It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues opened Friday night with all the spirit of a church revival and the sass of a speakeasy along with the soul of music born of life’s heartbreaks and triumphs.

This show takes a musical journey from the roots of the blues in African celebration music, through work songs and the spiritual music of plantation life and up the Mississippi to Detroit and Chicago. With plenty of stops in between, the songs and stories highlight the contribution blues made to country and folk music and the honky-tonk sounds that influenced rock and roll right up to the music of today.

The ensemble cast took turns as solo artists, in duets and in groups with the other cast members looking on from their vantage point on oak chairs and benches scattered around the stage. Three projection screens changed with the era and reflected the style of music. The cast also moved on and off the stage, changing their costumes to fit the mood and fashion of the day.

Even though each individual cast member can tell you after the show what part they played, the audience really doesn’t get a clear idea of who each character is and what they do.

Emma Simons-Araya, a theater major who has acted in four or five shows at Cerritos College, said “the people who were in the original cast played themselves, so we had these vague characters unlike other plays.”

She continued by saying the cast had the opportunity to develop their own characters and since Simons-Araya was the only person who is Caucasian-passing, she got the songs of Dan who was originally a white male. “I got to represent that part of this heritage,” she said.

Changing her character from a male to a female was a unique and creative experience for Simons-Araya. She said that she got to see the script as a canvas and then from there she picked the songs that worked for her.

“The thing I like about this musical is that it deals with the history of folk music, the music of ordinary or marginalized people”, she stated.

She continued by saying folk music has been passed on from person to person so it was easy for her to get into the character because the songs in the musical are age old stories people can relate to.

The narrative is extremely scarce, so the audience needs to get a sense of who each character is through song and dance. This forces the audience to pay close attention to each word, song and dance movement in order to follow the story in the way in which the actors are trying to tell it on-stage.

Each actor in Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues had to be multifaceted by not only having talented singing voices but most of the cast can play musical instruments, dance and act in a way that tells a story with so few words, as well.

Every movement is done purposefully and with a specific goal in mind, without those small details during the show, it could be confused for a choir performance with multiple costume changes.

Phinnie O’Leary-Jackson, a 63 year old counseling major, has been singing since she was five. “I’ve done a lot in music, lot of jazz shows and sang back-up with Motown Records in the 70’s” she said.

O’Leary-Jackson said that one of the writers of the show came to watch them rehearse and to give them some pointers. She played the part Eloise Laws played on Broadway and the writers are trying to get her character back there again.

At the very beginning of the musical she was especially proud to play the Queen of the Village in Africa because of the history behind that part. “A lot of people don’t know the banjo came from Africa and that is the origin of blues music,” O’Leary-Jackson said.

It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues was originally performed on Broadway with a mix of Caucasian and African American actors. At Cerritos College, however, the cast has a wide variety of different ethnicities, which displays the universality of the soul of blues.

The musical shows the diversity of all people from different backgrounds coming together in the music. The cast is really a unit and each time we perform, it brings us together even more, O’Leary-Jackson said.

Mark Fronke, Accounting Professor, who played the Hoochie Coochie Man said he was cast by David Betencourt, the musical director because Betencourt knew he could play the saxophone and that he would be a great fit for the show, especially since it is such an important instrument in Jazz.

Fronke hasn’t played in a musical since he was 17 years old but since he has been playing the blues most of his life, he said it was a great life experience. He also credits his fellow cast members saying, “These people are so talented.”

Ana Gomez, theater major, played a storyteller and took the musical from Africa and tribal music, all the way to Chicago and club music.

This is Gomez’s third musical and fifth production at Cerritos College, proving that between her and the rest of the cast, there were no novice actors on stage.

The small cast filled the stage by each individual bringing something completely different to the performance. “The sound and quality of our voices is totally unique, it is an interesting mix,” Gomez said.

He said, “The theater department is a family; we have a great rapport with our professors and support each other. What you saw tonight is a collaborative art and we can’t work without our stage managers, sound designers, set designers, costumes, makeup, hair and every little aspect make up the theater.”

Assistant stage designer, Isaac Simons –Araya, agrees with Gomez by saying the collaboration of the actors really came together.

Simons-Araya said he has been in all but two shows in his almost three years at Cerritos College. Nonetheless, regardless of if he is an actor in the performance or helping backstage, he likes being apart of the creation of something and seeing how all of the pieces fit together.

He is proud of the way this year has gone for the theater department performance wise and finished by saying, It Ain’t Nothin’ but the Blues was a great way to round out the year.