Review: Lisa St. Lou and Tor Hyamn are a dynamic duo at the Blue Strawberry

There's no doubt about it, Lisa St. Lou and her music director/song-writing partner Tor Hyams are the Dynamic Duo of song performance.

This article originally appeared at 88.1 KDHX, where Chuck Lavazzi is the senior performing arts critic.

Lisa St. Lou

Ms. St. Lou has a powerful, flexible, wide-ranging voice with which she can apparently do pretty much anything. She can purr and roar, cry and laugh, go intimate one moment and bigger than life the next. She's the real deal, with enough energy to power a small city.

Mr. Hyams, for his part, is a muscular, barrelhouse-style pianist who bangs out power chords like Dr. John on steroids. His voice blends perfectly with Ms. St. Lou's in their many duet numbers. Together, they are an unstoppable force of nature.

So, yeah, their new show "Ain't No Good Man" really rocked the Blue Strawberry last Wednesday (November 27) and got an enthusiastic reception from a crowd that appeared to consist mostly of family, friends, and former Ritenour High School classmates of Ms. St. Lou, who hails from our fair city originally.

That local connection was also, unfortunately, a bit of a liability for those of us for whom she was a total stranger. There were too many "shout outs" to friends of Ms. St. Lou and Mr. Hyams and far too many little in-jokes shared with the people they knew well. A little of that is entirely understandable when you know you have a bunch of fans in the house, but there's a point at which it begins to feel like someone else's party.

Tor Hyams and Lisa St. Lou
at the Blue Strawberry

My other issue with the evening was that it wasn't really a cabaret show so much as a live performance of all the studio cuts on their soon-to-be-released album "Ain't No Good Man." The album itself boasts a stellar assortment of New Orleans-based stars such as Ivan and Cyril Neville (nephew and brother, respectively, of the legendary Aaron Neville) and the great Irma Thomas, a.k.a. "The Soul Queen of New Orleans." Without all that aural variety and big band backup, the songs--all originals by Ms. St. Lou and Mr. Hyams--had a kind of sameness that had me checking my Fitbit more than once.

That said, many of the individual songs were pretty potent stuff. "Never Enough for a Man" (a duet with Ms. Thomas on the album) was a rich blues number about the pain of being seen as a continual disappointment. The title cut, "Ain't No Good Man," spoke persuasively of the despair that comes from being betrayed by a loved one (in this case, Ms. St. Lou's ex-husband). "Miracle in Motion" was a soulful portrayal of love at first sight. And who could resist the affirmation of "I've Seen the Light"?

There was, in short, some solid material here. What "Ain't No Good Man" needs right now, in my view, is a director who can suggest between-song patter that goes beyond memories of the recording sessions and who can help give it all a dramatic arc and sense of pacing that would make it more of a cabaret show than a set list.

This was Lisa St. Lou's second visit to Mound City. I missed the first one because of schedule conflicts but I hope to see her here again, maybe with a more varied mix of material. She and Mr. Hyams have, I think, the talent and dedication to make whatever they decide to do next a hit.

Meanwhile, the Blue Strawberry has a veritable cornucopia of shows scheduled into next month. Visit their web site for a complete list.

St. Lou Fringe Report 4: Big Comedy Finale

This past Saturday (June 27th, 2015) was the last day of the St. Lou Fringe Festival and, by sheer coincidence, also the best one as far as the shows I saw went. Better yet, three of the four I saw were by local groups.

Sorry, Please Continue
www.facebook.com/SorryPleaseContinue

It was mostly a day of comedy, beginning with "Sorry, Please Continue." Described as a mix of the storytelling of the "Moth Radio Hour" with the off-the-cuff wisecracks of "Mystery Science Theatre 3000," the show features "some amazing stories told by anyone who wants to participate mixed with commentary from some of St. Louis’ funniest comedians."

The theme Saturday afternoon was "Family." The first storyteller (Siobhan O'Loughlin, whose "The Rope in Your Hands" was also part of the Fringe) related how she, as a result of a bizarre set of accidents (puppets were apparently involved) found herself sleeping in bed with her sister and her sister's boyfriend—only to be awakened by the couple doing the Horizontal Cha-Cha right next to her. The second storyteller (Christine Compas) described how she became embroiled in a true Wedding From Hell. Burlap and Christmas lights were involved.

