On Stage

...Ferdinand Joseph La Menthe Moiton was one of the most melodiamatic figures who evei sat down at a Sternway Only two years ago he was the centerpiece of Jelh s Last Jam The Bioadway tour de foice featured some kinetic tap-dancing, singing by a full-throated backup group, and the inh oduction of no less a figure than the Devil himself, making judgments about Morton's dissolute life and beti ayal of vn tually every black hand that leached out to help him It was an effective show and a discerning critique of racism in American music Yet the jazzman's ebullient personality, and his ability to create a library of influential melodies (if Morton is to be believed, some 1,400 in all), were lost en route Jelly Roll The Music and the Man is a fai moie modest affair than its piedeces-soi, the two-man show features one nar-ratoi one pianist and one set Within the confines of the 47th Street Theatei, this Off-Bioadway pioduction may come closei to the composer s soul Moi ton began life as part of the New Orleans Creole aristocracy His father abandoned the family when Ferdinand was an infant, and his mother died when he was 14 Left in the hands of a censor-ous, leligious grandmother, he did the unspeakable He became a piano player in the towns fanciest bordellos From there on, there was no holding him He rolled aiound the cncuit popping up in Biloxi Chicago New York and Los Angeles, acquiring his nickname plugging his tunes, pushing his reputation Along the way he seduced as mam women as he could dazzle with his vast arrav of suits and a diamond tooth that tw inkled when he smiled Jelh Roll acted as if he were at home wherever he hung his hat Actually, he had trapped himself betw een two woilds Although his light skin made him look down on other African-Americans who were quick to show then resentment, he vv as dark enough to be the taiget of incessant Jim Ci ow humiliations Morton surv lved ev ery setback, including alcoholism and a peripatetic lifestyle, by living on his limitless charm and mar-guable talent Since he had long fingers he could easily play tenths with his left hand and complex choids with his light Echoes of those performances could be heard years later in the at t angements of Benny Goodman Sidney Bechet and Duke Ellington The recording executive Ahmet Ertegun was familiar with just about every name in the business, to him, Morton lived up to Ins own billing "If anybody invented jazz, he did, because he predicted so much that was to come Obviously Jelly was the greatest person in jazz—with all due respect to Louis and Duke " Feidinand La Menthe Morton clearly was born to be analyzed by Instoi lans and impersonated by actois In 1992 Gregory Hines tirelessly hoofed and puffed his way through Jelh sLastJam Essentially, however, he remained Giegory Hines Veinel Bagnens, who dev ised this latest look at Jelly Roll disappears into the title lole, giving a Rabelaisian first-peison account, singing 22 up-tempo solos, moving like a spirit and posing like an imp Judging from the Library of Congress intelviews done just befoie Morton's death in 1941, Bagnens portrait is accu-late to the last wart and the final notes Those notes are accompanied by pianist Morten Gunnar Larsen, who can play Jelly Roll's "Finger Breaker' as if he meant it When these two are on vacation, their places are taken by the genial Man-on J Caffey, who slithers with feling grace and Butch Thompson the two-fisted pianist of NPR s long-iunning hit 1 Prai-le Home Companion Either team does justice to the music and the man At S30 a ticket, vou cant lose...

...Tommy Black (Paul Ronan), has a role so big he dwarfs the other characters, yet without them he is merely a one-man song-and-dance act Newcomer Ronan saves the drama by running away with it Shuttling fluently between Cagney impressions and mse-cuie youth, he gives Northern Ireland's dilemma what the playwright failed to create a human face and a lethal humor We are introduced to Tommy at a local talent contest There he wins First Prize with a number from Yankee Doodle Dandy Like Marcel Marceau's famous portrait of a man who puts on a grinning mask and then cannot remove it, Tommy finds himself unable to shed the part of the American actor He becomes possessed by his hero's "You-dirty-rat" diction and bantam swagger—a walk, incidentally, that Cagney said he copied from a pimp in his old East Side neighborhood Tommy begins a romance with the Second Prize winner, Kitty (Bernadette Quigley), a scrawny, poignant girl possessing no more direction than a wisp of cigarette smoke For a while, the two of them and their friend Davey (Brian D'Arcy James) stay away from the crossfire of the IRA and the Protestants But trouble is never more than a paycheck away, and Tommy is constantly on the dole To escape the miseries of Northern Ireland, he retreats into a fantasy world...

...Beginning, the former Belfast brat recalls the year 1984, when he scrawled the first draft of Public Enemy "For some time I had an idea about an Irish topic The play was an attempt to focus on several issues the effects of long-term unemployment, the influence of the media, organized crime, religious fervor, the psychology of killers All this was channeled into a narrative concerning a Belfast lad with a Jimmy Cagney fixation I knew it wasn't King Lear, but it was my first attempt at a bit of serious writing " Unsurprisingly, Public Enemy displays the customary virtues and flaws of the tyro Its protagonist...

