Noir In Blue

THEATrePUBLIC—John Hirsch Theatre at the MTC Mainstage

I am a huge fan of both the blues and the old noir detective genre so I expected to really enjoy this show. The story is sung by Cory Schmitt and Melissa Macpherson with live accompaniment by Kenneth Brown. They play multiple characters, sometimes switching off roles between them. There is a screen above the stage which helps the audience by letting them know where the scene is set and who is in it. Both performers are great singers, and a couple of the songs performed by Melissa show off her powerful delivery.

Unfortunately, I found the story a little flat. For me, it may have been because it was mostly set in the late 1980’s. This was done to provide a major part of the story line on how some of the main characters are related, but it seemed an odd time period for the genres they are working in.

Murray Hunter