Film-Theater Hybrid 'Aelita'
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THURSDAY, October 23, 2014ENTERTAINMENT The Herald-Palladium Section D Herald Palladium 10/23/2014 Copy Reduced to %d%% from original to fit letter page Fisher puts his own stamp on standards Vocalist will perform Sunday at The Livery By JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO HP Features Writer BENTON HARBOR — An- drew Fisher’s music career has al- ways been about timing. Whether the 25-year-old was playing a memorable donkey in the Southwest Michigan Sym- phony Orchestra’s 2013 produc- tion of “Shrek the Musical,” sing- ing with Paul Mow and David Carew and The Citadel Sympho- ny Chorus, or joining Jenna Mammina for a set at a local gal- lery, Fisher’s big voice has been popping up with more and more frequency. It’s a fact, the humble vocalist says, that has as much to do with being in the right place at the right time as his obvious tal- ent. Photos provided “I’ve wanted to record an al- The touring production of “Smokey Joe’s Café” featuring The Coasters makes a tour stop Saturday at the Lake Michigan College Mendel Center Mainstage bum for a long, long time, but the Theatre. timing was never right,” he says from his home in Berrien Springs. “I didn’t think people knew who I was or would be interested in what I was doing. I just always The sounds of seemed to fi nd an excuse not to do it. This year, I fi nally got to the point where I had done s Café enough things in the community ’ that it was really time to give it a go.” In September, Fisher hired mu- sicians, booked studio time and Smokey JoeProduction featuring The Coasters launched a Kickstarter campaign in hopes of funding his debut al- to stop Saturday at the Mendel Center bum of jazz and soul standards titled, “From My Soul to Yours.” By JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO Michigan College Mendel Center That campaign culminates with HP Features Writer Mainstage Theatre, that connec- Sunday’s concert at The Livery, tion between Leiber and Stoller where he will lead a trio that also BENTON HARBOR — and The Coasters led to a includes Eric Oliphant and Fre- “Smokey Joe’s Café,” the longest remarkable idea. drick Patrick in a set of songs he running musical revue in Broad- “When it debuted on Broad- hopes to record in November. way history, has always been a way it was immensely popular, so For Fisher, a classically trained love letter to Jerry Leiber and when we decided to revive it and vocalist who has sung everything Mike Stoller. take it on tour we wanted to do from musical theater to opera, the The legendary songwriters something special with it,” Allan biggest decision was deciding on wrote or co-wrote more than 70 says by telephone from Long a genre for his debut. Billboard chart hits, ushering in Island. “Since a lot of songs in “I love singing all kinds of the rock ’n’ roll era in the 1950s the show are songs by The genres,” Fisher says. “Since it was and early 1960s by penning songs Coasters, we thought, ‘Hey, my fi rst album I wanted it to be for Elvis Presley – including wouldn’t it be a coup if we could music that touched my life in “Love Me” and “Jailhouse Rock” get The Coasters to actually some way. When I was going – as well as tunes for The perform them in the show?’”’ through songs, I realized that a Drifters, Ben E. King, The So Allan reached out to Veta lot of it was jazz, so it morphed Clovers and Peggy Lee. But it Gardner, the widow of original into that. Out of all the genres I was The Coasters that recorded member Carl Gardner, who sing, jazz is the genre where I can The Coasters will perform as part of “Smokey Joe’s Café” on Saturday at the the most Leiber and Stoller holds the rights to the name, and share my feelings and emotions in Mendel Center. The group recorded many songs by Jerry Leiber and Mike songs. The seminal band made has kept The Coasters going with the purest way. For me, that was Stoller, whose music fuels the show. hits out of 24 Leiber and Stoller new members, and inserted the the most important thing.” gems, including “Charlie Brown,” band in its “Smokey Joe’s Café” Fisher, who was born in Hins- “Searchin’,” “Yakety Yak” and production. dale, Ill., moved with his family to “Poison Ivy.” “The challenge was how do we Berrien Springs when he was 7 When Paul Allan, the manag- integrate these guys into a show years old. The one constant in his What: “Smokey Joe’s Café” fea- 2755 E. Napier Ave., Benton