by Doug Krentzlin

Special to The Examiner

"How do you turn a jazz man into a millionaire? Give him two-million dollars."

 - Old jazz musicians' joke

America's three greatest gifts to world culture are movies, comic books and jazz. Unfortunately, it is a sad fact that many individuals who made irreplaceable contributions to these art forms died broke and forgotten.

Well, not completely forgotten. The Keegan Theatre's terrific production of Warren Leight's 1998 play "Side Man" is a valentine to the jazz players who kept the big bands of the 1940s and '50s swinging.

Set in New York City, "Side Man" is an autobiographical portrait in the tradition of Tennessee Williams' "The Glass Menagerie" and Eugene O'Neill's "Long Day's Journey Into Night." What makes "Side Man" special, though, is that Leight's father, Donald, was a jazz trumpeter who played with the likes of Woody Herman and Buddy Rich. Thanks to this insider's viewpoint, "Side Man" is more than just a story about a dysfunctional family. It is an ode to a lifestyle that went the way of the dodo when rock 'n' roll was born.

Leight's on-stage counterpart is Clifford Glimmer (Chris Stezin), who reminisces about the marriage of his parents, Gene (Kevin Adams) and Terry (Amy McWilliams), from its hopeful beginning in the early '50s to its acrimonious ending a couple of decades later. Contributing to the break-up is Terry's alcoholism and mental instability and Gene's denial about his increasing inability to find work.

Clifford drifts in and out of the action, providing narration in a non-linear, chronologically jumbled structure. In this respect, "Side Man" resembles another autobiographical play, Christopher Durang's "The Marriage of Bette and Boo." Fortunately, Leight lacks Durang's vitriol toward his family.

All that jazz

Expertly directed, with an eye for atmosphere, by Leslie A. Kobylinski, "Side Man" works best when it depicts the world of jazz, the artists who populated it and those who loved both the music and the people who created it.

Gene's fellow horn men, Al, Ziggy and Jonesy (wonderfully played by Scott Graham, Eric Lucas and Mark Rhea, respectively), are incorrigible hipster stooges whose gallows humor and camaraderie keeps them going no matter how tough times get.

Of the gang, it is Jonesy who, despite his heroin addiction, manages to perceive the world with unusual clarity. He is the one that accurately predicts the demise of jazz as the country's favorite popular music. Watching Elvis Presley's 1956 debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show," Jonesy proclaims: "Kid'll do to horn players what talkies did to Buster Keaton."

As usual with the Keegan, the acting is of the highest caliber. McWilliams' electrifying performance makes Terry's transformation from naïve Catholic girl (she compliments Gene's friends for their frugality in rolling their own "cigarettes") to neurotic harridan absolutely believable. Adams is equally convincing as Gene, a man who, when he isn't playing his beloved music, is laid back to the point of inertia. (Gene never quite comprehends the forces that end both his career and his marriage.)

Stezin's sensitive portrayal of Clifford is all the more remarkable when you consider that he has the script's most thankless task: being the voice of reason among the eccentrics and dreamers. Mention should also be made of Charlotte Akin's moving turn as Patsy, a cocktail waitress who continually jumps from one failed marriage with a jazz man to another.

The Church Street Theater, with its red brick walls, is the perfect venue for this Stage Noir. "Side Man" is a labor of love presented by thespians whose devotion to their art equals that of the characters they play.