Weekender September 8

Weekender September 8,2006 Cover Story

Jambalaya - a melting pot of entertainment
By NORMAN ROLLE
Weekender Editor

The light dissolves from silhouette to bright. The music hits a high crescendo. Highly agile dancers donned in generously feathered costumes hit the stage, some sliding from atop the ceiling on what looks like a series of greasy poles. Others seemed to appear out of nowhere, including singer, Patrice Covington, who delivers high decibel doses of ‘The Rhythm Is Gonna Get Ya,’ interspersed J-A-M-B-A-Y-L-A. Then the brightly lit motif, Jambalaya, dissolves into a backdrop. It’s show time at the Rainforest Theatre. For the next 75 minutes, there's a high energy exhibition of song, dance, acrobatics and gymnastics coming together in a cultural and convulsive fusion; African, French and Spanish. A pot-pourri, translating into explosive, red hot entertainment, that keeps you on the edge of your seat. Indeed, the opening act connects the audience with the show and never lets go.
A lady who saw the show on opening night last Friday, offers this uncanny advice for people who have not seen it yet: “Better bring some water.” Actually, that’s her way of saying Jambalaya is hot! And it is, but really, you won’t need to take water, as the producers have assured that the cooling system has been turned down considerably. Jambalaya, a Las V

egas-style show, is a production of Palm Beach-based FW Entertainment, which specializes in cruise ship and casino entertainment. Chris Foster, President, tells us, “This show is about power, it’s about passion. We tell our story through costumes and music, which has a very tribal sound. The whole concept is what happens when you mix things together.” The show’s cast of 20 includes five Bahamians: Omerit Hield, Grammy Award winning artist from Baha Men, Mary smith, Tina Cash, Mario Lord and Garfield Davis. Foster discloses: “We had auditions here three or four months ago and we chose the performers and took them to Los Angeles for two weeks.” The show, which Foster hopes will have a cast of which 50% will be Bahamians, has a guaranteed six months run at Rainforest. “We’ll be holding auditions once per month and pick the people we want to start training, then we’ll be rotating people in and out.” Blue Burger, who won the international dance competition, is in charge of training. “We want to give these dancers cutting edge training as we have been giving ourselves. We will provide cutting edge training for them and in return, we get great dancers and performers for our show while also providing them with the training to go out and compete anywhere.” Jambalaya was written by Foster but many famous production people have had a hand in the final product. Larry Barr, Music Director for Smokey Robinson, is responsible for this musical arrangement and has a recording studio in Los Angeles. Michael Schwandt is the show's choreographer and Dreya Weber serves as the aerial choreographer, both have extensive resumes having worked on a number of stage shows and with a host of Hollywood recording artists. Except for two percussionists, the sound track for the show is pre-recorded. Foster, a singer and dancer, has toured the US, Europe, Asia and Japan, and is Jambalaya’s principal singer-dancer. In the past, Foster has done acrobatics for a show called Passion. “I wanted a company that’s really dancer-performer friendly. I want to make it better for new performers,” said Foster. Jambalaya is a double whammy for Bahamians. It’s big production entertainment at its finest, as well as a training stage for aspiring Bahamian performers.

PHOTOS by DONALD KNOWLES & IAN HAGAN

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