Review of 'Last of the Red Hot Mamas'

Sophie Tucker was one of the queens of show business. With a career that spanned several decades, styles of music, and deeply impacted the likes of Bette Middler, even those of us unfamiliar with Tucker, have likely been impacted by her contributions. When I heard that the New Jewish Theatre was performing a show entitled "Last of the Red Hot Mama's", I figured it would be worth learning more about.
It turns out that everything about Sophie Tucker was large. Her personality, her voice, and apparently, her libido. The NJT's take on her definitely got the first two parts of this equation right. The cast were all solid, particularly the three actresses playing Sophie throughout her life. Each brought a great deal of talent and passion, and songs like 'My Yiddishe Momma' were filled with emotion. The new theater at the Staenberg JCC has top quality lighting, while maintaining an rather intimate feel. A few lines were lost when actors were facing away from us, but in general, being up close to the action was worth it.

The story largely follows the life of Sophie Tucker from young immigrant, working in her parents restaurant, through her career starting off in tin pan alley, to her ascent as an international sensation. The story weaves in songs from the period to help tell the story, as well as to provide background into the sounds of the times.

I can certainly see my grandparents getting nostalgic at the performance. Which brings me to a criticism of the show. Sophie Tucker's performance and persona drew greatly from the risque and often relatively explicit content, hence the name 'Red Hot Mama'. With the exception of a few lines of dialogue, well into the second half of the show, there was little attention given to this aspect of Sophie Tucker.

Overall, the show was well produced and performed. If you are thinking about checking it out, stay tuned for details about a special performance (and price) for young adults. You can also check out dates and prices here.
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The Last Five Years: The New Jewish Theatre Is Worth Seeing

The Last Five Years, as performed by the New Jewish Theatre is a lot of fun. This may come as a surprise given that the play is all about the rise and fall of a relationship, and is only performed by two people (plus the musicians).

But really, it's a lot of fun. The space is very intimate, and no seat is more than 15 feat away from the actors at any point. The format of the show is interesting, with one of the actors starting at the end of their relationship and working her way backward while the other starts at the beginning and moves forward in time. They only meet and perform together at one point, their wedding.
Even the instrumentation is a bit weird, but the violin, cello, and piano do a great job of style-hopping and keeping things interesting.

The Last Five Years deals with the dizzying successes and heartbraking failures that are so amplified in New York City. While the male lead achieves stunning success as a writer at 23 and continues to climb, the female lead struggles to catch a break in her acting career, creating guilt, jealousy and tension.

The show itself is only about 80 minutes or so, which lends itself to the attention span of a younger audience, as does the majority of the music (songs like, Shiksa Goddess are always a good time).

The show runs through June 21st and is worth checking out. Don't let good theater in St. Louis pass you by. Tickets are available here
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