Two on the Aisle
by Gerry Kowarsky
/
September, 2023
For anyone who savored Just One Look, the previous collaboration of Kelly Howe and Joe Hanrahan, their current fusion of theater and cabaret is self-recommending. Hanrahan has created a clever, appealing dramatic framework for Howe’s superb vocalism.
The show has a long name: Professor Sunshine’s Traveling Post-Apocalyptic Rock ’n Roll Revival. As before, Hanrahan has written a script that replaces a cabaret artist’s usual banter. Hanrahan and Howe portray touring musicians who have arrived so late their first meeting with the band is when they come out on the stage.
Howe’s character appears first. In the absence of Professor Sunshine (the emcee), she has to introduce the act herself. She is “the Sensational…Savory…Sultry… Chanteuse—Cheyenne!” She and the professor have come with songs of salvation in this dread time of “war and treachery.” The word “post-apocalyptic” in the title is no exaggeration. The professor and Cheyenne have been on the road forever, “living in a dying world.”
Cheyenne’s first number is “We Gotta Get Out of This Place.” She is clearly fed up with touring “up and down the wasteland.” When the professor arrives, he notes Cheyenne’s discontent and reminds her their contract is ironclad.
The closeness and contentiousness of the professor and Cheyenne’s partnership is reflected in the dialogue, which relates the songs to the characters’ lives. At one point, Cheyenne reveals she is still thinking about her lost love. She finds out what really happened to him when the professor performs the Beatles’ “Rocky Raccoon.”
Howe’s singing is fabulous. Her plaintive, angry sound packs a huge emotional wallop. Her numbers include:
• Midnight Rider
• Everybody Wants to Rule the World
• That’s the Way
• I Call Your Name
• Crying
• 96 Tears
• Cornflake Girl
• Because the Night
• I Won’t Back Down
• Ramble On
• All Along the Watchtower
Howe’s delivery suggests Cheyenne hails from country. So does her striking costume by Liz Henning. The professor’s getup suggests he sees himself as a master of more than just the ceremonies.
In addition to “Rocky Raccoon,” Professor Sunshine performs “Song for You” in Sprechgesang, which is a cross between speech and song. Hanrahan’s remarkably effective vocalization is reminiscent of the style made famous by another professor—Henry Higgins. Could My Fair Lady be in The Midnight Company’s future?
The excellent musicians are Curt Landes (music director and piano), Tom Maloney (guitar and bass), and Mark Rogers (percussion and vocals).
Broadway World
by James Lindhorst / September, 2023
PROFESSOR SUNSHINE’S TRAVELING POST-APOCALYPITIC ROCK AND ROLL REVIVAL rolled into Blue Strawberry Showroom and Lounge tonight. Midnight Company’s latest effort is their third theatrical cabaret performance that uses a loose narrative to support Rock ‘n Roll songs. In this production the vocals are delivered by a chanteuse named Cheyenne played by Kelly Howe, and she gets to rip into some of the great rock ‘n roll songs of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.
This concept show is an eclectic, quirky and off kilter story of a traveling band visiting down-trodden cities to lift the spirits of the residents with songs and tales of their time on the road. The story, created by Midnight Company’s artistic director Joe Hanrahan, tells the story of a time when spirits are low, and times are bad. The music is strung together using the narrative to introduce the songs. Sunshine and Cheyenne are touring through the towns with a musical performance to bring salvation and breathe life back into a population that is tired.
Kelly Howe follows up her incredible performance as Linda Ronstadt with another dynamic rock ‘n roll performance highlighting her immense range. She uses every type of timbre with vocal qualities ranging from falsetto to chest/head voice and belt. While the song set won’t be revealed in this review in order protect the mysterious fun of the production, Howe does get to tear into the music of Jimi Hendrix, The Animals, Led Zeppelin, Tears for Fears, Patti Smith and Roy Orbison. Howe’s big voice delivers and rocks the house in a Stevie Nicks-esque performance. The music she and Hanrahan chose to include in this show offers something for everyone across generations of music lovers. The musical highlight of the night was 1978 hit “Because the Night” by The Patti Smith Band that was again covered in 1993 by 10,000 Maniacs featuring Natalie Merchant on vocals. Howe slayed this song while the audience nodded along with the drumbeat. One thing is certain, Howe knows how to deliver a rock ‘n roll song with grand panache.
Howe and Hanrahan are backed up by The House Divided Band featuring music director Curt Landes on piano and background vocals, Tom Maloney on guitar and bass, and Mark Rogers on percussion and background vocals. The House Divided Band plays tight versions of all the savage rock songs featured in the show. Maloney specifically shines for his bass and his lead guitar work on classics from The Animals and Jimi Hendrix.
Hanrahan has once again delivered a fun cabaret style show of rock music. This production comes highly recommended to fans of the rock genre thanks to Howe’s exceptional sense of phrasing, beat and rhythm, and the performance of The House Divided Band. The story works to the extent needed to string together the eclectic mix of songs.
Snoop's Theatre Thoughts
by Michelle Kenyon ("Snoop") /
September, 2023
The Midnight Company’s work at the Blue Strawberry Theatre & Lounge is continuing with another concert-with-a-story, Professor Sunshine’s Traveling Post-Apocalyptic Rock ‘n Roll Revival. Written by Midnight’s artistic director Joe Hanrahan and starring Hanrahan and Kelly Howe, the show has a bit more of a story this time, featuring two strong leading performances and Howe’s impressive vocals on a variety of classic hits. The show also benefits from a strong sense of theme.
