Any one who remembers bobby socks and pony tails, crew cuts, Harlem in New York, or Central Avenue in L. A. will want Like Jazz to bring back those times when Miller was the king of beers and heavy petting was considered unsafe sex. There it is on the stage: piano to the side, drums above, three rows of brass, sax down front, trombones next row up, and trumpet lording over all, red hot mommas and loose limbed dancers, conjuring up everything from supper clubs to country club dances.
    But, isn’t this over-amped like now, not like the acoustic 40’s and 50’s? And aren’t the costumes neither now nor then? Opening night, no one in the aging star studded audience openly minded the anachronisms or any of the other flaws which were more than skin deep. They moaned “yeah” in all the right places. Clapped loudly to the music and louder still at the end of each number. They were beyond containment at the curtain.
    Easy to swallow and sweet like a MacDonald’s Strawberry Milk Shake, Like Jazz is easily forgotten an hour later. A pity. The creators (Cy Coleman, the Bergmans and Larry Gelbart) and the stars (Patti Austin, Jack Sheldon, Lillias White, and Jennifer Chada) have among them enough credits and honors to fill a musical awards show.  If only the time had been taken to create an original confection, rather than a re-hashed fast foods offering.
    Like Jazz is an assemblage of 18 musical numbers loosely held together by an MC/narrator, casually slouching Harry Groener, who reminisces with occasional wit about the jazz era, and some major and minor figures of the time. This is not Gelbart writing at his wittiest, grittiest best. As this “New Kind of Musical”  is lacking any sort of development or story line, and there is too much slouch to impart much jazz history, the whole endeavor fails, resting on ersatz jazz music no one might possibly remember the following morning.
    One exception to this is “Cheatin” sung by Patti Austin and Lillias White. There was fire on the stage as these two mommas (White, the wife and Austin, the mistress) shared outrage that he was cheatin' with a third woman. It is worth mentioning that this was also the one of the few numbers where the lyrics were both easy to understand and  clever. At intermission, a major music figure of the 50’s and 60’s was heard to say--not for attribution--through a pasted on smile:  “It is like jazz learned by reading a book” and then fed back without color. Not so much homage as caricature.
    Clearly, Like Jazz has had its growing pains. Originally commissioned by the Kennedy Center, it was performed there on May 17, 2002 under the title Songs for a New Millennium – Portraits in Jazz: A Gallery of Songs. After this single performance, Larry Gelbart was invited to join the creative team, with Gordon Davidson, in his penultimate season as Artistic Director of the Mark Taper Forum to direct. Even after the program for the Taper was printed the running order of songs was again revised. With so much re-do effort and headliner talent, might it not be better to either play the original, wonderful, old stuff?  Or to create something fresh and new?
    Responsibility for the evening cannot be laid at the performers’ feet. Outstanding were Lillias White, a singer with a generous voice, who moves like a zephyr despite her not inconsiderable size, and Jennifer Chada who bristles with life and wit as both singer and dancer. Natalie Willes is billed as an ensemble member, but that is like describing Shaquille O’Neal as a guy who plays basketball for some team in L.A.  Willes is a breathtaking dancer with the long body of a track star and extension rarely seen in any ballet performance. Unfortunately, the dancers were constricted by choreography that did not recognize the limitations of a small, overcrowded stage. At one point Willes did a combination backbend/grande batement steadying herself with one hand while balancing on a narrow ledge high above the musicians.  Anybody checked the insurance policy here?
    Have a martini (the old kind, no sweet stuff mixed in), clap your hands and tap your toes. You will probably have a pleasant enough evening, but you won't be humming any tunes as you exit the theater.