...The odds are not as bad as they once appeared For despite the man's considerable flaws and excesses, he has not lost the most important attribute of all, a capacity for self-mockeiy In Beginnmghe tells the story of another egocentric performer?and then warns himself not to do likewise in a "Kenneth Branagh-gets-all-the-big-parts-Company' '"Isn't it marvelous about Ian McKel-lan and the Actors' Company This week he's playing Hamlet, and last week he was in something where he just played the footman 'What was the play called?' "The Footman '" With that kind of self-awareness Bianagh still has a good chance foi the mam chance I wouldn't bet against him JAZZ CRITIC Whitney Balliett once pondered the cat eer of a favorite musician and concluded "Jelly Roll Moiton, though long celebrated by jazz admirers, has yet to find his nghtful place " That was written in the late 1970s Today his place has been found, not in the conceit halls 01 night clubs but in the the-ater And why not...

...pictuung himself as the classic Cagney antihero One fatal day Tommy borrow s a gun fiom a local thug (James Beecher) and holds up a video store in a Catholic neighborhood Unexpectedly, the piopn-etor lesists Tommy guns him down Nothing about the episode is real to the trigger-man, it all seems to have occurred in a place J B Priestley called the skull cinema Nevertheless soon Tommy is hounded not only by the police but the IRA which wants revenge, and the Protestants who are embarrassed by a man they legard as a loose cannon Tommy's attempts to hide are futile, even his alcoholic mothet (Patti Allison) cannot offer him shelter foi long When Davey dies m an ambush, simply because he was a fnend of the murdeier...

...On Stage EGOTISM IN BLACK AND WHITE BY STEFAN KANFER THE JURY is still out on filmmak-er-turned-playwnght Kenneth Branagh In 1989 he chose to adapt, direct and star in Hemy V, a work previously filmed by no less a personage than Laurence Olivier Was there no end to this young man's temerity'' After all, in 1944, when Olivier made his now classic version, he had already established himself as a rising force in the West End and Hollywood By contrast, Branagh was an upstart of 29 with no major credits and a reputation for vanity on and off the boards The doubters and demgrators made themselves heard on two continents Then the film opened To be sure, some scattered complaints could be heard, but they were drowned out by international applause Without invalidating the earlier movie Branagh had given his boy king a more credible personality than Ohvier's, charged the text with new vigor, and provided a truly Shakespearean montage for the battle scenes A dazzling future was predicted, and by squinting their eyes, several forecasters thought they could see the title Sir Kenneth, perhaps even Lord Branagh, off in the future But the performer was not quite up to the role of wunderkmd He followed his triumph with such banal works as the gimmicky Dead Again—made, apparently, so that Branagh and his wife, Emma Thompson, could show off their nifty American accents Next, there was the arch comedy Petei's Ft tends (read Kenneth's friends), a sniggering home movie disguised as an art house comedy Branagh reigmted his career with another work of the Bard's, Much Ado About Nothing, directed by, and starring, you know who Tuscany is one of the most beautiful regions in Europe, any cameraman who removes his lens cap can produce footage of breathtaking quality No doubt the scenes of poplars and greenswards, castles and ceremonies contributed much to Much 4do's box-office success Still, Branagh deserved equal credit He moved his large cast about with a sure hand, and his humor and exuberance proved as irresistible as a flood tide on the Arno Now that he had regained his footing, would he consider his next projects with greater care' He would not A case m point was the recent Mary Shelle\>'s Frankenstein, with director Branagh in the title role and Robert De Niro as the laboratory creation Execrated by critics and ignored by ticketbuyers, this overproduced goth-ic disappeared so fast most people were unaware that the monster had come back from the grave Somewhat chastened, Branagh has momentarily abandoned the large screen for the tiny stage Indeed, his play, Public Enemy, had its American debut at the 99-seat Irish Arts Center (IAC) within sight of the Hudson River Although the IAC production was new, the play was practically an antique In his autobiography...

...Tommy knows his own number is up Rather than run he faces the fate he has been courting all along execution in a blaze of '30s Chicago-style gunfue Branagh's love of movies is evident throughout the work, so is Branaghs love of Bianagh He played Tommy in the British production, and scarcely left room for the others to turn aiound Still, there has never been an impresario with an undersized ego (Olivier set the standard forthe type), and if the American version displayed the sublety of an editorial cartoon it also contained the veive and promise of youth Nye Heron's direction harnessed that energy used every erg of his capable cast and opened the tiny stage until the inches seemed like furlongs Hal Prince could do no more with the material or the people Will Branagh now, at last, cease to divagate and grow up' Or is he doomed to pursue his policy of one giant step forward and several baby steps back...