YOUNGSTOWN PLAYHOUSE Jazz legends show takes its licks but will debut on a smooth note

'Legends' is the culmination of five years of work for its creator, a local teacher who wants to establish a school for the arts.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- Martha Robinson Brogdon has had plenty of reasons to give up on her original show "Legends: A Musical Journey Through Jazz." She's supposed to perform as Billie Holiday, but she's still recovering from surgery last November on her vocal chords. Making costumes for the females in the show has been problematic.
Two weeks ago, she was ready to postpone opening night after she fired some musicians who hadn't learned their parts.
"Legends" will go on as scheduled Thursday night at Youngstown Playhouse. If there's one thing this 24-person cast has in common with the performers they'll portray, it's overcoming adversity.
Paved the way
"We forget where they came from, and what they endured as entertainers," says Brogdon, who has performed locally for many years.
"I could never be the entertainer I am. ... They paved the way."
Two narrators -- one male, the other female -- will take turns making introductory remarks about the 12 jazz stars who will be featured in this production. The narrators will provide not only birth dates and titles of hit songs, but also "tell some things that most people don't know," Brogdon said.
For example, Nat King Cole's success as a pop vocalist is better remembered than his skill as a jazz and classical pianist, Brogdon said. Cole's controversial purchase of a home in an all-white neighborhood in Beverly Hills, Calif., became a Supreme Court case and contributed to federal fair housing laws, she added.
Holiday "has never been duplicated in her styling, ever," Brogdon said. She wrote the script to focus on Holiday's talent instead of her well-publicized heroin addiction.
Sinatra remembered
Frank Sinatra is remembered for what he did for the black community -- the fund raisers at which he performed and his refusal to perform in clubs that didn't welcome his friend, singer Sammy Davis Jr., Brogdon said.
Judy Garland "went through hell," Brogdon noted. Garland's mother pushed her into show business, and a movie studio executive fueled her longtime drug addiction.
Brogdon found these details and more in about 30 biographies that she read. "The show has been a real blessing to me -- just the research alone," she said.
If their struggles aren't familiar to audiences, the artists' songs should be. Garland's "Over the Rainbow," Holiday's "Strange Fruit" and Sinatra's "New York, New York" are among the show's song-and-dance numbers.
Brogdon began to write the script about five years ago. She completed it in one year, put it away for a while, hated it on second sight and started over, she said. Once she "got to the point where I could read it every day and felt OK," she began to think about costumes.
Production costs are approaching $5,000. Brogdon has financed it by cashing in a life insurance policy on her children, three of whom are young adults. Some people may think she's crazy for doing so, but "I know it's going to be a success," she said.
"I've got a calmness and a peace with the show, which a month ago ...," she paused, then laughed.
Costume complications
Brogdon wanted authentic-looking period costumes for her cast. It was easy to dress the men, because their fashion hasn't changed as dramatically as the women's. Patterns for the women's dresses were expensive, and a seamstress couldn't keep performer-friendly stretch fabric from puckering as she sewed. Some dresses had to be scrapped, she said.Brogdon had surgery in November to remove a polyp and a cyst from her vocal chords. She is working with a voice coach and has cut her performance as Holiday to two songs. She has rehearsed every other day to rest her voice, so she's not sure what will happen after she performs Thursday night. "Lord, you wouldn't let me work on this show for five years and not let me perform in it," she concluded.
Musicians fired
The loss of her pianist and bass player was the most recent blow, but they weren't ready to perform. "I didn't work five years to go up here and do a flop," Brogdon said. When she went to the Playhouse office to reschedule her production, musical director and pianist Mike Moritz asked to see her song list, then agreed to play. "I give him many props for that," she said. "We're ready. We're excited."
The rest of the cast has been rehearsing since October while juggling their work, school and family schedules. Linda Pantalone, who portrays Judy Garland and sings with Brogdon in the Highway Tabernacle Church choir, says she couldn't have participated without the support of her husband at home. Then again, with opening night approaching and nightly rehearsals lasting until 10 p.m., she recently reminded him: "Don't expect much."
"Legends" will be the first public performances for most of the teens and tweens in the cast. They are learning what it means to be responsible, work on someone else's time and stay in step. Last Tuesday, as several of them intently rehearsed their dance sequence for "New York, New York" -- Brogdon was conferring with Playhouse scenic designer Jim Lybarger, and the choreographer hadn't yet arrived -- the seasoned cast members stepped in to critique them.
"You felt it was raggedy, didn't you?" Mary Catley asked them after one run-through. "It's not as bad as you think it is. You've got to synchronize yourselves."
Continuing lessons
It's lessons like those that Brogdon wants to continue. Through Youngstown Minority Theatre Co., a performance group she founded in 1989, she wants to establish a school for the arts. Brogdon, who teaches theater in Youngstown schools, will use profits from "Legends" as seed money for the project.
The political and economic adversities of Brogdon's hometown aren't driving her away. "Someone has to make the difference," she said. "If we all pick up and leave, then who will make the difference?"
shaulis@vindy.com