Smokey Joe's Café

Music & Lyrics by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller | Scenic Design by Kevin Depinet | Costume Design by Sully Ratke | Lighting Design by Paul Miller | Directed by Marcia Milgrom-Dodge

The Drury Lane Theatre
Oakbrook Illinois

Kevin Depinet’s massively detailed, playfully grimy streetwise set, and Sully Ratke’s zesty late 1950s style costumes, put us in the perfect time frame and second-hand-goods state of mind. And paired with sensational music direction by Roberta Duchak, and a swinging five-piece onstage band fully engaged in the action, the whole thing becomes instant magic.

- Hedi Weiss (for The Chicago SunTimes)

Director Marcia Milgrom Dodge's superb revival of this title at the Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace is the first production I've seen to effectively theatricalize this material, and thus greatly deepen the emotional impact of the show. And it achieves something yet more distinctive by explicitly focusing on Leiber and Stoller as rhythm-and-blues composers.

- Chris Jones (for The Chicago Tribune)