Theatre: Smokey Joe's Cafe at Virginia/August Wilson Theatre



Smokey Joe's Cafe is a musical revue showcasing 39 pop standards, including rock and roll and rhythm and blues songs. The original Broadway cast recording, Smokey Joe's Cafe: The Songs Of Leiber And Stoller, won a Grammy award in 1996. The revue opened on Broadway in 1995, running for 2,036 performances, making it the longest-running musical revue in Broadway history. In revue format with no unifying theme, the 39 songs are presented by various members of the cast in various combinations, with no dialog. There are novelty songs ("Charlie Brown"), romantic ballads ("Spanish Harlem"), and infectious melodies ("There Goes My Baby"). Oddly, the song "Smokey Joe's Cafe" is not performed in the show, although a brief instrumental excerpt is used in Act II as transitional music.








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