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By Carol Davis
 SAN DIEGO-For Jazz aficionados, those who remember the wonderful sounds of the Big Band era and those who still tune in to light and easy music of the past, you won’t to miss Warren Leight’s Side Man currently playing at the Diversionary Theatre in Uptown. Bang! Productions is mounting it. They are one of the many small theatres in town that are homeless and so they have an arrangement with Diversionary Theatre to share its space. It’s an ideal venue; the show fits perfectly into the space and the cast is A1.
Side Man is not all music, however. It is a memory play, that’s not autobiographical, (let’s call it semi-autobiographical) according to playwright Leight since many of the specific situations ‘were invented for dramatic purposes.' It was inspired by Donald, his Dad who worked as a sideman (in Jazz talk a musician for hire who can blend in with the band or star as a solo performer) and who played a mean jazz trumpet. (Trumpet solos in the show were played by Andrew Elstob)
In 1998 Side Man won Leight both Tony and Drama Desk nominations and wards for Outstanding Play and was The Pulitzer Prize finalist for Drama in 2001. The play is poignant, painful, funny, sharp, historical and laced with music. Dreams, struggles, survivals, loves and disappointments of the main characters follow and parallel the decline in popularity of jazz. It unfolds in narrative as told to us in the first person by Clifford (Brian Mackey) only son of Terry (Amanda Cooley Davis) and Gene (Eddie Yaroch). It takes place through the ‘80’s but goes back in time to 1953 before Clifford was born. He is in his twenties when we meet him.
Clifford takes the audience on an emotional ride of a lifetime painting a picture, more like a tapestry, of what life was like living under the radar of your not so familiar 9 to 5 lifestyle. Rather his Dad Gene, and his cronies were all in the fading years of the big band era of the ‘40’s. They spent their days sleeping, planning for their next gig or talking about their last gig and were stuck in a time warp that ruined any chances for a family life or personal relationships. They were the night owls who entertained after the stars came out and basked in the glory of who played the best trumpet, or who accompanied Frank Sinatra.
Gene, who comes alive when planning, playing and performing hits all flats when it comes to being the family man. As engaged as he is a musician, he is cut off and out of touch as a father and husband. He ignores his wife promising her the moon and only delivering one more gig to put food on the table. (“No one books in September, it’s the Jewish holidays,"he laments to her when there is no work.)
That leaves their young son to deal with an idealistic and non-committal jazz musician father and an emotionally unstable and ultimately alcoholic mother and wife. Clifford holds the family together as long as he can by doing everything he can to keep things calm, clean up the mess and move on from day to day after all the friends leave and it’s just the three of them.
Gene’s buddies include Jonsey (Tom Hall) the heroin addicted trombone player, Al (Don Pugh) the big burley womanizer and trumpet player and Ziggy (Scott Striegel who also directed) who always has an answer for everything. They all played together at one time, they are bound together through their
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music and they knew each other better than any woman would ever get to know them. They stuck together through the good and the bad times and through them we get to hear some great jazz and learn about the greats of the era.
After each gig or just for the hell of it they would gather at their favorite café and go over the day’s business, shoot the breeze or celebrate a night’s work. There, their favorite waitress, and to some at least, marriage partner Patsy (Jacque Wilke) was always around to advise or lend a helping hand.
The entire company performs beautifully throughout. Brian Mackey is as casual talking directly to the audience as he is intense while as a ten year old trying to talk his mother off the balcony in yet another attempt at suicide. His story is heartbreaking and one that will haunt you well after you leave the theatre. Eddie Yaroch is both sympathetic and majestic in the same breath. As a husband and father he is clueless, but when he is playing or talking about jazz he comes alive and shines. He is so understated that sometimes you want to just shake him.
Tom Hall at the top of his game as the heroine addicted pal and member of the club. He simply tears at your heart in the scene where he gets beaten up because of a deal that went down. Don Pugh is mushy big guy who blends in with the rest of the musicians and Scott Striegel’s Ziggy is fun to watch as the fast talking down to earth anything goes guy.
Both women shine in their individual roles. Jacque Wilke is a commanding presence on stage both as a friend and a lover. Her comedic timing is perfect, but she is not all comic relief. She shares in the drama of Clifford’s life as she watches the decay of a family before her eyes. Amanda Cooley Davis is wonderful as Terry the innocent from Boston who was jilted once and left out to dry by her family. When she meets Gene, she is taken in by his story of having played solo to Frank Sinatra. He promises to introduce her to him the next time he plays for him. It was love at first sight for her. Unfortunately her innocence sours after one disappointment follows another and her drinking becomes her refuge.
Seeing her through Clifford’s eyes we still see the wide-eyed young girl who didn’t know the difference between a cigarette and a joint. She even remarks how thrifty it is to roll your own cigarettes when she first saw Al doing it in the club. Her slow slip into alcohol and depression is as difficult to watch, as it is to hear Cliff recall about it.
Hat’s off to Bang! Productions and it’s technical staff Matt Lescault-Wood for the terrific sound design in the background (the actors don’t have to play an instrument in this one), Michael McKeon (co producer) for the imaginative two tiered set design, Christopher Renda, lighting especially in the final act, and Jemima Dutra for her accurate period costumes.
This is a must see for the good old times. I highly recommend it. Side Man continues through Oct. 11th at Diversionary Theatre. For more information visit www.SIDEMANsandiego.com
See you at the theatre.
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