The Dead Legend at UGF review

Aisha McManus, Kelsey McNeil, Clay Vermulm and Ken Taylor in a scene from UGF's "Dead Legend."

Last week I was invited to see one of the final dress rehearsals of "The Dead Legend," which, is a reprisal of UGF's 2011 production "After Hours at the Dead Legend."

The updated version of the musical has a lot to like -- catchy and layered songs, some funny dialogue and some awesome costumes.

There are a few moments that don't work so well, also, including some off-key singing on one or two songs, one noticeable logical error and a few moments where I could not hear exactly what the performer was saying and/or singing.

But, let's get to the things I like, first.

"The Dead Legend" was written/created by Michael Gilboe, Keern Haslem and Glen Weeks in 2011, with additional help from Amber Koesling, Sarah Raines, Sawyer Edmister, Emily Busby, Jeremy Hudson, Ken Taylor and Dana Jo Forseth.

The updated script stars Hudson as Bela Lugosi/William Shakespeare, Kari Roat as Minnie Pearl, Matt Way as Errol Flynn, April Wendt as Janis Jopliln, Sawyer Edmister as Frank Zappa, Kelsey McNeil as Lucille Ball, Brendon Winston as Sid Vicious, Rachel Altman as Judy Garland, Clayton Vermulm as Harry Houdini, Tamara Greenlief as Elizabeth Taylor/Charlie Chaplin, Ken Taylor as Humphrey Bogart, Jessica Burton as Marilyn Monroe, Glen Weeks as Chris Farley, Kaitlyn Taylor as Eartha Kitt, EJ Moran as Jim Henson, Mary Wilmore as Clara Bow, Amanda Cetnarowski as Ginger Rogers, Sarah Raines as Amy Winehouse and Aisha McManus as the mysterious woman.

The story in a nutshell follows the above dead celebrities who all gather and perform in a nightclub. While there, they slowly start questioning where they are, how they got there and what it all means.

If you leave liking one thing about the show, it will most definitely be most of the songs. They're catchy, they help tell the story in a layered conceptual way, and are fun to listen to, for the most part.

The cast from UGF's "Dead Legend." 

In a way, it's kind of surprising how a story featuring legendary musicians who are singing material that's not their well-known hits can work, but it does in its own way.

Secondly, I loved the costumes each of the characters are dressed in .Some of my favorites were Sid Viscous, Minni Pearl and Frank Zappa. The costumes not only add to the immersion, they lead the way.

If I were to pick my favorite song of all of them, I would say its "Great Escape."
The mechanic between Hudson and Clay, who had to escape the box before Hudson was done singing, worked great.When Hudson would start singing faster and Houdini would start trying to escape faster was a nice touch.

I also enjoyed everything about Kari Roat's performance as Minnie Pearl. She's a bundle of energy, fun and entertainment while she's on stage. Even if you have no idea who Minnie Pearl was, you will enjoy her portrayal anyways.

Glen's portrayal of Chris Farley made me crack up the most throughout the show, I'd say. His and Matt's portrayal of Errol Flynn together hitting on the ladies, unsuccessfully, left me audibly laughing several times. Some of the inventive pick-up attempts through the running gag kept me in stitches.

I also enjoyed Sarah Raines' portrayal of Amy Winehouse. She captured the spirit of Winehouse wonderfully, and Sarah always has a solid singing voice. She makes the character's confused and strung-out mood hers and it shows. I enjoyed her as Judy Garland in the first incarnation, and I felt she did just as great a job as Winehouse.

At the same time I don't think the show lost anything by giving Judy Garland to Rachel. She brings a new energy to the role and she can sing and entertain just as much as Sarah did with her. She's got a great voice and I enjoyed hearing her sing.

With that here are a few things I thought could've been done a bit better.

With Winehouse, one aspect of the script I felt took me out of the story, ironically enough, came when she first appears into the nightclub, however. The scene shows Amy Winehouse appearing later in the story than the rest of the characters. Not knowing she's dead, she believes she's in a dive nightclub somewhere on earth. She's encouraged to perform, which she does, because she's a performer who can't be kept from an open stage.

While I enjoyed the song she sings, logically the whole time I kept thinking, "If Amy Winehouse didn't know she was dead and that she could not sing her own songs, why would she start performing a song we've never heard before?" It's later explained that the reason the singers don't perform their hits is because, "While you are dead, your music is still alive.".

Secondly, I felt while some of the performers' singing most definitely improved even from the first run-through to the final rehearsals, some of them still weren't up to the level of quality I would have liked to see them at.

I know not everybody can have award-winning singing voices as well as anyone. But, perhaps knowing this the writers could have worked more to bring out the actors' strengths.

