Fringe, Reviewed: Stand Back, I'm Gonna Uke: An Evening of Old-Timey Music

[ music ]

Stand Back, I'm Gonna Uke: An Evening of Old-Timey Music, by Seth Reichgott

Attended: Sept. 6, 8 p.m., Quig's Pub at Plays & Players Theatre; closes Sept. 13, 8 p.m.

Join Slim Bob Slim on a heartfelt and hilarious journey through the great old-timey music you know and love.

WE THINK: 

There will be no claiming you weren’t warned of the obstacles the cozy Quig’s Pub throws out there.  Do not dream you’ll park less than a mile from the posh block where Plays and Players, Quig’s home,  is long established. Plan to have time to catch your breath before ascending to Quig’s, on the third floor. More importantly, plan to buy your tickets in advance. Saturday was sold out.

Informal head count on Saturday was in the vicinity of 30, a comfortable number for a room set up cabaret style, with round tables in front and comfy stools at a highly curated bar. Last proviso: people who are bothered by smoke are not going to love this space, no matter how cute it is. By the time you reach the second floor, the stale smoke reaches you and never really lets you go.

But if you are looking for a bagatelle, gird your loins and go. This is light entertainment in which we learn that “old-timey” does not necessarily mean Charlie Poole, that the uke paired with that adjective still doesn’t indicate you’ll be hearing songs from the uke’s first flush of popularity on the mainland, about 100 years ago. No “Moving Day” nor “Wild Irish Rose,” but versions of “Bette Davis Eyes” and “Golden Brown.”

Seth Reichgott is Slim Bob Slim, a man in love with love, a traveling songster. All alone on the stage and, one guesses, in the world, just himself sighing for love that never seems to reach a guy with a bow tie and a uke.  Slim Bob is a delicate blossom who declaims rather than talks to his audience, a nice contrast if you know the original settings of songs like his finale, “Rock the Casbah.”