‘The Night of the Black Cat’ Purrs, Growls and Stalks

With the rain beating fiercely against the tin roof of the Edgemar Arts Center Saturday night, we guests loved the wild, wild night inside the Le Chat Noir. Based on the original Le Chat Noir, which opened in the Montmartre district of Paris in 1881, Edgemar’s fun-filled musical ‘The Night of the Black Cat’ is similar in many ways, offering forbidden poetry, passionate dancing and sensual music. The cast members were given a character from the late1800s to research and then were asked to come up with their own story ideas that were presented to director Deborah La Vine. The frame story features Mademoiselle Germaine De Stael (Michelle Danner), one of France’s most distinct political and romantic voices and a huge benefactor of the arts, who now finds herself the nemesis of the city fathers, who condemn those who enjoy ‘pure hedonism, debauchery and social corruption.’ The performance space has been miraculously transformed into a cellar cafe, complete with intimate tables and chairs. On stage, piano player (Glenn Sidwell), trumpet player (Sebastian Leger), harmonica/accordion player (Smokey Miles) and violinst Joe Spangler enhance and enliven the singing, dancing and stage play. The entertainment moves from torch songs to can-cans to seductive tangos, all performed by an expert cast. While the program appears to flow loosely and spontaneously from act to act, this theatrical piece shows all the hallmarks of fine direction, clever set design, efficient choreography and traffic control. So many people come and go from the small performance space, it’s remarkable. Some highlights include the song dedicated to Picasso, ‘Picasso Blues,’ featuring ‘I got the blues, period,’ chorus and sung to a honky-tonk cadence with images of Picasso’s work projected on the scrim upstage. So many songs brought out the audience’s spontaneity, many clapped to the tunes, while others quietly mouthed the words to standards such as ‘Mack the Knife’ and ‘La Vie En Rose.’ The show continues February 25 and 26 (with special guest the father of funk George Clinton), and Friday and Saturday nights in March at 7:30 p.m. at the Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main St. For tickets ($22.50, $18.50) contact 392-7327.