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Five Guys Named Moe

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Five Guys Named Moe
Original Logo
MusicLouis Jordan
LyricsLouis Jordan
BookClarke Peters
Productions1990 West End
1992 Broadway
2002 Chicago Drury Lane South
2010 Edinburgh Festival
2014-15 Arena Stage and Cleveland Play House
AwardsLaurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment

Five Guys Named Moe is a musical with a book by Clarke Peters and lyrics and music by Louis Jordan and others. The musical is based on an earlier musical short of the same name by Louis Jordan from 1943.[1] It had its UK debut in 1990 at Theatre Royal Stratford East, running for over four years in the West End, and then premiering on Broadway in 1992. It was revived in 2010 at Edinburgh Festival, starring Peters himself, and returned later in 2010 to the theatre in which it originally premiered. The musical won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Entertainment.

Nomax, whose girlfriend has left him and who is without money, finds Big Moe, Four-Eyed Moe, Eat Moe, No Moe, and Little Moe emerging from his 1930s-style radio to comfort him. They sing the hit songs of songwriter and saxophonist Louis Jordan, whose new slant on jazz paved the way for rock and roll in the 1950s.

Production history

The musical was originally presented at the Theatre Royal Stratford East by Philip Hedley as an in-house production. Cameron Mackintosh opened it on 14 December 1990 at London's West End Lyric Theatre.[2] The original Stratford East cast of Kenny Andrews, Paul J. Medford, Peter Alex Newton, Omar F. Okai, and Dig Wayne, were joined by Clinton Derricks-Carroll replacing Clarke Peters, all transferred with the production where it ran until 4 March 1995. It re-opened at the Albery Theatre on 25 May 1995 [3] where it was recorded for commercial DVD with the following cast: Tee Jaye Jenkins, Trent Kendall, Monroe Kent III (Nomax), Jason Pennycooke, Richard D. Sharp and Feruma Williams.[4] The production ran with this cast until 13 January 1996.

The Broadway production, directed and choreographed by Charles Augins, opened on 8 April 1992 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre, where it ran for 445 performances and 19 previews. The cast included Jerry Dixon, Doug Eskew, Milton Craig Nealy, Kevin Ramsey, Jeffrey D. Sams, and Glenn Turner.

The "Moe" band was: Reginald Royal, piano; Luico Hopper, bass; Brian Kirk, drums; Reggie Pittman, trumpet & flugelhorn; Gregory Charles Royal, trombone; and Mark Gross, saxophone and clarinet.

Original cast recordings from both the London and Broadway productions were released.

In 2002 a "Theater in the Round" production was mounted at the Drury Lane South Theatre in Chicago, IL. Directed by Marc Robin and starring Sean Blake (No Moe), John Steven Crowley (Big Moe), Anthony Pierre Christopher (Little Moe), Parrish Collier (Four-Eyed Moe) and Byron Glenn Willis (Eat Moe) with Nikkieli Dimone as Nomax. The production earned two Joseph Jefferson Nominations in the Director and Ensemble categories.

The 2010 Edinburgh Festival/West End production, directed by Paulette Randall and starring Clarke Peters himself as Nomax, as well as Ashley Campbell, Christopher Colquhoun, Carlton Connell, Paul Hazel and Horace Oliver as the Moes opened on 5 August 2010.

During the 2014-15 season, a new, re-imagined production was co-produced by Arena Stage and Cleveland Play House. This production featured the five Moes as 21st century musicians and a slightly modernized musical arrangement. The production ran November 14 - December 28, 2014 at Arena Stage and January 23 - February 15, 2015 in Cleveland Play House's Allen Theatre. The production was directed by Robert O'Hara.

Song list

Awards and nominations

Original London production

Year Award Category Nominee Result
1991 Laurence Olivier Award Best Entertainment Won
Best Actor in a Musical Paul J. Medford Nominated
Best Director of a Musical Charles Augins Nominated
Best Theatre Choreographer Won

Original Broadway production

Year Award Category Nominee Result
1992 Tony Award Best Musical Nominated
Best Book of a Musical Clarke Peters Nominated

References

  1. ^ Five Guys Named Moe (1943) listing on IMDB IMDB.com, accessed Sep 5, 2012
  2. ^ Five Guys Named Moe listing at the Lyric Theatre thisistheatre.com, accessed July 9, 2009
  3. ^ Five Guys Named Moe listing, Noel Coward Theatre (formerly the Albery Theatre thisistheatre.com, accessed July 9, 2009
  4. ^ Kingston, Jeremy. "Treading the familiar waters of the Jordan", The Times', May 29, 1995 (Features section)
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