Originally the musical had featured ex American Idol contestant and constant headline maker (for the wrong reasons) Fantasia Barino.  Currently  the show features the incredibly talented and always beautiful Vanesa Williams.  Williams is by no means the dancer that so many of her fellow characters in this very fast paced and lively play are, but she definitely holds her own while singing and sauntering across the stage.  Dule’ HIll of TV show Psych & West Wing fame plays “The Host”, and from the first second Midnight starts he does just that.

The first scene sets the stage with Hill walking out to stand under a light pole, at our show cheers and enthusiasm were abundant from that first moment.  Once the premise of Harlem NY in the 30′s is put forth your launched into a jazz music backed, singing and dancing expose for 90 minutes straight.  An impressive 17 piece orchestra led by conductor Daryl Waters known as The Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars remains on stage throughout the entire play, and is really the life blood of the show.  The songs are legendary numbers like “I got the world on a string” & “Stormy Weather” among numerous others by titans of the time period like Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Irving Mills.

The content of the music/dance numbers, as well as Hill’s use of quotes by famed poet of the era Langston Hughes creates a very loose story about life, love, death, and not advertising your man, as Dormeshia Sumbry-Edwards puts it in one of her hilarious numbers, starts to form.  But the story is really an afterthought, the revue thrives thanks to the impeccably executed and unequivocally impressive dance numbers.  Whether it’s tapping or flipping, tandem numbers or group choreography, the artistic direction helmed by famed performer Wynton Marsalis is nothing short of amazing.

What I loved most about the musical is that so much of it is an homage, a paying tribute to the days of music and culture that really in so many ways are responsible for current trends and styles of music, dance, and life in general.  Without Cab Calloway’s “Zaz Zuh Zaz” would rap music even exist, without those nights during the Harlem Renaissance when folks from upper and lower classes alike came together to (illegally) get their drink on and listen to some great music would we have the current culture of festivals and turning up?  The answer is obvious.

But what makes this incarnation of the oft romanticized time period so impressive is the way it incorporated newer and current dance moves & styles back into the 30′s culture so efficiently.  First Virgil “Lil O” Gadson busts out some sick freezes and flares in true b-boy fashion during “East St. Louis Toodle-oo” then next thing you know “Hottentot tot” turns into a full fledged dance battle between the ever so smooth pop locking of Julius “iGlide” Chisolm and the power moves of the aforementioned Gadson (both performers gained notoriety on So You Think You Can Dance).  Even the dialogue and slang is somewhat a blend of the past and current sounding themes, you cannot tell me Sumbry-Edwards character is not just a little bit “ratchet”.

When After Midnight opened Director/Coreographer Warren Carlyle stated “it’s a modern interpretation of this music, I’m very keen on brining this music to a new generation, I’m very keen on having jazz music on broadway, it’s very important “.  He couldn’t be more right, having the roots of jazz music on broadway and on display for a new generation is integral to continuing the legacy of arguably the most important art form there is, music & dance!  Go see this show, you will not be disappointed.

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