In the opening sequence of Arena Stage’s Chez Joey, a bustling group of musicians and dancers arrives in a 1940s jazz club. While Rodgers and Hart’s Pal Joey (1940) followed an individualistic antihero, this reimagining offers a self-described “deconstruction” of that classic musical and, instead, emphasizes the resilience of an entire Black community.
Richard LaGravenese’s new book positions the title character (Myles Frost) as a charismatic Black crooner at a popular-but-struggling club owned by Lucille Wallace (Angela Hall). Joey connects with fellow singer Linda English (Awa Sal Secka) while also flirting with the white baroness Vera Simpson (Samantha Massell). Vera offers to purchase the club, but under conditions that would alienate its Black performers and audiences. A frustrated Joey negotiates this dangerous compromise.
In Chez Joey, characters almost always sing diegetically, turning to the onstage band (led with aplomb by Lafayette Harris Jr.) and changing songs’ tempos and arrangements to echo freeform jazz. Though refreshing, the construct becomes tiresome when applied to every song.
Co-directors Savion Glover and Tony Goldwyn also have an ear for tempo, creating seamless scene transitions while building dramatic heft. Secka’s gorgeous rendition of “My Heart Stood Still” steals the show. Unfortunately, this Joey, as conceived, lacks the opportunity for a vocal emotional arc. Still, Frost’s verisimilitude as a performer is displayed through Glover’s tap choreography.
The ironies ‘Chez Joey’ can’t escape
Dramatic ironies drive Chez Joey. White journalist Melvin (Kevin Cahoon) implores Joey to lose his jazz rhythms and sing hummable, recognizable melodies for white patrons. It’s a metatheatrical dig at some Arena Stage audiences, but many theatergoers of color like myself appreciate hearing Rodgers and Hart songs as originally written. Not every song needs to “church it up,” as said in the show.
In Act II, Linda also tells Joey, “You can’t play by the same rules they use to hurt you.” Interestingly, Chez Joey is one of several recent D.C. productions set in a jazz club. There’s an irony that, for Black artists in 2026, perhaps staging a historical jazz-club show is playing by the rules.
Chez Joey thrives when it stops reinventing Pal Joey and invents something new. The musical’s most captivating sequence, a dream ballet in which Joey confronts family memories and minstrelsy through tap, dissolves into sound. It’s astonishing. That dance would shine more outside the framing of an old story.
Is ‘Chez Joey’ worth seeing?
3 out of 5 stars
Arena Stage’s Chez Joey offers a clever “deconstruction” of Pal Joey, with first-rate performances—still, the musical struggles to find a new point of view within its classic musical framing.
- Arena Stage, 1101 6th Street, SW, Washington, D.C.
- Notable performers: Myles Frost, Awa Sal Secka, Samantha Massell, Angela Hall, Kevin Cahoon, Lafayette Harris Jr.
- Running time: Two hours and 30 minutes with one intermission
- Performances through March 15, 2026
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