Swing concert puts Hanover "In the Mood"

By Peter Landsdowne TELEGRAM & GAZETTE REVIEWER

WORCESTER — Imagine a time when everybody in America was listening and dancing to the same kind of music.

The Swing Era, which lasted from 1935 to the end of World War II in 1945, was just such a time. Monday night, “In the Mood: A 1940’s Musical Revue” provided an overview of some of the music from that era at The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts at 2 Southbridge St.

As conceived by producer and artistic director Bud Forrest, “In the Mood” relied on the music of Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and other big band leaders.

With Forrest himself at the piano and bassist Eric Harper and drummer Tom Dupin delineating a steady beat, the three trumpeters, three trombonists, and four saxophonists in the String of Pearls Orchestra actually marched onto the stage from the Hanover’s side aisles to the strains of Jerry Gray’s arrangement of “St. Louis Blues March,” one of Glenn Miller’s many hits.

A crowd of close to a thousand big band fans sensed that something special was about to happen, especially when The In the Mood Singers & Dancers bounded onto the stage in costume designer Linda Tomlin’s vintage outfits.

The group’s three men (Jason Campbell, AJ Converse, and Paul Saylor) and three women (Jason’s wife, Adriana Campbell, Kelly Jakiel, and Christina Caplan) quickly lit into “Yes, Indeed” and “Well All Right,” two of Tommy Dorsey’s most popular numbers, before intoning the revue’s signature song, Miller’s percolating “In the Mood.”

From there, the big band and the singers and dancers covered close to four dozen classic songs from the Swing Era in a show that lasted close to two hours with just a 15-minute intermission. A medley of songs associated with various big band leaders had audience members applauding to Duke Ellington’s “C Jam Blues,” Benny Goodman’s “Jersey Bounce,” Les Brown’s “I’ve Got My Love to Keep Me Warm,” Artie Shaw’s “Moonglow,” and an out and out romp on Count Basie’s “Jumpin’ at the Woodside.” Arrangers Vic Schoen, David Bandman, and Bob Tartaglia opted not to copy these charts note for note but instead gleaned the essence of each tune to keep the revue’s momentum going.

The narration that preceded Glenn Miller’s “Juke Box Saturday Night” placed the revue’s company in a soda shop listening to a juke box pouring out the hits of the day, including Duke Ellington’s “Don’t Get Around Much Anymore,” Jimmy Dorsey’s “Green Eyes,” and Harold Arlen’s “Accentuate the Positive,” which featured some great lyrics by Johnny Mercer: “You’ve got to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative, latch on to the affirmative, don’t mess with Mister In-Between.”

The revue’s second half was more patriotic in nature and underscored America’s involvement in World War II. “Over There” promised that “the Yanks are coming” to bail out Europe, while “What Do You Do in the Infantry?” was more light-hearted.

The three women singers scored points as The Andrews Sisters on “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” and the band with the singers and dancers wowed the crowd on “Bugle Call Rag,” which featured some inspired jitterbug dancing from Paul Saylor and Christina Caplan, who was responsible for the revue’s superb choreography.

Saylor donned a sailor’s outfit and Caplan wore a nurse’s uniform to recreate the famous picture of a sailor planting a kiss on a nurse at the end of the war.

A medley of the official songs of the Marines, the Navy, the Army, and the Air Force honored the veterans in the audience, including two vets wearing fatigue caps that said it all: WW II Veteran, Battle of the Bulge and WW II Veteran, Normandy.

A reprise of Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood” led to a well-deserved standing ovation for the company of 19 performers, who responded with a fervent version of “Thanks for the Memories,” Bob Hope’s theme song, but not before producer and artistic director Bud Forrest urged crowd members to check out www.Spiritof45.org, a Web site designed to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the end of Word War II.