Both stories, while fairly interesting, were transmuted into comedy gold by the three members of "Sorry, Please Continue" (Jeremy Hellwig, Amy Milton, and Stryker Spurlock at this show). They played off each other expertly and invariably timed their interruptions for maximum comic effect. I think it would be easy to come across as snarky or just plain mean in a situation like this, but not these three; it was good-natured fun all the way. If you want to see them in action, they perform on the third Thursday of each month at Foam, 3359 South Jefferson. You can also check out their Facebook page.

Moscow!
eratheatre.org

Next was the Equally Represented Arts production of "Moscow!" Described as a drinking-game version of Chekov's "Three Sisters," Lucy Cashion's script was an ingenious one-hour reduction of the original, with everyone in the cast (and much of the audience) taking a drink whenever anyone said "Moscow." Which, if you know your Chekov, happens a lot.

Julia Crump, Ellie Schwetye, and Rachel Tibbets headed a remarkably talented cast as the three titular sisters. Under Ms. Cashion's direction, the show moved at light speed, with actors rattling off vast chunks of Chekov with machine-gun precision while marching about the stage in precise steps through the box-like maze of red chairs that served as a set.

Music Arranger and Director Joe Taylor underscored it all with wonderful selection of Russian melodies (mostly Prokofiev and Khachaturian, as I recall) performed live. The entire production, in short, displayed the kind of polish and professionalism that would make it welcome almost anywhere; I hope they repeat it. For more information on ERA, visit their web site.

L-R: Johnny Iguana, Yana, Michael Caskey
claudettes.com / Marisa Klug-Morataya

Next it was music with a weirdly comic edge with "Welcome to Claudette's Bar" at TheStage @ KDHX. The concept is that pianist Johnny Iguana and drummer Michael Caskey were dragooned by the semi-mythical Claudette into playing in her dive bar in Oglesby, IL ("an hour and a half southwest of Chicago's South Side"), where she put them on salary and dubbed them "The Claudettes." She never appears in person, but harasses them via cell phone into selling drinks during their show.

That's all set up in an amusing video before Mr. Iguana and Mr. Caskey come out on stage. As they launched into their live set—which sounded like a hard-driving combination of Vince Guaraldi, Raymond Scott, and Eric Satie on speed—an LED display ran bizarre commercial messages from Claudette. These ranged from weird drink specials ("$8 Midori Shooters," "MONDAY NIGHT: DESIGNER NIGHT! You design shot, I design price") to warnings ("You: Fake ID Me: Real Gun") to the occasional political statement ("This machine kills fascists!"). Mr. Iguana's electric piano is hidden behind a box painted to look the like the back of an old-fashioned upright piano, adding to the diver bar ambience.

Through it all, the duo performed with a slightly unhinged intensity, mugging it up and delivering solid, power-chord punk piano originals along with some fairly bent versions of classics like "California, Here I Come" and "Brazil." It was great fun, but it would have been nice had their vocalist Yana been there to change the sound up a bit. As it is, she appeared only on the video.

For more information on the Chicago-based Claudettes, check out their web site.

Poor Monsters at the Fringe awards
www.facebook.com/poormonsters

The evening ended with one of the most inspired theatrical productions of the festival: "Or What You Will" by the all-female ensemble Poor Monsters: Laurel Kassenbrock, Katy Keating, Alicen Moser, Kristin Rion, Taylor Steward, and Sarah Griffith. The show consisted of twelve short plays by seven women playwrights, all inspired by Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night." The plays were presented in sets of two, and after each set the audience decided, by their applause, which of the two would advance to the next round until, in sports bracket fashion, one was finally declared the winner.

Although I enjoyed all twelve of the playlets, my own favorites were Ms. Griffith's "Her Breast Is Fit for Pearls, But I Was Not a Diver," which proves to be a surprisingly touching gloss on the life and poetry of Emily Dickinson; Ms. Moser's "The Shape of Love," in which the playwright, as Feste, tries to invent an increasingly tricky song about the increasingly complex relationships of the play; and Ms. Keating's "Revenge of the Siss," in which Malvolio finally triumphs over his enemies in the boxing ring.

Poor Monsters doesn't appear to have a web site, but they do have a Facebook page where you can find out what they're up to next.

I've been an enthusiastic supporter of the St. Lou Fringe since its scrappy beginnings in June of 2012. Three years later, the Fringe is a major player on the local cultural scene and is attracting attention nation-wide. If you've never "fringed," you have missed an awful lot of unusual—and often unique—entertainment. When it comes around again next summer, don't miss it. I know I won't.