BWW Reviews: MEMPHIS THE MUSICAL Brings Its Electrifying and 'Fantastical' Tale to Music City

Memphis, the musical, is a lot like Memphis, the city: You either love it or you hate it. But if you let its sincerely heartfelt story and evocatively written music wend its way into your heart, you'll find your soul. With the national touring company now ensconced at Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall through Sunday, it's easy to see why Memphis won the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical, its spirit is infectious, its music glorious and its cast - what a stunning ensemble they are! - nothing short of wondrous.

If it sounds like I fell in love with Memphis on its opening night in Nashville, then it must be true -because it is, perhaps surprisingly, one of the most uplifting and genuinely moving original works created expressly for musical theater that I've seen in a very long time. And somehow, even 30 years since I lived there, it elicits overwhelming emotions and memories of my own young life in Memphis, where I  fell in love and had my heart broken, both life-changing "first" times.  

More significantly, however, I can't help but marvel at how effectively the show captures the flavor that permeates that confounding city in West Tennessee, just as certainly as you smell the smoke of barbecue pits wafting through the air on summer evenings and hear the sirens of ambulances and police cars breaking the after-midnight silence of a Saturday night as it turns into a Sunday morning. As the song says, "Memphis Lives in Me" and Memphis definitely lives in Memphis.

The show's homage to Memphis music and "the Memphis Sound" that was created by the talented and inventive individuals who founded the city's recording industry is evocative, perfectly capturing the rhythm of the river city that continues to do battle with the racism and segregation that forms the core of Memphis' plot.

With a book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and music and lyrics by David Bryan (based upon a concept by George W. George), Memphis is set squarely amid the horrifying realities of the segregated South in the mid-1950s - the scars of which are still evident on the heart of the Bluff City - telling the story of a quirky and "unique" skinny white boy named Huey Calhoun (played with so much heart by Bryan Fenkart) who loves rhythm and blues, aka "race music," the music of lower Beale. One night he summons up the courage to cross the color line and enter one of Beale Street's most intriguing dives - Delray's - when he hears the electrifying sounds of the music that emanates from the gorgeous frame of the "special" Felicia Farrell (the altogether stunning Felicia Boswell). The two are destined to fall in love, of course, and while the course of true love never did run smooth, in Memphis of the mid-20th Century, the romantic challenges encountered by a couple who are of different races more often than not led to heartbreak and tragedy, although somehow the fictional Huey and Felicia are able to find glimmers of hope and stolen moments of bliss as they walk the fine line of reality and romance in the Jim Crow South.

Fenkart is charmingly wacky as the off-kilter Huey, playing him with conviction and a focus that is almost alarming. So committed is Fenkart to the fast-talking disc jockey that you are immediately drawn to him despite his sometimes off-putting demeanor and penchant for (completely scripted)on-the-air improv at the ficitious Memphis radio station that propels him to stardom. In fact, when Fenkart first delivers Huey's mind-bendingly nonsensical "Hockadoo!" you're caught off-guard, yet how quickly that invented word works its way into your own psyche. Hock-fuckin'-doo, indeed.

Fenkart also displays a warmly felt way with the show's music, interpreting the songs with heart and soul, particularly in "The Music of My Soul," "Crazy Little Huey" and "Tear Down the House." He leads the company with gusto through the anthemic "Memphis Lives in Me," the score's penultimate number that best exemplifies everything there is to love about Memphis, Tennessee.

Fenkart is ideally paired with the beautiful Felicia Boswell, who brings an earthy sense of humor to bear upon her very elegant characterization. Boswell plays Felicia Farrell with ample style, her carriage branding her every inch the lady, while her performance helps to reveal the multi-dimensional layers of her character throughout her remarkably nuanced performance. Her clarion voice rises to the very rafters of Andrew Jackson Hall, invigorating her every scene with measured vitality and amazing confidence. Her "Someday" sounds as if it could have been played on radio stations of the 1950s, her crystalline voice breathing life into the song, while "Love Will Stand When All Else Fails" fairly resonates with excitement and passion.

Together, Fenkart and Boswell play off one another with a graceful ease, making their characters' shared almost-tragedy (that provides the basis for an Act One finale that leaves you breathless) difficult to bear. But perhaps most telling is their performance at the end of Act Two, when in the midst of the big, glitzy show-closing production number you realize that each actor is still very much in character, in the moment playing out before you. It's a startlingly frank but very gentle scene that easily could have been glossed over in the sheer theatricality of that musical finale.

Among the supporting cast, there is nary a false note to be found, with terrific performances from the entire ensemble. But special attention must be paid to Julie Johnson, who plays Huey's no-nonsense mama - racist warts and all - with thorough commitment. That she just about blows the roof off the theater with "Change Don't Come Easy" is like so much icing on the top of a perfectly baked caramel cake from The Buntin (another reference for my Memphis friends). Quentin Earl Darrington is commanding as Felicia's protective brother DelRay, showcasing his dramatic range while showing off his considerable musical talents. Rhett George plays the mostly silent and contemplative Gator with controlled vigor, while Will Mann's Bobby affords him the opportunity to show off his impressive triple threat performing chops.

DiPietro's book conveys the conflicting elements that could be found in any American city of the time, but which were felt more strongly in Southern ones. While the civil rights movement never figures, in a particularly prominent sense, in the plot of Memphis - unsurprisingly, since it was later in the decade before its impact was measurably felt there - the undercurrent of the simmering hostilities among whites and blacks is palpable, certain to make your own thoughts percolate with memories long forgotten. Bryan's music is filled with a redolent period flavor, recalling the burgeoning rock and roll idiom mixed with healthy doses of rhythm and blues - and encapsulating the tried and true formula of the showtune, in which songs move the plot forward and characters express unbridled emotion best through song - and although some of the lyrical rhyme schemes seem a bit simplistic at times, all the songs work splendidly in the context of the book's structure, while some could very likely become pop standards. And, perhaps most importantly, you retain those songs in your brain long after leaving the theater, which is testimony to their artistry and to the impact of the story playing out onstage.

Directed with a studied flair by Christopher Ashley, the musical's action unfolds at a brisk pace, building to a first act finale that packs a devastatingly emotional wallop, while the second act provides a denouement that is at once sweetly sentimental and heart-wrenchingly dramatic.

Alivin Hough Jr. conducts The Memphis Band, which provides the perfect musical accompaniment to the onstage action and providing a credibility that gives the musical an impressive foundation.

Creatively and energetically choreographed by Sergio Trujillo (who's also responsible for the dancing in Jersey Boys and The Addams Family) to further emulate the time period and the setting, Memphis is exhilarating. Featuring the glorious lighting design by Howell Binkley, David Gallo's pitch-perfect scenic design and Paul Tazewell's exquisitely crafted costume design, the touring company sports a sumptuous physical production that further engages the audience in the musical.

- Memphis The Musical. Book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro. Music and lyrics by David Bryan. Based on a concept by George W. George. Directed by Christopher Ashley. Choreographed by Sergio Trujillo. Presented by the national touring company at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center's Andrew Jackson Hall, Nashville. Through Sunday, November 21. For details, visit the website at www.tpac.org.