazz trio for the 29-song revue covering club and band music of the 1930s and '40s, "The All Night Strut," which occasionally shakes the walls of MetroStage's intimate theatre on South Royal Street.
While many revues seem to be a collection of solos and duets with a couple of numbers delivered by the entire cast, this one is almost exclusively ensemble work. Even in the numbers that feature a strong solo moment for a specific member of the quartet, that solo moment either sets up a group effort or is a break out from an ensemble rendition.
Still, each of the vocalists has at least one song in which to break loose and impress the audience. The one who impresses the most — and the most frequently — is Darryl Jovan. He not only handles spotlight moments such as his work on Yip Harburg and Jay Gorney's depression classic "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" he anchors a fine group rendition of the 1941 specialty song "Java Jive" and soars over the solid support of William Hubbard in the duet "A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square."
Hubbard is a great presence as well, with an obvious sense of fun on the lighter numbers and respect for the deeper material. He's perhaps the hardest working member of the group. The men are matched with Lori Anne Williams and Yvette Spears to complete the quartet. Each has individual moments of note but their real highlight is their duet on Bessie Smith's only-slightly disguised double-entendre number from 1926, "I Need A Little Sugar In My Bowl."
MUCH OF THE MATERIAL in this revue requires fine harmony singing from the four, but as good as each is at times in solo or duet moments, their voices don't blend the way a team that has worked together for a long time can. Perhaps as the run continues through its scheduled seven-week stint they will develop a more solid mix.
Jones both directs and choreographs and his work is consistent and frequently inventive although he can't tinker too much with the structure of the revue as originally devised back in 1979 by Fan Charnas. After all, that structure and the song list are still under copyright. Jones does his best to disguise some of the more egregious miscues in the grouping of numbers. He keeps the "World War II Medley" moving along at a good pace even when "The White Cliffs of Dover" is flanked by two renditions of "Shoo Shoo Baby," but not even Jones can avoid the problem of having the audience participation.
Tongue-twister "Minnie the Moocher" is placed as the third song of the show, appearing long before the quartet can have warmed up the audience so they will want to clap and sing along.
The quartet is backed by a trio of music director William Knowles, bassist Yusef Chisholm and drummer Gregory Holloway. Knowles leads the trio from the piano with a solid stride, some colorful excursions and a deep respect for the wide-ranging catalogue of songs. Some of the musically strongest moments in the show come from his fingers.