Instead of giving Errol Flynn a duet with Ginger Rogers, for example, they could have given him a great in-depth comedic skit that allowed for Matt to use his strengths as an actor beyond the ones he already appeared in. I'd say it's easier to do in an original script where writers had the ability to change scenes and songs vs. doing a well-known musical that can't be changed.

I like Matt's portrayal of Flynn. He's funny, energetic and believable. He brings a high level of enthusiasm for every role he performs. On the night I watched it, though, he also was pretty off key through most of the duet.

So, say this were a real nightclub that existed before certain celebrities died.
If this were real, I highly doubt the owners would ask, say, Graham Chapman to sing anything. Everyone loves Graham Chapman from Monty Python, but no remembers him as a great singer. It doesn't make him less of an entertainer, singing just was not one of his strengths.

There also were a few moments where I could not hear what a few of the actors were saying on stage. It was rare enough that it wasn't a big issue, but I did find myself missing what was said because either the performer was speaking too fast or not loud enough. Also, there were a few times where the microphones went out and I couldn't hear the singer as much.

Despite these few moments, though, on the whole I enjoyed the show. I saw the original incarnation when it came out in 2011, and I still enjoyed seeing it again. I recommend checking it out before the cast and crew takes it to the New York Musical Festival this summer.

Plus, the fact that it all was created here in Great Falls by UGF students and staff members should be a source of pride for folks here who also care about the arts.

To sum it up, I found it to be an entertaining show that will leave you laughing and humming the tunes to yourself as you drive home.

Review of Jeff Scolley's "Lessons Learned" spoken word album

To me, listening to Jeff's album "Lessons Learned," is a bit like taking Jeff with you whenever you press play on the device of your choosing.
The poems, the emotion, the words all are faithful adaptations of Jeff's live performances, which isn't always easy.

When you record something that's great in person, there's always a risk that it loses something in the process. But, not here.

"Lessons Learned," opens with "Dear Broken Spirit," featuring Jeremy Hudson on guitar. Hudson also appears on "In Horizon," and "She." At times the tracks he's on sound a little similar. But, the emotional dynamic he adds to the album outweighs the similarity of his contributions.

For anyone who's been to an Open Mic Night, or a Poetry Slam at MAT, you will recognize many of these poems on the album.

Even if you've heard them many times, though, the feeling is still fresh. The best way I can think to describe how Jeff's poems make me feel is by likening it to sitting around a campfire with friends and family as the sun starts to set. That warm, tingly, "everything's going to be OK" feeling as you roast marshmallows and tell stories and laugh together.

Not all of the poems evoke this emotion, but enough of them do that I think it's safe to say when you put on this record, expect to feel something similar.

I think some of the best tracks on the record are "She," "In Horizon," and "Ollie Ollie," the live track featuring  Naveah and Darius Nickels."
If you're looking for three tracks that best represent this album, those are it.
"Ollie Ollie," again, is a poem that's recognizable for anyone who's heard Jeff perform. Adding the singers and the live crowd, however, gives it an extra bounce that elevates it from good to great.

Not everything on the album is great, although much of it is quite good.

Some of the poems tend to sound a little too similar. "She," and "Ursa Major," strike the same notes and seem to cover almost identical ideas.They just feel to be separately creative ways to say the same type of thing.

Another problem might be more in the way performance poetry is consumed more than anything Jeff does here.
The best way to take in this album is to sit down somewhere comfortable, put it on and just listen.
It doesn't seem to have the same effect if you say, put it on while you're working out, or while you're at a party. It's not that kind of album. Not that it has to be.

No, I think this album works well if you're in your car on a long road trip, or maybe while you're reading a book, although, again, this album kind of demands more attention than that.

If, say, every time you played this album Jeff Scolley appeared in front of you and started reading his poems. That's almost what this is like. That's not a bad thing at all.

I was a bit on the fence about whether every track needed musical background. One one level I think it would have helped the album in that it'd give the pieces another element to feel.
But then on another level, I like the way after hearing a music-backed track, that silence behind Jeff almost adds its own intimacy to the piece. I guess it's a matter of personal preference. Maybe some of the pieces just didn't flow as well with music behind them.

In the past I've said I felt Jeff needed to take more risks and try things new and different. I have to hand it to him here in that he did take a few risks. Adding the singers, and performing it live, could have gone horrible. If one of the singers was off key, or if Jeff misread one of pieces, even in a tiny, hardly-noticeable way, would have affected the track in a bad way.

But, he pulls it off. The singing works, the live crowd reactions work, you can hear Jeff clearly throughout the track. It's likely the one piece that will get the most attention, and justifiably so.

In conclusion, then, I liked the album and enjoyed hearing the poems again, even if I've heard most of them multiple times before.

If you have a few minutes to yourself, put this album on and find out for yourself what emotions it evokes. That's one of the coolest things about spoken word poetry, in my mind.

The only limit to what you can feel is you.