Purchase Pal Joey -On CD-

Cast:

PETER GALLAGHER as Joey Evans

VICKI LEWIS as Gladys Bumps

PATTI LUPONE as Vera Simpson

BEBE NEUWIRTH as Melba Snyder

NED EISENBERG as Ludlow Lowell

DAISY PRINCE as Linda English

ARTHUR RUBIN as Louis (The Tenor)

LORI WERNER as The Girls

MAMIE DUNCAN-GIBBS as The Girls

NORA BRENNAN as The Girls

LYNN STERLING as The Girls

GEORGETTE SPELVIN as The Girls

GEORGINA SPELVIN as The Girls

RON ORBACH

JOHN ANTONY

NORA BRENNAN

JEFF BROOKS

RICHARD COUNCIL

JOHN DEYLE

MARY ANN LAMB

DANA MOORE

CHRISTOPHER SIEBER

The showgirls at Mile's are happy to welcome Joey to the club -- all except Gladys Bumps, who knows all about Joey's past and isn't buying any of his stories. Before she gets into too many inconvenient facts, however, Joey heads Gladys off at the pass with an impromptu rehearsal.

Joey's first day in the new town isn't turning out half bad, and heading down the street after rehearsal his luck gets even better. There, in front of a pet show window he spies "a mouse" -- she's a sweet girl named Linda English, and Joey knows exactly what sweet line to give her.

Click on the picture for a larger image. © 1995 by Gerry Goodstein & Encores! Productions

We're back at the club a few nights later where the girls are just finishing up theie Chicago showstopper. Linda is on hand to catch Joey's act; his task at the moment is to MC a lavishly tacky production number staring Gladys and the girls.

Before Joey can work on Linda, however, Mike has work of a more crucial sort for him; Vera Simpson, a.k.a. Mrs. Chicago Society, the woman who can make--or break--any Chicago nighterie with her influence, has deceded to slum it tonight at Mike's, and so the boss wants Joey to turn on the charm. But after strolling over to Vera, Joey gives her the cool so well she goes cold. Summoning her wrap and her flunkies, Vera turns and walks straight out of the joint.

Joey is about to be fired on the spot, but he shimmies his way out. "I'll make you a bet," Joey tells Mike: "If she doesn't come back in, say, two nights, you can give me the bounce without paying me a nickel." Mike agrees and Joey's got two nights to reel Vera Simpson back in.

We next see Joey working out of his office--a phone booth. A quick call to Linda keeps her in tow; a longer, trickier negotiation with Vera comes next. Joey is dealing with a real pro here, and not a mouse; he kind of likes it. As she hangs up the phone, it's evident that Vera does too.

Two nights later, at the end of his shift and--it appears--at the end of his career at Mike's, Joey is unconcerned. As the girls are saying their sad farewells, as Gladys gets in a few last wisecracks, Mike shows him the door. There's a knock. At the last possible moment, Vera Simpson sweeps in to claim her prize: Joey keeps his job, and now Vera keeps Joey.

As Vera heads out to her car with instructions for Joey to follow, he reassures the girls that, no matter what it might look like, he's doing the chasing--and likes it that way.

A few days later. At an exclusive mens' tailor shop Joey is being outfittied with a whole new wardrobe, handpicked my Mrs. Simpson--and paid for by Mr. Simpson. As Vera watched Joey, she realizes she is not only happy--she is beginning to feel some long forgotten sensations that she thought she'd never feel again.

For Vera and Joey, it's a business proposition with only two options: he gives and she pays, or she gives and he delivers. And she sets the ground rules. Like this nightclub he's been dreaming about, the one he wants to open called "Chez Joey." Vera will bankroll it for Joey, she tells him, but he's got to behave. No other women, and that included Linda English, who has just run into Joey at the tailor shop where she has just started to work as an assisstant.

No problem, says Joey; he's got ambition, and he's not going to blow it. Yet. And than "Chez Joey" comes to like in Joey's imagination.

A few weeks have gone by and one dream, at least, has come true: after a quick transaction Mike's old joint has become "Chez Joey." Joey's name hangs over the door--and Simpson cash hangs over Joey--and now Mike, Gladys, and the girls work for him. It's only a few hours before the big opening tonight and Louis, the new nighclub's warbling tenor, rehearses his number with the girls.

Joey is interviewed by a local reporter, Melba Snyder. She sees right through him and tells him not to bother with any more stories--she'll make it all up anyway. Besides, she's interviewed tougher cases than this.

Like attracts like. Later on the same day Joey gets a visit from a slick operator named Ludlow Lowell, who offers Joey his exclusive "representation." When Joey wriggles off the hook, Lowell goes right into Plan B--good old reliable blackmail--and Gladys is on hand to help him. It seems she and Lowell are old friends and she's been filling him in on Joey's rocket rise to the top. A he heads off to start his blackmail plot in motion, Lowell gives Gladys a suave so-long.

It's the morning after Joey's big night. The opening of "Chez Joey" is written up in all the papers, where it is generally dismissed--thought a few of the columns mention that society swell Mrs. Vera Simpson was on hand for the premiere. At the moment, nowever, Mrs. Vera Simpson is lolling around in bed with Mr. Joey Evans, perfectly content in their lover's hideway.

Back at the club, Lowell and Gladys are working on thei scheme; shakedown Joey, shakedown Mrs. Simpson and, while we're at it, do a double-cross and shakedown Mr. Simpson too. The plotters are interrupted by Linda English, who has come by to drop off some goods for Joey from the tailor shop, and Gladys, who knows that Joey has dumped on Linda in the past, invited Linda in on the action too. Linda says she'll think about it, and after she goes Gladys confesses to Lowell that this whole blackmail business is tougher than she thought. "Did you ever see the time when I was afraid to do it the hard way?" asks Lowell; no stranger he to the Puritan work ethic.

Linda had said she'd consider the blackmail scheme but only because, having learned of it, she now feels honorbound to warn its targets. Vera is suitably grategul when Linda brings her the news, but slyly asks, "as one woman to another," if there weren't any other motivating factors that brought her to Vera? "Well, I certainly hope you don't think it was what you think it was," says Linda indignantly.

Lowell and Gladys arrive at Vera's home where Joey, who has learned of the plot from Vera, actually seems willing to fight his own battle from the first time in his life. He stands up to Lowell who, annoyed at the interruption, knocks him out cold. But Lowell isn't ready for Vera's counter-punch--a quick call to her friends in the Police Department, and Lowell and Gladys get a police escort to the city line.

After it's all over, Joey comes to. Did he save the day? Not quite. In fact, he doesn't know it yet, but Joey's day is over. Vera always held all the cards, and now she wants to fold and start over. Crisply but not unkindly, Vera tells Joey goodbye.

Joey is back out on the streets, but Linda is there to do clean up. She invites Joey to dinner at her sister's. Safe, reliable, family. Afterwards, they stroll past the petshop where they first met, but even Joey has figured out that this life isn't for him. They part, friends, and joey is left alone. But at least there's one person in this world he knows he can always count on.

[ Copyright© 1995, DRG Records ]

[ Copyright© DPS, Courtesy of USA Today ]