

Although not crude, the real star is the toe-tapping musical performances highlighted by the short cast list. The show mainly wants to retain a good-feel atmosphere for the baby boomer generation. PHOTO CREDIT: Boebe Productions, Surflight Theatre Willie Beaton II stars in the Laguna Playhouse production of “SH-BOOM! LIFE COULD BE A DREAM” – Directed and Choreographed by Jonathan Van Dyke and now playing at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach. The show ends with a big radio contest, but there are no other competitors and no real resolution to wrap everything up. It’s a proven yet predictable serving of the 1950s and 1960’s Americana nostalgia.Ī youthful singing group dreams of becoming famous singers, they seek out a sponsor, conflicted with a new member of the group, a sole female eye-candy, someone drops out but returns before the show end with enough time to get the girl. But the paper-thin story and characters merely are there to faintly glue and carry the songs together in a small but presentable showcase of talent. The performers put a lot of heart on stage. The jukebox musical will appeal mostly to an audience that is generally 50 years of age and up. Dorian Quinn stars in the Laguna Playhouse production of “SH-BOOM! LIFE COULD BE A DREAM” – Directed and Choreographed by Jonathan Van Dyke and now playing at the Laguna Playhouse in Laguna Beach. The ’60s hits say it all: “Fools Fall in Love,” “Runaround Sue,” “Earth Angel,” “I Only Have Eyes For You,” “Unchained Melody,” “Lonely Teardrops,” “Do You Love Me?” and more.

Denny and the Dreamers perform favorite songs from the ’50s and ’60s from the comfort of Denny’s basement of his mother’s house.ĭenny and the gang want to enter a radio contest to realize their dreams of making it to the big time. Bean may be best known for creating The Marvelous Wonderettes. Laguna Playhouse resumes its postponed 100-year celebration with the season debut of Sh-boom: Life Could be a Dream, written and created by Roger Bean. Both of their “Sh-Boom”s, however, fared well with history and are now considered classics of the doo wop and early rock & roll eras.This post contains affiliate links and our team will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on the links. The Crew Cuts had many more (now mostly forgotten) hits over the next few years, while The Chords faded away quickly.

It proved to be an even bigger hit, reaching #1 and staying at the top of the charts for nine weeks. Hoping to hop on the coattails of “Sh-Boom,” The Crew Cuts recorded their own version, slowing the tempo down, giving it a jaunty and polite arrangement rather than the breathless rush of the original. In the summer of 1954, another young vocal group, The Crew Cuts, hoped to achieve what The Chords could not when they, too, covered a recent hit single for their next A-side. The single was so popular that it managed to go Top 5 on both the R&B and Pop charts, a virtually unheard of occurrence at the time. The A-side went nowhere, but radio DJs loved anything unique and fun, and they played “Sh-Boom” endlessly in the spring of 1954.
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Jerry Wexler, producer extraordinaire for Atlantic, asked the group to cover an existing hit for the A-side (standard practice for the day, hoping to piggyback on the success of what already worked), and, since no one gave much thought to B-sides anyway, allowed The Chords to record an original, a novelty song full of nonsensical sounds, for the flip side.
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Just as young women with hopes of breaking into the movie biz in the 1950’s daydreamed of big-time producers sweeping them off their stools at Schwab’s Drugstore in Hollywood, young doo woppers in New York City envisioned talent scouts plucking them from street corner obscurity mid-song, harmonizing all the way to the studio.įor The Chords, five hopefuls from the Bronx, this dream became reality when they were discovered singing in a subway station, and the next thing they knew, found themselves recording a single for a subsidiary of Atlantic Records, one of the hottest indie labels around.