The setting is a world in which an unspecified cataclysmic event has happened, and our two leads, Professor Sunshine (Hanrahan) and singer Cheyenne (Howe) apparently spend their days traveling to sparsely populated towns and performing concerts. At first, Cheyenne appears weary and reluctant, complaining about the Professor’s late arrival and controlling ways, and beginning the concert set with the Animals’ “We Gotta Get Outta This Place”, which apparently the “boss” doesn’t like her to sing. Soon, the Professor shows up, and a dialogue of sorts ensues amidst the collection of classic rock hits, mostly from the 60s and 70s, but ranging into the 80’s with “Everybody Wants to Rule the World”. The relationship between these two is at turns prickly and familiar, working out into a sort of odd friendship, as they explore regrets and reflections of life on the road in a post-apocalyptic world.
Mostly, though, the production is showcase for Howe’s versatile vocals. While for her last collaboration with Hanrahan at the Blue Strawberry, Just One Look, Howe was playing Linda Ronstadt and had to sing (wonderfully) in Ronstadt’s style for the whole show, here she has more freedom to cut loose on songs from The Animals, Patti Smith, Led Zeppelin, Roy Orbison, and more, showing off the power and control of her excellent voice. Howe’s voice is the musical highlight here, but Hanrahan gets his chance to exhibit his own “talk-singing” on “Rocky Raccoon” and “A Song For You” with admirable style and character. The interplay between Howe and Hanrahan and the script full of humorous rock ‘n roll references adds much to the entertainment value here, as does the excellent band made up of music director Curt Landes on piano, Tom Maloney on guitar and bass, and Mark Rogers on percussion and backing vocals. Liz Henning’s costumes add a great deal of flair, as well, helping to further define the characters and tone of the production.
Overall, this is an enjoyable show that celebrates classic rock music and a supremely talented lead vocalist, with an intriguing, if somewhat vague, story to tie the show together. It all fits very well into the setting of the Blue Strawberry, as well. There’s one more performance scheduled, and it’s worth checking out, especially if you’re into classic rock.
Ladue News
by Mark Bretz /
November, 2023
Story: In the days of the Wild West in the 19th century, entertainers sometimes visited towns which sprung up overnight as homes to (mostly) men who worked the railroads, mined for gold or otherwise put together hardscrabble lives. Those impresarios, often selling “magic” elixirs guaranteed to cure any and all ills, would park their wagons, make their pitch, then head back on the trail with a hefty chunk of change from gullible audiences.
Professor Sunshine and his “chanteuse,” Cheyenne, work a similar routine in the 21st century, as the professor talks about “hard, hard times, troubled days in the dark, desolate lands we inhabit.” He has a point: Everywhere, political and social civility has crumbled, even to the point of altruistic leaders being mocked and ridiculed in crude, vulgar, ignorant and distasteful style.
Like their predecessors 150 or so years ago, Professor Sunshine and Cheyenne bring their scruffy traveling band to still another city, preaching hope while entertaining the masses with liberal doses of old-time rock ‘n’ roll. They’re purveyors of The Beatles and Dylan and Petty and The Animals, among many others.
They have stories to tell, some which hit quite close to their own, aggrieved hearts. Still, Professor Sunshine’s Traveling Post-Apocalyptic Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival is determined to put smiles on the faces of the downtrodden, to bring a little joy for a bit of time to hopefully ward off the dangers of despair and depression. Will they succeed?
Highlights: Joe Hanrahan, founder and artistic director of The Midnight Company, and superior songstress Kelly Howe, along with the “Sunshine” band, package a nifty story with several rock standards in an enjoyable, 90-minute romp of “cabaret theater” co-created by Hanrahan and Howe.
Other Info: Earlier this year, Hanrahan wrote, directed and performed along with Howe in “Just One Look,” a tribute to iconic singer Linda Ronstadt, in a piece termed “cabaret theater” by Hanrahan. Howe portrayed Ronstadt and duly impressed sold-out audiences at no fewer than a dozen performances at The Blue Strawberry cabaret nightclub, with Howe’s formidable vocal range and powerful voice caressing Ronstadt ballads while also belting out livelier, rock numbers.
The duo of Hanrahan and Howe are at it again in this free-wheeling musical enterprise which uses an Old West traveling show as a launching point for an entertaining update set in contemporary America. Hanrahan serves as writer and director, as well as performing in the show alongside Howe.
They’re accompanied by a crackerjack group known as The House (Divided) Band, comprised of music director and pianist Curt Landes, guitarist Tom Maloney, and drummer/vocalist Mark Rogers, who nicely backs up Howe on several tunes. That trio also supported Howe in “Just One Look.”
Dressed snappily in Wild West attire crafted by costume designer Liz Henning, Howe regaled the audience with such notable rock numbers as The Animals’ hit, “We Gotta Get Out of This Place,” The Allman Brothers’ “Midnight Rider,” Leon Russell’s “A Song for You,” Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers’ anthem, “I Won’t Back Down” and even “98 Teardrops,” by Question Mark (?) and the Mysterians. Numbers by Led Zeppelin, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan and others also are included.
As with “Just One Look,” Howe demonstrates a powerful range and soaring voice while handling numerous rock songs with aplomb. Surprisingly, though, the night’s best moment is when non-singer Hanrahan performs an up-tempo, impassioned riff on The Beatles’ classic “Rocky Raccoon,” as a way of explaining how Cheyenne searches the open road for her departed lover, Rocky. It’s a delightful moment, indeed.
Hanrahan refers to “Professor Sunshine,” “Just One Look” and a couple of other shows he’s assembled as examples of what he calls “cabaret theater,” pointing out that “Audiences noticed the addition of a strong storyline to an array of songs,” as opposed to the patter by a performer in a cabaret in which the spoken word serves as a bridge between musical numbers.
Regardless of what’s it called, “Professor Sunshine’s Traveling Post-Apocalyptic Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival” offers an evening of polished musical performances as well as a clever yarn to explain how these characters provide a suitable update to a staple of 19th century American entertainment.
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