Profile:
Melba Moore
2003 NBTF
Co-Chair
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Melba Moore has embarked on yet anoth
er new adventure by releasing her first ever
gospel recording.
"I'm Still Here," written and produced by
Shirley Murdock and her husband. Dale
Degrot, and several top-notch songwriters,
promises to be worth the 10-year wait, and an
awesome musical testimony of her trials and
triumphant return to the elite inner circle of the
artistic elements of this universe.
She also has
been playing to
standing-room
only audiences
around the country
for the past four
years with "Sweet
Songs of the
Soul," her two-act
one-woman play
with music. She
plans to bring the
play to Broadway
Moore began
her singing career
in the ground
Moor*
I
The multi-faceted artist/philamlmtptsl is
always rcachine deeper. presMiij; hauler, on
God. ftrr God, and to God. not show business.
'Doo Wop' brings greats to life
BYT. KEVIN WALKER
THE CHRONICLE
Jackie Taylor said she doesn't like to be
bogged down with all the emotions that high
expectations can bring. So she doesn't have
expectations. The veteran theater writer, director
and producer said she just puts out the best work
that she possibly can and then lets audiences
decide its fate.
But expectations are through the roof for
"Doo Wop Shoo Bop," the musical that Taylor's
Chicago-based Black Ensemble Theatre will
bring to the National Black Theatre Festival next
month. The last time a Taylor production was
staged at the festival - 200l's "The Jackie Wil
son Story...My Heart is Crying, Crying" - it set
festival records, selling out the Stevens Center
for a straight week. When the Jackie Wilson
musical returned to Winston-Salem the follow
ing year, it was a sellout once again. The enthu
siastic thumbs-up from NBTF crowds inspired
Taylor to take the Wilson play on the road. The
tour was a hit at every stop, including the famed
Apollo Theatre in Harlem.
"Doo Wop Shoo Bop" uses the same formu
la that made the Wilson show a blockbuster.
There is a cast of talented actor/singers who can
fool even the most keen music lovers with their
dead-on versions of songs. There is a resurrecting
of a musical era and the stars that made that era
great. And thrown in amid all of it are the stories
of their highs and lows and joys and pains.
"Doo Wop Shoo Bop" is right on the same
plane as "Jackie Wilson," Taylor said recently by
phone from Chicago. "The (NBTF) audience is
Ihe most sophisticated theater audience in the
bdiintry, and I expect the audience will be just as
thrilled by this production."
"Doo Wop Shoo Bop" has already been tried -
and tested again and again. The Black Ensemble
Theatre first staged the musical in 1995. It has
been brought back to life several times since
then. Written by Taylor and
i: Tin "n \i/ cu?
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Bop" features a cast of nine that H
will seem like a cast of dozens. I
The actors go through - several I
wardrobe and octave changes to ?
become more than 15 doo wop- I
era musical talents. Legends ?
such as The Shirelles, The Plat- I
ters. The Moonglows, The Chan- I
tels, The Skyliners, Dinah Wash- I
ington and, yes, Jackie Wilson, ?
will be brought to life in such a I
way that Taylor predicts that I
audience members will swear I
that the actors are lip-synching.
Rut thev are not. '
The actors had to study video
and audio tapes of the performers in order to
absorb every vocal nuance and stage perform
ance detail.
"The audience is going to think they are lis
tening to the actual groups because we did not
want (the actors) to interpret what they think the
person should sound like. We wanted them to
sound just like the performers."
Ngina James said the results have been well
worth the challenge she faced of trying to mimic
the pure innocence in the voice of Shirley
Owens, the lead singer of The Shirelles, whose
hits included "Will You Still Love Me Tomor
row?' and "Soldier Boy."
Photo courtesy of the Black Ensemble Theatre
Actors portray the group Shep A The Limelights, whose hits included "Daddy's Home."
"The biggest compliment is when people
cpme up to me and say, 'You sound like the real
thing," said James, who caught the acting bug
after getting burned out in her public relations
job. James also plays The Platters' Zola Taylor
and other characters in the musical.
James is only 28, so much of the music she
performs on stage was foreign to her when she
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won a spot in the cast. She said she is now a fan
of the doo wop era and is enamored ofy the
artists who scaled many mountains in order to
make memorable music.
"When I learn a song, I feel like I am learn
ing a part of that person," she said.
John Steven Crowley knows much of the
music in "Doo Wop Shoo Bop" like the back of
his hand. One of the oldest members of the cast,
the silky-voiced Crowley grew up in the 1950s
and '60s.
? "This is the music my parents would sit and
listen to," he said.
Crowley also wears many hats in the produc
tion. He plays Tony Williams, the lead singer of
The Platter^ member of the Mills Brothers; and
several other vocal heavyweights. Crowley has
the voice to pull it off. He grew up singing
gospel, which has given him the foundation to
perform a variety of musical styles, from jazz to
opera.
"Harmony is harmony," Crowley said, after
declaring his love for all kinds of music. But doo
wop music has a special effect on audiences, he
said. He remembers performing "Doo Wop Shoo
Bop" before a nearly white audience and seeing
grown men in tears as songs from their past were
performed.
"This music is like the soundtracks of so
many people's lives," Crowley said. "It is a trip
down memory lane. It was a time of pure inno
cence in America."
Doo wop music also helped to bridge racial
gaps in its day, as white teenagers, for the first
time, wholeheartedly began to embrace music
performed by black artists. A bit of that history is
addressed in the musical. Taylor likes to call her
productions "edu tainment" because they enter
tain as well as educate. But the entertainment is
most important, she pointed out.
"We try to sneak some education in there
because most people don't like to be educated,"
she said.
There are many subthemes in the production.
For example, some of the black artists had to
contend with white artists remaking their songs
to great success, and most did not receive just
compensation for their work. But the main
moral, said Taylor, is that music is universal, and
good music is timeless.
"Music is the one thing that we all have in
common. It breaks down barriers. It transcends ,
all races and colors," Taylor said.