By Lisa Y. Garibay
UTEP News Service
Ten years ago, a musical revue featuring 39 of the most popular songs ever recorded busted box office records as a standing-room-only hit for the UTEP Dinner Theatre.
This weekend, the company – made up of UTEP students, faculty and staff, along with cast and crew from the broader El Paso community – is poised to entertain new audiences with another staging of that same hit show, the Grammy-winning Smokey Joe’s Café.
The revue pays tribute to the work of lyricist Jerry Leiber and composer Mike Stoller, who partnered as one of the most successful songwriting teams in history, contributing to the birth of rock ‘n’ roll and defining American pop culture. In Smokey Joe’s Café, their songs fuel a plotline tackling love lost, won and imagined with a lot of humor thrown in, all come to life within memorable set pieces.
Audiences can expect to hear the talented dinner theatre vocalists and band performing Fools Fall In Love,Hound Dog, Love Potion #9, On Broadway, Stand By Me, There Goes My Baby, Yakety Yak, and much more.
In addition to maintaining the record for the most successful revue in the UTEP dinner theatre’s 30-year history, “Smokey Joe’s Café” holds the record as Broadway’s longest-running revue. Dinner Theatre Director Greg Taylor says selecting the show for the theatre’s 31st and UTEP’s Centennial season was a no-brainer.
“We are doing the show again because I love the music,” he enthused, noting the 2004 production has always ranked highly as one of his favorite shows ever since he founded the company in 1983. “I’d always planned on doing it again and things just came together for this year to be the right time.”
Taylor is banking on the fact that a decade will have been plenty of time for new patrons to catch the revue, while those who saw it the first time around will be hungry for a repeat. But Taylor stresses it will by no means be a replication of the 2004 show.
“This production has a whole new set, so the staging is a little different,” he said.
He is also confident it will be a success this time around due to the talent involved.
“I really don’t feel any pressure to live up to the last production since we have a lot of new cast members who bring their own take on the material,” he said. “And it’s hard to go wrong with all of the classic songs in the show.”
Choreographer Lisa Lopez – who received both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from UTEP – has worked on almost every single dinner theatre show and has been the company’s main choreographer since 1994. As the primary dance director, Lopez’s favorite parts of the show are the numbers Teach Me How to Shimmy,Jailhouse Rock, and Spanish Harlem.
“I want the audiences to remember the songs and I hope they enjoy hearing them live,” she said. “Many of these songs are iconic and I think our audience members will have specific memories for different songs.”
Performers Amanda Mena, Antonio Motta and Jaime Carrasco are thrilled to be bringing such quintessential music to the stage for El Pasoans to relish.
Mena, a UTEP graduate who majored in dance performance who had previously been part of the dinner theatre’s productions of In the Heights and Grease, was excited to join the cast in order to make audiences feel good. “I am most looking forward to seeing the audience members sing along and dance in their seats, enjoying every minute,” she said.
Motta, who also graduated from UTEP, is commemorating his fifth performance with the dinner theatre. “I wanted to be part of the production of this show because many of my friends that I made during past shows auditioned and I wanted to be in a show with such great people,” he said. “Having the opportunity to work with such talented people and having fun on stage is my biggest joy so far.”
Motta is also anticipating the chance to introduce younger audience members to the celebrated tunes in Smokey Joe’s Café because, while they might be classics, it is also more likely that older generations are more familiar with them than today’s youth.
Carrasco has been performing with local companies since 1994 and is always eager to return to UTEP’s dinner theatre.
“My biggest joy is to work with such a wonderful cast members and directors,” he said. “You can feel the unity all across the ensemble.”
While Carrasco is enjoying himself on stage, he is also hoping the audience members sitting in front of him have a memorable experience. “Our goal for this production is for them to enjoy this wonderful journey to the past, get away from all their problems for two hours, and get their spirit up lifted up,” he said.
Smokey Joe’s Café runs at the UTEP Dinner Theatre’s Union Ballroom (in Union Building West) from Jan. 31 to Feb. 16. Dinner performances take place at 7 p.m. on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15. One discount dinner matinee performance will be held on Feb. 2 at 1:30 p.m.
Matinee performances without a meal take place at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 9 and 16.
Tickets can be purchased at UTEP Ticket Center locations (2901 N. Mesa or 1452 N. Zaragoza, suite A-500) and at all Ticketmaster outlets in El Paso. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 915-747-5234 or 800-745-3000. Discounts are given to UTEP faculty, staff and students as well as non-UTEP students, military and group purchasers.
More information about the UTEP Dinner Theatre, including the menu for Smokey Joe’s Café, can be found atacademics.utep.edu/udt or by calling 915-747-6060.