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“Hound
Dog,” “Love Potion #9,” “Stand By Me,” “On Broadway,”
“Jailhouse Rock.” These songs, all the work of the
song-writing team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, provided
the soundtrack to a generation of Americans. These tunes and
many more will have audiences dancing in the aisles when the
seven-time Tony® Award-nominated, Grammy® Award-winning
musical, “Smokey Joe’s Café — The Songs of Leiber and
Stoller,” hits The Morrison Center Nov. 16-18. Tickets go on
sale Sunday, Oct. 17, and are available at the Morrison
Center box office, all Select-a-Seat outlets or by calling
(208) 426-1110 or (208) 426-1494. Check locations for
specific days and hours. Groups of 20 or more should call
(208) 426-4103. Tickets may also be purchased online at
www.idahotickets.com
Powerful performances and razor-sharp staging bring songs
from the black-and-white 1950s and ’60s colorfully and
vibrantly alive. The music of Leiber and Stoller lives on
the radio, in our heads and triumphantly on the stage. These
are songs that are meant to be performed — really performed.
Winner of the Grammy® Award for Best Musical and nominated
for seven Tony® Awards, including Best Musical, Best
Director and Best Choreography, “Smokey Joe’s Café”
celebrates the world of first kisses and last dances, hot
summer nights and cool midnight struts, blue-light diners
and red-hot rock and roll.
“We didn’t write songs,” Leiber and Stoller are fond of
saying. “We wrote records.” The revolution in popular music
that was born of the 45, the juke box and the car radio
sounding off at the drive-in began when Elvis’s recording of
Leiber and Stoller’s “Hound Dog” smoked up the charts in
1956. The hits continued from there: “Charlie Brown,”
“Loving You,” “Treat Me Nice,” “Kansas City” and countless
others — an unprecedented string of Top 40 songs that
defined the ’50s and early ’60s. The Coasters, The Drifters,
Peggy Lee and Elvis all had their greatest successes with
Leiber and Stoller tunes.
“Smokey Joe’s Café” is about the music that defines America.
With energy and humor, the show gives audiences as much fun
as they’ll ever experience in a theater,” explained Michael
McFadden, co-founder and artistic producer of Phoenix
Productions. “It is the most high-spirited show ever created
and we look forward to bringing it back to stages across
North America.”
PHOENIX PRODUCTIONS, producer of “Smokey Joe’s Café”,
develops, produces, presents and general manages under the
direction of producers Stephen Kane and Michael McFadden,
who personally lead the creation, development and management
of their international touring enterprise. Their careers
span more than two decades of theatrical success and
industry partnership, and have resulted in thousands of
performances of more than 50 live productions on four
continents. Phoenix Productions is currently touring its
third season of the hit musical “Grease,” guest starring
Frankie Avalon, and this brand new production of “Smokey
Joe’s Café.” Upcoming productions include “I Do! I Do!,”
“The Will Rogers Follies,” and a new Johnny Cash musical,
“Ring of Fire.” Phoenix Productions has also toured “Godspell,”
Kopit and Yeston’s “Phantom,” “Buddy: The Buddy Holly
Story,” Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” the extended
run of the off-Broadway hit “Late Nite Catechism” and the
national tour of “Fame.” In 2002, Phoenix produced its first
original musical, “Sing Along Santa®,” which delighted
family audiences across both Asia and America. Phoenix
Entertainment Korea is an overseas affiliate of Phoenix
Productions that is dedicated to the ongoing development of
musical theatre in the Far East. Located in Seoul, Phoenix
Entertainment Korea has collaborated on productions of
“Singin’ in the Rain,” “The King & I,” “Sesame Street Live,
“ “Sing Along Santa®,” “Fame — The Musical” and “Dragon
Tales Live.”
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Contact: Kathy Lustica, (801) 703-2051
Media Contact: Scott Bodmer, Morrison Center for the
Performing Arts, (208) 426-1629
“SMOKEY JOE’S CAFE–The Songs of Leiber and Stoller”
SONG LIST
ACT ONE
“Neighborhood”
“Young Blood”
“Falling”
“Ruby Baby”
“Dance With Me”
“Neighborhood”
“Keep on Rollin’”
“Searchin’”
“Kansas City”
“Trouble”
“Love Me”/“Don’t”
“Fools Fall in Love”
“Poison Ivy”
“Don Juan”
“Shoppin’ for Clothes”
“I Keep Forgettin’”
“On Broadway”
“D.W. Washburn”
“Saved”
ACT TWO
“Baby, That is Rock & Roll”
“Yakety Yak”
“Charlie Brown”
“Pearl’s a Singer”
“Teach me How to Shimmy”
“You’re the Boss”
“Smokey Joe’s Café”
“Loving You”
“Treat me Nice”
“Hound Dog”
“Little Egypt”
“I’m a Woman”
“There Goes my Baby”
“Love Potion #9”
“Some Cats Know”
“Jailhouse Rock”
“Fools Fall in Love” (Reprise)
“Spanish Harlem”
“I (Who Have Nothing)”
“Neighborhood” (Reprise)
“Stand By Me”
“Baby, That is Rock & Roll” (Reprise)
All songs featured are by Leiber and Stoller, either alone
or with each other. Other writers with whom they
collaborated on songs featured in the show are Ben E. King,
Doc Pomus, Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Kent Harris, Ralph
Dino and John Sembelloi, and Carlo Donida and Mogol.
