“It all started with a dame….”
By Eric George Tauber
SOLANA BEACH, California– They all start with a dame, a blond dame, a femme fatale who’s drop-dead gorgeous and in big trouble, desperate for help. The ubiquity of noir detective stories makes them easy targets for parody. Just listen to Prairie Home Companion. Writer Scott Wentworth got the recipe: a smoky bar, a PI in a trench coat, a dame, a piano and a tenor sax shaken in a mixer and you’ve got a noir cocktail.
What began as post-war German Expressionism -with its strong lighting contrasts and cynical world view- migrated to Hollywood when the Nazis turned against some of Europe’s brightest stars because they were Jewish. Some notables include Fritz Lang, Karl Freund and Edgar Georg Ulmer. (Historical note: Hitler actually tapped Fritz Lang as his propaganda filmmaker. Lang said he would think about it, then got the hell out of Dodge.)
Jeffrey Rockwell is our accompanist and narrator as Buddy Toupée, a gregarious piano player at the Red Eye Lounge, a little bar near the airport. He charms us into his seedy little world with a song and a glint in his eye. Rockwell wears many hats: a doorman who knows nothing until he sees green, a tough Irish copper with a brogue you can cut with a knife, a gangster, a cabbie … you get the idea. Every hat is a new character and the changes come fast.
Kevin Bailey plays the quintessential “hardboiled” PI in a trench coat, Sam Gallahad. With a joyless, cynical voice, he rattles off wry similes that fall like droppings at a pigeon convention. Yet he sings with a pleasing softness that belies an inner vulnerability, especially for dames.
Sharon Rietkirk plays the blondes, all of them: the classy platinum blonde who wants answers found but her own secrets kept, a “dirty blonde” who sings in a cabaret and a bag lady named “Princess.” Rietkirk’s mezzo soprano voice rings loud and clear like the bells of an old church that only the angels go to anymore.
The music by Craig Bohmer and Marion Adler is nostalgic noir. Its heartbreaking winds hearken back to the early works of Kurt Weil and Franz Waxman, a perfect accompaniment to a strong drink on a foggy night.
Buddy gives a mock commercial for the soundtrack –not sold in stores. If it ever does become available, I want one.
I need to keep this review short because writing more would be telling you too much. Let the twists and surprises come to you. Gunmetal Blues: The Musical plays at the North Coast Rep through Feb 8.
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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. Your comment may be placed in the space provided below or sent directly to the author at eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com