Payne, Hines, Ivory & Woods Set for 'Blues' in S.F.

Sheldon Epps' Blues in the Night will return for an all-star San Francisco production.

Starring jazz and R&B singer Freda Payne (Hallejulah, Baby!), Maurice Hines (Hot Feet, Sophisticated Ladies), Paulette Ivory (Aida tour) and Carol Woods (Chicago, Follies), the show will begin performances in an exclusive San Francisco engagement at San Francisco's Post Street Theatre (450 Post Street) on Tuesday, August 7th.  Opening night is Wednesday, August 15th.  

"The Broadway production of Blues in the Night opened on June 2nd, 1982.   It was immediately nominated for a Tony Award as Best Musical.   When it later premiered on London's West End it was immediately nominated for multiple Olivier Awards before being filmed and broadcast throughout Europe by Thames Television," state press notes.  "Conceived by Sheldon Epps, both critically acclaimed productions were also directed by Mr. Epps."

Directed by Epps, this new Blues in the Night will be choreographed by Kenneth Lee Roberson. Musical Direction is by Rahn Coleman, who also arranged and orchestrated the show's 26 musical numbers. 

The show "takes place in the late 1930's in a cheap Chicago hotel located at the deserted corner of Wilson and Broadway where three women and a saloon singer let the music that gets them through their lonely nights wash over a deserving audience before sending them back into their own nights.  Sheldon Epps' blues-drenched and jazz-painted elegy to the vulnerable solitude of these four struggling, hard-drinking, law abiding folks just trying to make it through another long, hot, humid Chicago night uses the great songs of the 1920's and 1930's to explore their lives and the history of their music. The songs have been specifically chosen to accomplish several things, but their most important function is to celebrate a great period and style of American music and to explore the influences and the roots of the jazz idiom as they grew from blues music."
 
Blues in the Night features the music of Bessie Smith, Jimmy Cox, Alberta Hunter, as well as the songs of Harold Arlen, Andy Razaf, Johnny Mercer and other greats of the jazz world.  The music and lyrics for Blues in the Night is by Andy Razaf, Benny Goodman, Bernard Hanighen, Bessie Smith, Billy Strayhorn, Chick Webb, Duke Ellington, E. A. Swan, Edgar Sampson, George W. Thomas, Gordon Jenkins, Grand Clarke, H. Grey, Harold Arlen, Harry Akst, Harry Revel, Ida Cox, Jimmy Cox, Jimmy Davis, Jimmy Sherman, John Latouche, Johnny Mercer,  Leola Wilson, Mack David, Mack Gordon, Roger "Ram" Ramirez, Ted Fetter, Ted Koehler, Vernon Duke, Wesley Wilson, and Willard Robinson.

Executive Producers Eugene P. Stichman (E. Palmer Productions) and Steven M. Hayes and Producer Arline Cone (Arlie Cone Productions) are producing. Costumes are by Dana Woods.  Scenery and lights are by Douglas Smith.

The performance schedule is:  Tuesday through Friday evenings at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 2 & 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 & 7  p.m.   Tickets range in price from $40 - $75 for regular performances.  All seats for preview performances are $35.  Tickets go on sale Friday, July 13th at the Post Street Theatre Box Office, by phone at 415-771-6900 and on the web at www.ticketmaster.com.

Photo - Freda Payne

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