Sharon D Clarke sings the blues with immense feeling
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Last performed at the Hackney Empire in 2014, Susie McKenna‘s production of Blues In the Night is currently running at the recently refurbished Kiln Theatre. Conceived by Sheldon Epps, this musical revue draws upon the blues repertoires of Bessie Smith, Johnny Mercer, Jimmy Davis, Harold Arlen, and others.
With set design by Robert Jones, and atmospheric lighting from Neil Austin, the show takes place in a shabby hotel in Chicago during the Great Depression as three women in adjacent hotel rooms ponder their loneliness. Aside from a scattering of spoken dialogue, there is little narrative. Yet, McKenna‘s seamless direction buoys things along smoothly. Performed with a live band on stage under the musical direction of pianist Mark Dickman, the score compensates aplenty for the lack of a fleshed-out libretto. From the yearning ‘Lover Man’, the unashamedly sexual ‘Kitchen Man’, and the resigned ‘Dirty No-Gooder Blues’, the material relays the desires, frustrations, and tensions within the central characters.
Anchoring the production is a characteristically stellar performance from Sharon D Clarke. Fresh off the heels of her stint in the much lauded production of Death of a Salesman at the Young Vic, Clarke plays ‘The Lady’ – incidentally, a role she understudied during Blues in the Night’s original West End run back in 1987. Playing a one-time performer beaten down by disappointments both professional and romantic, Clarke portrays a cynical, at times withering, character burdened with hurt and rejection. With her deep and gravelly voice wrapped around the material, Clarke sings with sublime phrasing and interpretation – culminating in a showstopping performance of ‘Wasted Life Blues’ in the second act. Yet she also has plenty of opportunities to mellow her delivery, as per a fun, whimsical take on ‘New Orleans Hop-Scop Blues’.
Clarke is joined on-stage by Debbie Kurup (playing the temperamental ‘Woman’) and Gemma Sutton (the naive ‘Girl’) as equally troubled personalities. Their command of the blues vocabulary is less organic, but they perform with necessary attack. Kurup impresses particularly on ‘Stompin’ at the Savoy’ as her character reminisces on the once sophisticated life she used to lead. Clive Rowe, vocally impressive if a touch on the hokey side, plays the hotel’s womanising crooner and is often the source of many comic interjections. Aston New as ‘The Hustler’ and Joseph Poulton as ‘The Barman’ support the leads with Frank Thompson’s elegant but economical choreography.
The beauty of the blues is in its emotive power which this production harnesses with confidence.
Blues in the Night is running at the Kiln Theatre until 7th September 2019. Buy tickets here.
Photography by Mark Humphreys
