As a show, Angelo Parra’s hackneyed biodrama about legendary singer Bessie Smith is nothing more than a glorified cabaret act. As a showcase for gifted vocalist Miche Braden, however, The Devil’s Music is damned fine. Braden doesn’t look or sound much like the icon she’s playing, but she manages to channel the sass, sorrow, sex and spirit of the Empress of the Blues in classic songs such as “Tain’t Nobody’s Bizness if I Do,” “Baby Doll” and “Nobody Loves You When You’re Down and Out.”
Set on the eve of Smith’s death, the piece (previously presented in New York a decade ago) takes place in an after-hours blacks-only club, where the star delivers an impromptu performance backed by a tight three-piece band (upright bass, piano and sax). Between tunes, Bessie takes generous swigs of alcohol, curses like a South Park character and delivers calculated, fact-packed anecdotes about her highs and lows. Since she was a bawdy, buxom, black, bisexual woman in a white man’s world, she had a lot more of the latter.
There are no revelations here (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom this ain’t). But when Braden just shuts up and sings—especially her soulful “St. Louis Blues” and the most heartbreaking rendition of “I Ain’t Got Nobody” you’re ever likely to hear—The Devil’s Music delivers a little bit of heaven.—Raven Snook