From Count Basie to Benny Goodman, the Big Band era of the early 20th century was dominated by men. Except for Ina Ray Hutton, that is. Hutton was the most successful female bandleader of the time and the first woman with her own television show, but few today even know this female pioneer’s name. Luckily, writer/performer Melissa Ritz is hoping to change that with Bombshell of Rhythm: The Life & Secrets of Ina Ray Hutton. This solo piece, currently playing at the Soho Playhouse, is a reverent and delightful look at a woman whose story needed to be told.
Directed by Julie Kline, Bombshell of Rhythm details Hutton’s professional career in show business, which started when her tap dancing caught the eye of a vaudeville producer at age 8. Hutton moved onto Broadway and the Ziegfeld Follies, and later joined a group of female musicians to form “Ina Ray Hutton and Her Melodears,” the act that propelled her to national fame. But this fame was hard-won, as Hutton had to hide her mixed-race roots while battling a male-dominated industry that only valued her work as a gimmicky ‘novelty act.'
As the sole onstage performer, Ritz plays a variety of roles in addition to Hutton, including her mother, female band mates, and the men who both supported and challenged her career. Though Ritz's multiple characterizations are pronounced enough to never make scenes confusing, their broadness also sometimes verges toward caricature, giving some moments a campy quality that doesn’t match the play’s tone. The piece’s more creative expositional techniques are more successful, especially a series of press conferences where offstage male voices interrogate Hutton. With probing questions into her personal life and barbs about her choice to perform with female musicians, these press conferences are a particularly apt way of dramatizing the larger patriarchal forces pushing against Hutton’s professional success.
The 75-minute piece is also packed with renditions of Hutton’s musical performances, which Ritz sings and dances through with a captivating effervescence. Additionally, brief film clips of Hutton and her musicians are projected on the back wall of the sparse set, interspersed mostly as interstitials between scenes. This footage was a welcome addition to the piece and could have been more heavily integrated, as one brief moment where Ritz and Hutton danced in unison was particularly lovely.
But it's Ritz’s performance as Hutton alone that carries the show, with a fierce vivacity that's consistently engaging and a clearly palpable passion to tell Hutton's story. With allusions to her alcoholism and string of ill-fated marriages, Ritz doesn’t view Hutton through rose-colored glasses--if anything, the piece is almost too focused on adversity and the negative aspects of Hutton's life, largely glossing over most of her happier milestones. But we're always on Ina's side, and each new accomplishment is a well-earned triumph. Ina Ray Hutton was a woman who fought to have her voice heard, and this engaging production convinces us to be grateful Melissa Ritz has taken up that fight once more.
