Looking for an Echo
For one evening only, the Ira Aldridge Rep's reprising one of last year's biggest hit shows, an "a cappella musical revue" of the doo-wop tunes sung under streetlights as hands warmed over ash-can fires. Nine deft practitioners perform the music of Sam Cooke, Bill Withers, Gene Chandler (the immortal "Duke of Earl"), which they have polished for a lifetime. Director Calvin Manson assembled the vocalists who "after 40 years still ain't got a band." Don't need one, with Rodger Varmer's ocean-deep bass, Aaron Holland and Roosevelt Carter's leads, and Gary Martin, who sings like Drifter-extraordinaire Ben E. King (I would love to hear their version of "There Goes My Baby"). There's a kind of a story: rival groups rehearse in a warehouse, in Act one. In Act two, all don white sport coats and harmonize - oh, do they ever!
Critic's pick.