I entered the darkened auditorium of the Celebration Theater where a rehearsal of the new jazz musical PLAY IT COOL was underway. The set immediately thrust me back into another era; on it lived a small jazz club that existed when Matt Dennis and Bobby Troup were plying their trade. Next to the piano a cool blonde belted a song that wouldn't have been out of place on a June Christie record. But soon the spell was broken when the show's director, Sharon Rosen, whispered a few choice words to the singer. In the front row, the show's lyricist Mark Winkler was watching and listening intently. I knew Mark from his many appearances around town as a jazz singer and as a writer of songs for everyone from Dianne Reeves to Kenny Rankin, so during a break I worked up the nerve to ask him a few questions.

How did this show PLAY IT COOL come about?

Well, it really started with a series of long, gabby lunches with my friend Larry Dean Harris at Highway 101 Café in Hollywood. We'd talk about our mutual love of jazz and discuss the latest CD's by such favorites as Janis Siegel, Lorraine Feather and Tierney Sutton. Larry is a writer by profession and one day the conversation steered us into the idea of doing a musical together. We decided it should be a 'film noir jazz musical".

Why a film noir jazz musical?

Well, Larry knew that I had written and recorded lots of jazz songs with a sort of Humphrey Bogart vibe to them, and he wanted to use them in the story. The first version of the script for this show was written around 16 of the songs from my catalogue. At first, I was skeptical about thisI told him that this was unlikely to fly, since you usually come up with the story first and write songs to support it or complement it. Yet, his first version of the script , then called LONG GONE HOLLYWOOD NIGHTS, was surprisingly effective and captured the 50's era quite well. Of course, over the course of two years of development I wound up replacing many of those songs and writing more story specific tunes that would fit the dramatic situations. Nonetheless, people familiar with my club gigs will be surprised to find a couple of their old favorites nestled in there in an entirely new context. I hope it adds an element of fun to the show.

Is this the first-ever jazz musical?

No, not at all.  There's CITY OF ANGELS by Cy Coleman with a very jazzy score, and then there is CENTRAL AVENUE - a show that examined the birth of the LA jazz scene on that famous street; it became quite a hit at the Fountain theater not long ago. Broadway fanatics will recall a 50's show called THE NERVOUS SET, but in general jazz and theater music have not developed similar followings, and they have remained disparate as far as singing styles and techniques are concerned. This has made casting a 'jazz musical' challenging.

What's so challenging?

First of all, finding singers who are able to sing jazz rather than "show tunes"and who can be convincing actors, too. It takes quite a while. At our first reading, which we had to mount rather quickly, we audtitioned about 12 girls to play the female ingénue and they all sounded like Belle from Beauty and the Beast! All these perky sopranos showed up when I was looking for a torchy alto like Diana Krall or Carmen McRae. It was quite an eye-opener. Then, there is the important 'swing factor". If you're gonna sing jazz, you've gotta swing. But a lot of the people who auditioned couldn't swing and had no notion of how to do it. The male lead in our show is an 18-yr. old. I asked the 22 yr.-old singer we cast in our first reading to swing his songs like Al Jarreau. He said "Who's Al Jarreau?"

So how did you go about finding the right cast?

Well, we did all the usual things a casting director would do - but then we supplemented the effort with ads in jazz magazines and on the internet. And we put out a 'call' on the e-mail lists of many of my jazz cronies. As a result, we wound up with a great cast. Every member is a triple threat: actor, singer and dancer.  I feel so fortunate to have them in the show, and they can swing!

Yes, but what about the band? Don't you need jazzers in the band?

Right on! We can't have the traditional "little theater" piano accompaniment for the singers. And this is where we got really lucky. The producers agreed that since jazz was an integral part of the show the budget should include coverage for a three-piece band that will be onstage throughout. And I found an incredible musician named Louis Durra to be the Musical Director. This guy not only has great jazz chops, but he has played for other shows and has an instinctive theatrical sensibility.

Well, what's this show about anyway?

I thought you'd never ask. Well, you know the Celebration Theater is an organization that specializes in theater that explores gay issues and themes. Larry Dean Harris felt that an interesting subject for this theater would be a representation of the LA gay world in the 50's, before Will and Grace and Elton John. So many people today have forgotten that it was once illegal to be gay, and that the police habitually harassed gays and the clubs where they would congregate. Hence, a 'film noir' aspect to the story, which centers around a lesbian named Mary who runs this jazz club and has a profound effect on many of her customers. In exploring this subject, Larry and I came to see that jazz, never embraced by the mainstream, could be a metaphor for being gay and I've written a whole song revolving around that theme called "Jazz is a Special Taste" with Phillip Swann who wrote music for many of the songs in the show.

I don't want to give the impression that the show is preachy, though. It's really pure entertainment, with a little bite to it. Seeing it up on its feet, it's the jazz that really sets it apart from other shows. Oh, and there are no crashing helicopters or falling chandeliers in our show - the only thing crashing on the stage might be a diminished chord or two. Come see for yourself!

PLAY IT COOL will be playing at the Celebration Theater in Hollywood from June 9 through July 16th.

For tickets, please call 323 957-1884.