MEMPHIS--BROADWAY MUSICAL TOUR--REVIEW---MAGIC

Every once in awhile something happens in the theatre called MAGIC! You
could have seen a show, enjoyed it and forgotten it the next day until
you see it again 8 months later and from the moment the curtain goes up
you have an almost out of body experience and that is what happened last
night at the opening of the touring company of “Memphis” at the Broward
Performing Arts Center.

The electrical chemistry between Jasmin Richardson as Felicia, a black
singer and Joey Elrose as Huey, a white DJ, not only charged the theatre
but the featured players, the ensemble and the band. They weren't
actors playing characters but real people whose life we were watching.

It is Memphis, Tennessee, in the 1950s, a time of racial tension and
‘colored’ music, eventually to be called rock ‘n roll, is coming into
the white world and being taken over by them. Huey and Felicia fall in
love opposed by his mother and her brother and we follow them as they go
through tribulations of their love and careers.

With the music, book and lyrics by Joe DiPietro and David Bryan,
original choreography of Sergio Trujillo recreated by Jermaine R.
Rembert and Adam Arian recreating the original direction of Christopher
Ashley the cast is strong whether dancing, acting and/or singing. Pat
Sibley as Mama, Avionce Hoyles as Gator and Jerrial T. Young as Bobby
and the ensemble stop the show more than once.
It is Jasmin Richardson and Joey Elrose, with that undefinable magic,
her soaring voice, his hangdog winning ways, that take this show into a
night not very quickly forgotten in this Tony Award winning show for
Best Musical.

“Memphis” will be playing at the Broward Performing Arts center until March 9--catch the magic!

PHOTO BY JEREMY DANIEL COURTESY OF PR MANAGER CHARLOTTE VERMAAK