FST’s ‘Up on the Roof’ recalls hits of the 1960’s and the sounds of an era

From the late 1950s into the early 1960s, the music being created in small rooms inside the Brill Building in New York City came to dominate the pop charts and become the soundtrack that entranced a generation.

Carole King, Gerry Goffin, Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Jeff Barry and Ellie Greenwich, Burt Bacharach and Hal David competed with and encouraged one another, churning out songs that have endured more than 50 years, from “Who Put the Bomp” and “Da Do Ron Ron” to “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” and “Be My Baby," “On Broadway” and “This Magic Moment.”

They are among the hits featured in the new Florida Studio Theatre original cabaret revue “Up on the Roof,” running through Feb. 4 in the Court Cabaret.

A cast of four will provide musical reminders of the era in the show created by Rebecca Hopkins and Richard Hopkins, with musical arrangements by Jim Prosser and additional material by Sarah Durham.

Songwriters were actually working in different buildings in midtown Manhattan creating songs that came to define the Brill Building sound, Rebecca Hopkins said.

The “sound” came from the way the songs were orchestrated and produced. “They merged all these sounds from New York, jazz, blues, influences from Puerto Rico and created this very new pop music,” she said,. “It was meant to be commercial for teenagers and it was targeted that way.”

In fact, she said, her research showed that the songwriters “realized they were part of a machine. They thought they were writing commercially and never thought this music would last.”

These young artists idolized an earlier generation of songwriters like Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and others who created what became known as Tin Pan Alley.

“That was just a generation before them. It was the golden age of songwriters before people knew it was the golden age,” Hopkins said. “Here we are 60 to 70 years later and their work is as present as those earlier songs.”

She credits Leiber and Stoller, whose music provided the framework for the hit musical “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” with launching the Brill sound.

“They had been working in Los Angeles, doing stuff for film at that point, and they were just getting frustrated,” Hopkins said. “They wanted more control of their music, so they relocated to New York, got a job to produce for The Coasters and started inventing teen songs, like ‘Yakety Yak’ and ‘Charlie Brown.’ By the time they started working with The Drifters and other artists, the sound of the music was gaining maturity and everyone wanted to write for The Drifters.”

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The production brings back longtime favorite Jannie Jones, who has starred in countless FST shows over the last two decades. She will be joined by Sarasota performers Brandon Wardell, who created the touring “Under the Streetlamp” concert and was featured in last season’s cabaret show “Reel Music,” and Joey Panek, an actor now best known as co-host of “Suncoast View” on ABC7. He has performed with FST Improv. Jacquelyne Paige makes her FST debut with the show.

Hopkins said Prosser is creating arrangements that “sound like the originals enough to bring back that nostalgia feeling. But we’re also focused on the lyrics so you can hear why these songs have lasted, why they’re important in American music history. They are really well crafted, have something to say about the teenagers they were targeting.”

‘Up on the Roof’

Developed by Rebecca Hopkins and Richard Hopkins with Sarah Durham and musical arrangements by Jim Prosser. Florida Studio Theatre Court Cabaret, 1265 First St., Sarasota. Through Feb. 4. Tickets are $34-$39. 941-366-9000; floridastudiotheatre.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: ‘Da Do Ron Ron’: FST Cabaret brings back the sounds of the 1960s