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Friday, October 15, 2004 Rudinoff is ready to rock 'n' roll at the 5th Avenue By JOE ADCOCK In Sarah Rudinoff's mind, it is not "Smokey Joe's Cafe" but "Smokey Sarah's Cafe." "I mean I own the place, right?" Rudinoff says. "I'm the chanteuse. It's a little like those tacky karaoke bar proprietors who have the place just so that they get to sing every other song." We were talking in Seattle Center's food court on Rudinoff's lunch break. Upstairs in a fourth-floor studio, the "Smokey Joe's" cast has been rehearsing. The show opens Thursday at the 5th Avenue Musical Theatre. When "Smokey Joe's" played on Broadway from 1995 to 2000, the production was a high-energy song, song, song revue. And what songs. They are all by the legendary pop and R&B team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. The repertoire includes "Young Blood," "Dance With Me," "Searchin'," "Poison Ivy," "On Broadway," "Yakety Yak," "Hound Dog," "Love Potion #9," "There Goes My Baby," "Jailhouse Rock" and "Stand by Me." Rudinoff explains, "We're not adding any dialogue. It's just the songs. But we imagine a story that goes with it. In the first act, the cast is made up of teenagers in a big city. I think of it as Brooklyn, because Leiber and Stoller worked in the Brill Building in New York." (They worked there along with a lot of other soon-to-be-famous songwriters.) Getting back to 5th Avenue director Bill Berry's take on "Smokey Joe's": "The first act material includes the first kiss, the prom, first love ... high school stuff," Rudinoff says. "This is all in our minds, of course. The audience doesn't learn about it explicitly. "Then the second act is 20 years later. This group from Brooklyn has made a pact. Whatever happens, they are going to get together 20 years after they all go their separate ways. And the place where they get together is my cafe -- called Smokey Joe's." After we've been talking for a while, a 5th Avenue stage manager reminds Rudinoff she's due upstairs. Rehearsal is resuming. Rudinoff is one of Seattle's busiest singer/ dancer/actor/writers. Professional though she be, she has a few black marks on her "Smokey Joe's" rehearsal record. A couple of weeks ago she was named one of The Stranger's 2004 arts geniuses. A bit bewildered, she was called out of rehearsal to meet The Stranger's emissary and presented with a cake bearing the frosting proclamation "You're a Genius!" Her prize includes $5,000. "So I come back carrying this cake," she recalls. "I am met at the elevator by two of the three stage managers. I tell the cast I'm a genius. How to win friends, huh? Half of them are from out of town and they've never heard of The Stranger. But when I mentioned the money they all go 'Five! Thousand! Dollars!!??' "I leave rehearsal early, taking my cake with me. Little did I know that the stage managers had laid out paper plates and plastic forks so everyone could share it. I brought it back a couple of days later when I found out about the plates and forks. "So we're standing around and (fellow cast member) Lisa Estridge comes up to me and goes, 'Sarah, I just want you to know that I do not eat 3-day-old cake.' And she jabs her fork into a big chunk and puts it into her mouth." As for the $5,000, that goes for a new computer, a printer and a fax machine. Footnote: The original "Smokey Joe's Cafe" was a 1990 Empty Space Theatre production put together by the company's then artistic director, M. Burke Walker. In permitting the use of their songs, Leiber and Stoller stipulated the production would have only one run and the Space would relinquish all proprietary claims to any subsequent production of a revue featuring the same material. "I was talking to (current Space artistic director) Allison Narver about 'Smokey Joe's Cafe,' " Rudinoff says. "She was lamenting how if the Space could have gotten even the teeniest tiniest royalty based on its initial production, the company would never ever have any financial problems." Financial problems are a recurring Space phenomenon, however. The company shut down two weeks ago to stem expenses and to concentrate on fund-raising. Rudinoff is a Space veteran. In the company's 2003-04 season, she played a king in "Ubu" and a queen in "Ming the Rude." She is also a regular performer at Seattle's funkiest, most raucous showplace, Re-bar. Rudinoff grew up in Hawaii. She performs her take on early experiences in a new show called "The Last State" at On the Boards Dec. 9-12.
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