Courtesy photo
Rich Johnson is coming down from New York this weekend to play a two-day gig with his Southern band at O'Keefe's in Murrells Inlet.
If you go
‘Ain’t Misbehavin’ – The Fats Waller Show’
Who | Theatre of the Republic
When | 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, then Thursdays-Saturdays through Feb. 25, and 3 p.m. Sundays, Feb. 12-26.
Where | Main Street Theatre, 337 Main St., Conway
How much | $18 advance, $20 at door
Information | 488-0821 or www.theatreoftherepublic.com
Also |
• “Promises, Promises” April 13-29, and “The Full Monty” June 15-July 1, each $18 advance, $20 at door
“Movies on Main Street,” all 7 p.m. for $5 each – “Roman Holiday” Tuesday, “The Magnificent Seven” Feb. 27, “Gone with the Wind” March 5, “The Odd Couple’ March 19, “The Godfather” April 23, “The Godfather: Part II” April 30, “Goldfinger” May 3, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” May 17.
• 2011-12 Torry Awards Celebration, 7:30 p.m. July 14; $15
Rich Johnson Band
Who | Rich Johnson on lead vocals and rhythm and lead guitars; with Coman Sproles on lead guitar and vocals; Oscar Valencia on bass and backing vocals; Verne Cygen on drums/percussion and vocals; and other invited local musicians
When | 7 p.m. Friday-Saturday
Where | O’Keefe’s Irish Pub, 834 Inlet Square Drive, Murrells Inlet
How much | Free admission
Information | O’Keefe’s at 651-7211, or Johnson: 516-889-6895 or www.thefishingline.com
Cupid’s arrows point to Valentine’s Day making up the heart of this weekend for many people, but other events showcasing love of other things, like music for example, will drive the beats to special affairs in Conway and Murrells Inlet this weekend.
A musical revue
Theatre of the Republic opens “Ain’t Misbehavin’ – The Fats Waller Show” for three weekends at the Main Street Theatre in Conway. Tim McGhee’s heart raced in excitement talking last week about this production.
The troupe’s executive/artistic director said five people made up the cast of the original Broadway version of “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” more than 30 years ago, but the cast can range from two to 10. Saluting “so many wonderful talented” people in Theatre of the Republic, McGhee went for the max: 10, an all-black cast with “phenomenal, phenomenal talent.”
The plot doesn’t entail a “true story line,” McGhee said, for “it’s a musical revue in stories of Fats Waller’s music.”
“It’s not like you’re going to know one cast member and follow them all the way through the plot,” McGhee said. “It’s a lot of vignettes through the show, but it all takes place in a nightclub, like it would be in The Cotton Club in Harlem.”
The stories and the songs Waller originally expressed on piano through swing jazz from the 1920s into the ‘40s, especially the sad numbers, engrossed McGhee.
“I had heard of ‘Ain’t Misbehavin,’ ” he said, “but never really listened to it. You’re smiling, tapping your toes, singing along and laughing. It’s a really phenomenal show for everyone, one of the best shows we’ve done. You will not be able to not have a good time.”
From its opening medley, the show rolls with so many standards, McGhee said, laughing at all the humor woven into the presentations with extraordinary dancing.
“All the songs,” he said, “you’ll know every one of them. You just didn’t know Fats Waller was involved with them. I’m just so thrilled with it.”
McGhee said “Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” provides an easy outlet to escape everyday life and the daily grind, “if you don’t want to think, and instead just want to have to a good time.”
Band’s Southern edition
Rich Johnson enjoys every visit from Long Island, N.Y., to see his parents, who retired to Surfside Beach in the late 1980s.
A bandleader and the host of “The Fishing Line” radio and TV show airing across the Northeast the past 18 years, Johnson said whenever visiting the Grand Strand, he always casts an invitation for Myrtle Beach area musicians to jam with him on open-mic nights.
Johnson said he’s made new friends from his musical vacations, including Duke Tinnes and Sista Otis.
Returning for a week to help celebrate his mother’s 81st birthday on Valentine’s Day, Johnson said he and the “Southern edition” version of his band will headline at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at O’Keefe’s Irish Pub in Murrells Inlet, near Inlet Square.
“I go to all open mics across the area,” said Johnson, 57, “and I’m becoming known as the guitarist and singer from New York.”
He and schoolteacher wife, Heather, both approaching retirement, envision settling in the Myrtle Beach in the next era of their 10-year marriage, for which their romance began 23 years ago.
Johnson said he aims to become “a working musician” down south and that these sojourns south have sown the groundwork.
“This is kind of a showcase I will use when I move down there,” he said by phone from home last week, “with these handpicked Myrtle Beach musicians.”
The visit this month, though, marks a debut of forming his own band to play here.
“It’s kind of like an open mic,” Johnson said, “but this is a paid gig for the band.”
He said having worked in such positions as a fishing magazine editor, park ranger and security guard, he appreciates the joy of playing tunes on stage the most, a muse he inherited.
Johnson said he still has 78-rpm records bearing the name of his mom, Celine Johnson, a singer in the 1940s and ‘50s.
“I guess I got my music from her,” he said. “Cleaning the kitchen and house, we listened to Beatles songs.”
He also thanks his mom for lending him the $440 he used in 1977 to buy his first electric guitar.
“Life is good,” he said. “I paid it back in two months, and maybe my father never even missed it.”
Johnson said he plans to continue to do his radio show, too, remotely.
“I will be speaking to the same captain and tackle shops and sharing information,” he said, also eager to try his line fishing across the Carolinas.
Contact STEVE PALISIN at 444-1764.
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