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Still
singing the blues
The Blues
Brothers Belgrade
Theatre Coventry ****
‘We've got a full tank of gas, a half-pack of cigarettes, it's
dark and we're wearing shades.'
Every
journey I make starts with those words and it's also the starting point
– approximately – for this wonderful tribute to John Belushi and Dan
Ackroyd as Jake and Elwood Blues on a mission from God to collect money
for their erstwhile home The Rock island orphanage in Chicago's South
Side. As an act it crept into our
consciousness in the 1970s and, like the earworm that the wonderful
blues and soul music recreates here, it stays long after the last
strains have died down.
You probably know the film and
can possibly quote long passages from the script – so can I!. The car
chase at the end which apparently took the film 11m dollars over its not
ungenerous budget is iconic and involved 60 police cars, and a Ford
Pinto dropped from a helicopter a mile up in the sky! This production goes back
further back than the film to the initial series on Saturday Night Live
on NBC which starred not only Belushi and Ackroyd as relative unknowns
–definitely as blues singers – but also Chevy Chase, Steve Martin,
Christopher Guest (director of spoofs such as A Mighty Wind, Best of
Breed) and more. The music from Jake (Brad
Henshaw – who also directed) and Elwood (Chris Chandler) was fantastic,
with live blues band, the Bluettes backing singers/dancers (Alexus Ruth,
Jenesssa Qua, Jenny Fitzpatrick) energetic and great singers. My favourite by a long way was
Jake's rendition of Lennon and McCartney's With a Little Help from my
Friends – dressed as a bee complete with DeeleyBopper antenna. The
audience loved the recreation of the scene in Bob's Country Bunker
Illinois where only a mesh screen separates them from certain death
unless they can do some Country and Western – ‘we got both kinds'! So there you have it – hugely
energetic and enjoyable. The dance sequences between Jake and Elwood
make amazing viewing and the whole set as a wonderfully smokey blues
club is a vestige from a bygone age. If the blues has got you, try this
as a cure. You won't be disappointed. To 04-05-13. Jane Howard
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