Har- ing partner of The Gateway that already has an ensemble of life, he says, has always been mu- turing The Coasters bor Performing Arts Center in the nine members who in previous sic. Long Island town of Bellport, productions sings all of these “I remember taking piano les- When: 8 p.m. Saturday How much: $48-$60 N.Y., decided to revive “Smokey songs,” Allan says. “We wanted sons as 4 and 5 years old,” he says. Where: Lake Michigan College Contact: 927-1221 or Joe’s Café” for its own season as to pay homage to The Coasters Mendel Center Mainstage Theatre, www.lmcmainstage.org well as a national tour, which See FISHER, page D5 makes a stop Saturday at Lake See SMOKEY JOE’S, page D5 Film-theater hybrid ‘Aelita’ is out of this world Copyright (c)2014 The Herald-Palladium 10/23/2014 October 27, 2014 1:58 pm / Powered by TECNAVIA Russian sci-fi film to In 2004, Michigan words and music and the City, Ind., composer Dan theatrical image. The same be screened at The Schaaf began the long thing happens with fi lm.” Acorn, with some process of turning “Aelita: Schaaf makes his living Queen of Mars” into a as a computer engineer for help from live actors silent fi lm musical, com- the public library, but he is posing and recording a known locally as both a By JEREMY D. BONFIGLIO surround-sound digital composer and playwright. HP Features Writer orchestra score with back- He’s written a couple of ground music and songs, rock operas, “MacBeth” THREE OAKS — In writing a complete script and “Roxanne’s Kiss” (a 1924, Russian director Ya- with dialogue, and casting version of the Cyrano kov Protazanov took a fi ve actors to perform live tale), as well as composi- deeply philosophical novel while the fi lm is screened. tions for local theater and by Alexei N. Tolstoy, a dis- The resulting fi lm-theater dance companies. He fi rst tant younger relative of Leo hybrid will be shown Fri- began dabbling in silent Tolstoy, and turned it into day at The Acorn Theater. fi lm scores after seeing the fi rst Soviet science fi c- “It seems amazing that Fritz Lang’s 1927 fi lm mas- tion movie, “Aelita: Queen they made this fi lm in the terpiece “Metropolis” on of Mars.” Soviet Union given the po- TV with a background Protazanov added jeal- litical situation,” Schaaf score that just didn’t seem ousy, murder, farce and fu- says by telephone from to fi t. turistic costumes to Tol- Michigan City. “There’s “They had this Laurel & stoy’s story of a lonely heavy social commentary Hardy style music behind engineer who builds an ap- about conditions in the So- it and it didn’t make sense paratus that takes him to viet Union at the time. So at all,” Schaaf says. “I the red planet, where he it’s interesting on that level thought that I could do falls in love with a princess ... but I’ve been writing better than that, so I did a Photo provided and takes part in a revolu- music since grade school. score for ‘Metropolis’ al- A film still from the first Soviet science fiction movie, “Aelita: Queen of Mars,” which has been turned tion against her father in ... and I’ve done a lot of most by accident.” into a a silent film musical by Michigan City, Ind., composer Dan Schaaf, complete with a surround- this unlikely early Soviet work with theater because sound digital orchestra score, a script with dialogue, and five actors performing live while the film hit. I like the combination of See AELITA, page D6 is screened. The film-theater hybrid will be shown Friday at The Acorn Theater in Three Oaks. Herald Palladium 10/23/2014 The Herald-Palladium ENTERTAINMENT THURSDAY, October 23, 2014 – D5 SMOKEY JOE’S It’s not so much that you Annie Lennox embraces jazzy ‘Nostalgia’ feel like you’re at a From page D1 Coasters concert, but By GREGORY KATZ and reduced them to their “Strange Fruit” are fea- help of a skilled arranger enough so that everybody Associated Press bare essentials before build- tured. and an orchestra leader. and allow them to be sort of gets what they ing them up, in her own “I tried to step away from Lennox, 59, was perhaps featured but still be want.” LONDON — How do style, without trying to re- all the other arrangements,” helped by the fact that she ‘Smokey Joe’s Café.’” Allan says The Coasters you follow in the footsteps capture the past. That’s the said Lennox, who worked didn’t grow up listening to Trying to improve upon – whose roster features of Frank Sinatra and Ray strategy she has used in her on the album alone with her these songs.