"Joe Jackson's Night and Day" - RF&P Forum, 2004

Joe Jackson’s Night and Day

Music and lyrics by Joe Jackson

Adapted and arranged for the stage by Andrew Hamm

RF&P Forum at the Science Museum of Virginia, Richmond, VA

April 2004

My MFA thesis at Virginia Commonwealth University was a world-premiere concert musical production of music Grammy-winning Oscar-nominated composer/songwriter Joe Jackson. Compiled from Jackson’s two New York City-themed albums Night and Day (1982) and Night and Day II (2004), the show featured a six-piece band, seven vocalists, one backstage actor performing via closed-circuit TV, and an entire stage, lighting system, and sound system assembled in an enormous conference hall one night for two performances and a strike immediately after closing.

The songs on the album were disassembled and reconfigured into a narrative structure telling the “story” of a songwriter trying to find the perfect song to encapsulate the experience of New York City. The songwriter (myself) enters the space from the house, frantically writing on a small notepad the song he has been writing in his head on the way home from work. At home at his digital piano, he plays a ballad-y version of what we recognize as Jackson’s iconic song, “Steppin’ Out,” but he stops halfway through, disgusted. An attempt to add percussion results in the slow entry of the rest of the cast; a drummer takes over the beat, a gypsy cellist (Becca Bernard) sets up her corner performance complete with a hat for donations, and so on until the stage is filled with people he has encountered in the city, some at instruments and some at microphones.

Over the course of the show’s two acts, songs are performed by and about these people and their experiences: gawking tourist (Lorri Lindberg), flamboyant gay (Eric Fletcher), teenage stripper (Julia Rigby) and the older sister who has come looking for her (Catherine Nelson), homeless street prophet (Brad Brubaker), construction worker (Joe Evans on percussion), cocky businessman (Philip Hamm on bass) and so forth. The songs span the spectrum of New York experience: “Stranger than You” and “Another World” as an introduction to the baffling diversity of the environment, “Breaking Us in Two” a paean of regret over lost love, “TV Age,” “Target” and “Just Because” the hard edges of fear and paranoia, “Dear Mom” the search for a lost sister with “Glamour and Pain” the sad reality of the sister’s broken life, “Real Men” a cry for a clear sense of identity, and so forth. By the end of the experience, the songwriter finds himself ruminating on the whole experience, and finding the rhythm that becomes a full-company celebratory version of “Steppin’ Out.” As a coda, he sums it up: “I think I’ll ‘Stay’.”

The set consisted of the immovable musical instruments, dressed to represent city environments; up left the keyboards were dressed as a studio apartment, up center the percussion set was wrapped in caution tape and blocked off with traffic cones, up right the drum kit was surrounded by garbage, which the cast pulled necessary props and costumes out of. Three televisions, one in the drums and one in the apartment, were linked to a backstage camera for the TV Face (Sally dae Courtois) of act two’s “TV Age.” The sound (run by Tim Crews) was as simple as a 13-piece band can be, but Andy Waters’ lighting design squeezed every bit of utility as could be managed from 16 instruments and a small fader board. Both houses were full, with some audience members hearing about the show on the Joe Jackson Archive website and traveling from out of state.

The difficult task of directing a show in which I was also appearing as a performer was made much more manageable by the addition of Matthew Ellis as assistant director. In late stages, Math came in to provide an outside eye for the process, and his input was invaluable. Tonia Campanella, part of the cast already, applied her research expertise in stage sex choreography to intimate moments in "Dear Mom" and "Glamour and Pain."

JJND started as an experiment, an attempt to find common ground between the presentational techniques of both concert and theatre. What we learned immediately was that it worked beyond our wildest expectations. Plans were in the works for a 2005 professional production in Richmond, but personal circumstances necessitated a cancelation. The thesis workshop was performed with Jackson’s blessing, and his management remains interested in a professional production.

"Another World:" cellist Becca Bernard and violinist Anna Sosa chair dance between string parts, with Philip Hamm laying down the bass behind.

"Another World:" tourist Lorri Lindberg finds herself delighted at the city's people: Catherine Nelson, Tonia Campanella, Julia Rigby and Eric Fletcher.

"Stranger than You:" Tonia Campanella, Catherine Nelson, Eric Fletcher, Brad Brubaker and Julia Rigby, armed with random garbage.

"Dear Mom:" Catherine Nelson searches the city for her runaway sister (Julia Rigby), seen performing a lap dance for a customer (Brad Brubaker).

"Breaking Us in Two:" The songwriter (Andrew Hamm, far left) faces off with his lost love (Tonia Campanella, far right).

"Cancer:" Percussionist Joe Evans and drummer Adam Young lay down the Latin groove while the homeless Brad Brubaker expounds on his fears, real and imagined.

"TV Age:" The sex-soaked face and voice of Sally Dae Courtois (in the television) numb the souls of Julia Rigby, Eric Fletcher and Brad Brubaker.

"Glamour and Pain:" Julia Rigby.

"Just Because:" Catherine Nelson, Tonia Campanella, Julia Rigby and Eric Fletcher sing "Just because you're paranoid don't mean they're not out to get you." Photos by Candace Anderson.