Jelly’s Last Jam at the Pasadena Playhouse is a beast of a production. The remount of George C. Wolfe’s musical take on the life of Jelly Roll Morton originally premiered at the Mark Taper Forum in 1991. The show opens as Jelly Roll dies and is confronted with his legacy by the Chimney Man (think a cross between St. Peter and Charon, the ferryman across the river Styx). The Chimney Man has a particular bone to pick with Jelly Roll about his claims that he invented jazz but more pointedly his Creole boast that there wasn’t a black bone in his body. The two-hour musical takes us through the chapters of his life from New Orleans and the blues through the south and his musical development in Chicago, all the way until he’s finally stabbed in Los Angeles far from glory and fame. The music and dancing embedded in the journey are extraordinary though not without their challenges (more on that in a second). The real challenge lies in the tightrope walk of the book and the character of Jelly Roll. As a redemptive tale, we ultimately have to root for him, but the dramatic drive of the musical is him renouncing his musical roots in Black America, as the Chimney Man constantly reminds us. As a character, we need to be so charmed by Jelly and so moved by pathos that he won’t even admit to himself that we’re ready to accept a final atonement mere seconds before the final curtain. That’s no small feat for an actor who’s also got to tap dance his way into our hearts and hold us for two hours. It’s here where the Pasadena Playhouse production falls short and the reason is an unlucky alignment of artistic vision and physical design — or to be more specific, sound design. The artistic challenge that the Chimney Man himself gives us — “Ya gotta have grit to go with the gravy-ya gotta have pain, to go with the song.” — there’s plenty of song in this production but not enough grit. It feels a bit like the pretty version of the story rather than the gritty version — the difference between the Disneyland New Orleans and the actual 9th Ward. We need less of the former because without the pain, the chapters of Jelly Roll’s life are played at rather than experienced. It’s like that old blues saying, "You can’t play the blues, you have to live them." This production lacks the low end. Sadly, that’s echoed, pun intended, in the show's sound design. Despite the show's faults, the performers are better than they sound. The sound design for this show isn’t providing enough oomph for this theater. It’s lacking both the punch and the bass to feel present and make an impression. A perfect example is the fantastic on-stage band we don’t see until 20 minutes in. You’d be forgiven if you thought the performers were singing to canned tracks in those opening numbers. The sound support makes the band sound like recorded music rather than the stunning ensemble they are. It’s even worse when it comes to the vocal mics which lack the full, deep sound this show requires. In some numbers, you can feel the performers pushing to make up for what they know the audience is missing. So, is it worth the drive to Pasadena? If you love the music, yes. If you’ve never seen it, yes. If you were lucky enough to see the original either at the Taper or on Broadway? Probably not, linger in that sweet memory. All that said, Pasadena Playhouse is doing something important: doing a musical of this scale just for a local audience. The ensemble is fantastic, the choreography is great, it just lacks that punch in the gut that makes the music sing. Jelly’s Last Jam plays at the Pasadena Playhouse through June 23rd. This is Anthony Byrnes opening the curtain on LA theater for KCRW.

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