Buddy Toupee\u2019s album of poppy pulp piano tunes isn\u2019t available in stores \u2014 and as the central character in North Coast Repertory Theatre\u2019s “Gunmetal Blues” quips, there\u2019s probably a reason for that. Truth be told, the collection is an extension of the song list from Toupee\u2019s gig at the Red Eye Lounge, a steamy hotel bar near an airport, likely played with the same mail-\u2018em-in routineness that colors his musicianship. All in a night\u2019s work for Buddy, whose nondescript musings are nonetheless fine by casehardened gumshoe Sam Galahad \u2014 Sam\u2019s more interested in the booze anyway, and these tawdry trappings strike a familiar chord in his dank heart.
\nYou\u2019ve seen Sam before, in the person of Dick Powell, Robert Mitchum, Robert Taylor and a million others who\u2019ve played their share of private dicks in the film noir of the 1940s. In fact, you\u2019ve seen Buddy too, along with the million or so female lounge singers who\u2019ve graced Sam\u2019s path. What makes this production very good isn\u2019t the fact that it\u2019s a musical homage to the genre \u2014 the lyrics fail to complement the simile-laden dialogue, and they don\u2019t necessarily lend exposition to the characters. It\u2019s the dialogue, the first-person storytelling around the thick, effusive plot, that fuels this piece amid the genre\u2019s indelible place in the public mind.
\nImitation, after all, is the sincerest form of flattery \u2014 and this show is pretty damn sincere in its convictions.
\n“Don\u2019t let the trench coat fool you,” wiry Sam sizzes in his best Bogie by way of introduction; “I\u2019m expecting rain.” And thus he persists amid his search for the daughter of a crooked businessman found dead in his sprawling home. The investigation leads Sam into countless imbroglios with the era\u2019s cops, femmes fatale and mobsters, leaving him drugged or beaten to a bloody pulp (“A Mariachi band was tuning up inside my stomach”); invariably, of course, the girl is one lousy step out of reach.
\nShe smells, of course, “like cigarette smoke and shattered dreams.” When Sam\u2019s client characterizes the death as “tragic,” his wry response is, “Death usually is.” On and on go the cagey quips, reflected in music by those such as tipsy chanteuse Carol Indigo, whose “The Blonde Song” is a total hoot.
\nBut most of those tunes. Craig Bohmler and Marion Adler\u2019s score assumes too much about librettist Scott Wentworth\u2019s family of characters. Buddy\u2019s “Buddy Toupee \u2014 Live,” for instance, screams hard sell when we\u2019re not sure who Buddy is yet; Sam\u2019s “Jenny” (and the dialogue that follows) asks the character to turn far too hard on a dime. Gaps in consistency, sometimes sizable, are the usual result. Compare that with Buddy\u2019s turns as an Irish cop, a doorman, a cabbie and others, and the dialogue retains command anew.
\nBuddy couldn\u2019t imagine anything else but entertaining at the Red Eye (he wouldn\u2019t know what to do even if his album sold), and Jeffrey Rockwell plays him as such. The Irish cop is easily his funniest secondary character, and Sharon Rietkerk earns similar kudos in several roles (her bag-lady stoolie Princess is totally precious). As Sam, Kevin Bailey has the toughest job of all \u2014 persuading us that Bogart isn\u2019t his inspiration while the “Casablanca” tenor spills all over the stage. He carries it off nimbly under the knowing direction of Andrew Barnicle, who\u2019ll probably pitch his cookies if he sees “Casablanca” one more time.
\nMatt Novotny\u2019s lights are an excellent study in shades within shades. And check out Carol Indigo\u2019s sizzling blue cocktail dress as designed by Alina Bokovikova! It all plays out on Marty Burnett\u2019s pat set, which can\u2019t spare one more inch across North Coast\u2019s stage. Rockwell\u2019s musical direction has Matt Best (woodwinds), Tom Versen (drums and percussion) and Fred Ubaldo Jr. (bass) sounding like a septet.
\nIronically, the first known use of the term “film noir” (French for “black film”) was reportedly in 1958. That means that the public had to contrive a way to commit the genre to memory \u2014 such was its colossal effect on audiences\u2019 taste for quirkiness and camp. “Gunmetal Blues” is a savvy look at its cinematic counterpart\u2019s success in the genre, coming away with some hefty nods of respect from those who\u2019ve come before.
\nThis review is based on the opening-night performance of Jan. 17. “Gunmetal Blues” runs through Feb. 15 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987-D Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach. $40-$51, discounts available. (858) 481-1055, northcoastrep.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Buddy Toupee\u2019s album of poppy pulp piano tunes isn\u2019t available in stores \u2014 and as the central character in North Coast Repertory Theatre\u2019s “Gunmetal Blues” quips, there\u2019s probably a reason for that. Truth be told, the collection is an extension of the song list from Toupee\u2019s gig at the Red Eye Lounge, a steamy hotel […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":280642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"North Coast's 'Gunmetal Blues': Film noir is alive and (fairly) well","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-la-jolla-village-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280641"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280641\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/280642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}