"This is a night that will rock your world!" - Los Angeles Times
Like a comet that burns far too brightly to last, Janis Joplin exploded onto the music scene in 1967 and, almost overnight, became the queen of rock & roll. The unmistakable voice, filled with raw emotion and tinged with southern comfort, made her a must-see headliner from Monterey to Woodstock.
Now, you're invited to share an evening with the woman and her influences in the new Broadway musical, A Night with Janis Joplin.
Fueled by such unforgettable songs as "Me and Bobby McGee," "Piece of My Heart," "Mercedes Benz","Cry Baby," and "Summertime" a remarkable cast, and breakout performance by Mary Bridget Davies, A Night with Janis Joplin, written and directed by Randy Johnson, is a once in a lifetime musical experience that brings the music - and the woman - to life like never before.
Don't expect much in the way of personal revelation or public misbehavior. Apart from sucking on a bottle of Southern Comfort, this Janis is quite composed and sedate between songs. She tells charming stories about housecleaning, her family, her favorite 45s. Johnson's script has been carefully policed by the Joplin estate, which consists of Janis's siblings-thus, it's long on stories about her siblings and short on just about everything else. If an alien landed in the theater, seeking knowledge of Janis Joplin, its report to the mother ship would describe a mild, genial hippie redneck whose onstage routine included the occasional nip of hooch-basically Ron White in combat boots and batik, with a song in his heart...Davies's Janis, it must be said, is nothing short of extraordinary in the pipes department: She shreds her larynx like a woman possessed and still has more to give. It's a close but not Xeroxed impression, and in the narrow interstices between impersonation and performance, she injects real feeling and nuance. This is especially astonishing given the deadwood she must deliver. But just when you can't take another anemic anecdote or whitewashed Wiki stub, she lets loose her 'Cry Baby,' her 'Me and Bobby McGee,' and all is forgiven.
Ms. Davies portrays both sides of Janis, I should add. And while she bears a notable physical resemblance to Joplin, and her speaking voice has the same whisper of a twang and down-home earthiness, I'm a little suspicious of that second character. If the real Joplin had the kind of sensible perspective on her life and career that she exhibits in this show - happily reminiscing about her youthful love of painting, or giving a learned docent tour of blues history - she would probably not have died of an overdose of heroin and alcohol at 27...There remains a strange disjunction between the soul-baring singer and the woman calmly telling us that 'the blues is just a good woman feelin' bad,' or 'the blues are a way out of where you are, and they can drag you to where you're going,' or 'it's the want of something that gives you the blues, man.' The Janis we meet in 'A Night With Janis Joplin' spends so much time talking about the blues, you begin to wonder when she had time to truly suffer them.
2013 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2016 | US Tour |
North American Tour US Tour |
2017 | US Tour |
2017 US Tour US Tour |
West End |
West End |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2014 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Mary Bridget Davies |
2014 | Theatre World Awards | Outstanding Broadway or Off-Broadway Debut Performance | Mary Bridget Davies |
2014 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Mary Bridget Davies |
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