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Shakedown Street

nytheatre.com review by Rachel Macklin
August 15, 2005

Sidle up, cats and kittens, and take yourself back to old San Fran in the time of jazz and booze, broads and brass. You’ve just turned onto Shakedown Street, a lackluster new musical written by Michael Norman Mann that integrates the songs of Robert Hunter and the legendary Jerry Garcia (of the Grateful Dead) with classic1940s noir. This ambitious production boasts a cast of 17, a seven-piece orchestra, and numerous other artists working behind the scenes.The premise of Shakedown Street is a familiar tale—down-and-out (and downright dashing) gumshoe Duke Bishop (Michael Hunsaker) is hurting for cash 'cause he’s into Mister Charlie (Kevin Alan Ramsey) for a grand. Detective Harry Gordon (Marshall York) throws him a job out of pity—he’s to tail blonde bombshell Lana Lavelle (Alyssa Rae), a looker eerily reminiscent of Bishop’s dearly departed main squeeze, Bonnie. Lavelle is suspected of finagling some rather compromising photos of everyone’s favorite municipal mind, Judge Midford (Michael Sheraton). But all is not as it seems, and with the help of his Gal Friday, Helen Mars (Tara Taylor), Bishop wades through a scintillating story of art, riches, and robbery amidst the shadowy streets of San Francisco’s Mission district. Naturally, our enterprising P.I. gets caught in hot water and must fish himself out before he ends up floating in the harbor.Because the basic plot elements of Shakedown Street are so second nature (we’ve been spoon-fed this style since Humphrey Bogart first uttered “The stuff that dreams are made of”), writer Michael Norman Mann already had a tough job at hand in steering Shakedown clear of the normal archetypes and caricatures. Adding to this difficulty was a score comprised of existing work that was not originally intended for musical theatre. That said, Mann has done a credible job, but this Shakedown is a befuddled street.Garcia and Hunter’s music is beautiful in its own right (“Stella Blue” and “You Remind” are especially memorable), and between George Croom’s lush arrangements and the wonderful vocal talent singing them, you would expect Shakedown to be mesmerizing. Unfortunately, the songs do little to illuminate the plot or its characters. The result is incoherent overall —brief scenes are followed by songs that fill a few minutes with music, then we resume the story, which continues to grow more convoluted and is at times difficult to hear. Noir is deliciously deceptive, and it is not surprising that Shakedown Street falls into the trap of relying on stock characters to create and drive the drama instead of honing the specificity of its scenario.On the whole, however, Shakedown’s capable cast works incredibly hard, and director Jeff Griffin is to be commended for his clean and clever staging. Ryan Scott’s simple set features rotating projections that set the scene, and Maggie Lee-Burdorff’s costumes nicely root the piece in period authenticity. Hunsaker is terrific, turning in a performance that stretches beyond the limitations of his role. His tenor is well suited to the material, and glides from note to note with quiet and compelling intensity. Taylor is also excellent, transcending the Girl Friday stereotype to give Helen a lancing humor and disarming sincerity. Rae and York give solid performances, though they don’t quite move beyond the confines of their characters. The talent represented in Shakedown makes it worth seeing, but the narrative probably won’t sweep you off your feet.