By Frank C. Siraguso - The Rep channels Janis at the Copaken Stage.

Kansas City, Mo. - infoZine - Never into Janis Joplin while she was alive. The Beatles, the Byrds, the Jefferson Airplane, John Mayall and a host of bands leaning more to the psychedelic edge were my favorites. Janis Joplin just wasn't my style. Besides, I never thought her band, Big Brother and the Holding Company, were very good musicians.

Too bad Janis Joplin didn't live long enough to work with a competent backup band. (For that matter, that's been my feeling all along about Jimmy Hendrix: Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell just couldn't keep up with him.)

The Janis We Never Knew
Love, Janis, The Rep's inaugural production at the Copaken Stage, makes that irrelevant. Those who lived during those years knew only the wild-child, out-of-control singer with a Southern Comfort voice. Love, Janis introduces us to the smart, introspective, lonely Janis Joplin.

Lena Kaminsky ("speaking Janis") plays the interior Janis with a sweet innocence that takes a beating as the show progresses, but somehow remains intact to the end.

Mary Bridget Davies and Kacee Clanton each play the "singing Janis." They will play alternate shows to help preserve their voices. The fact that it takes two singers to play one little ol' Janis Joplin from Port Arthur, Texas, shows just what a hard-driving performer she was.

The conceit of two actors portraying Janis Joplin may seem odd until you actually see it in person. You realize there were two Janises: the quiet interior and the brash exterior. The bipolar or manic depressive (remember "Manic Depression" by Jimmy Hendrix).

A Nice Hand For The Band
The show is backed up by a live band, right there on stage, consisting of lead guitarist Terry Swope, rhythm guitarist Tim Braun, bassist Damien "Woo" Salazar, Ken Lovern on keyboard and drummer Zack Albetta play the tunes like they were born doing it. And the horn section of sax man Adam Wagner and trumpet player David Sturch fill it out.

This band is hot, with way better chops than the original. Their authentic sound is helped by musical director Sam Andrew, who was in the original Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Channeling Janis
On opening night, Mary Bridget Davies channeled the take-no-prisoners, keep-on-rockin' Janis in spades.

An Elvis impersonator named Bobby Love used to be in Kansas City. His tag line was "close your eyes and you'll swear it's Elvis when you know it isn't."

Close your eyes and you'll hear Janis Joplin.

Love, Janis opens with Janis "speaking" a letter to her folks. These letters, along with interviews, are the basis of the show.

We soon realize there are only three speaking parts in the show. Speaking Janis, singing Janis, and the Interviewer, played by the disembodied voice of Dean Vivian. The band never speaks. There's a complex conversation going on between speaking Janis, singing Janis, the Interviewer and us. Janis Joplin is really speaking to us.

Janis Joplin tells us that she misses her folks back in Port Arthur and wishes they'd write to her. She tells us that she's not sure about this rock and roll band thing, and might go back to school. We also learn that Janis Joplin felt out of place at home and was glad to be among "people like me" in San Francisco. Certainly, she was not alone in feeling that way.

Later, she tells us that being a rock icon might not be what it's cracked up to be: life on the road is boring and hard; she makes love to 20 thousand people but goes to bed alone.

Anyone who's lived the musician's life knows that's true more often than they'd care to remember.

From the show's beginning, when Janis bounds onstage as the band opens with "Piece of My Heart," we're right there. The music is loud, the singing is dead on and the light show is great. (But we have come a long way from using an overhead projector and a dish of liquid Jell-O®.)

Mary Bridget Davies has a loose, natural command of the stage. During one number, she caught the heel of her shoe in the mike cable. Without missing a beat, she kicked off that shoe, then the other and kept on singing.

Love, Janis is not about nostalgia, but when the music kicks in some of us couldn't help but think, "Yeah, there really was a time like that and it was great." I could just as well have been sitting in The Place in Westport (a club in the building where the Flea Market is now).

The band was obviously having a great time. You can't fake that kind of feeling. The only thing missing was people passing Js around the theatre. With a little patchouli incense, the effect would be complete. (And no Bogarting.)

Love, Janis
Playwright: Randal Myler (adapted from the book, Love, Janis, by Laura Joplin
Director: Randal Myler
Musical Director: Sam Andrew
At: Copaken Stage, Kansas City Repertory Theatre
Plays through: March 18, 2007


Related article in infoZine
Rock Musical Love, Janis Opens Kansas City Repertory Theatre's New Copaken Stage