There was a time when gangsters ruled cities and much more than flowers were delivered on St. Valentine's Day. While people feared these gangsters, they were also fascinated by their charisma. This enchantment is compellingly captured by Blue Devils in Club Blue: A Gangster Chronicle, with music setting the mood of the ongoing story line through each of four progressive visual scenes.
Mean Streets takes us out to the gangster's home turf, the night in a big city. The seductive mystery of the underworld is captured by the gangster apparel of the guard and scintillating music based on Charles Mingus' Children's Hour of Dream. After roaming the streets, we're taken inside Club Blue for an evening of Latin jazz based on Michael Daugherty's Desi, where heated wsords are exchanged and tempers flare. The women move in to restore sense to the men and make them realize there's more to life.
Crimes of Passion throws care to the wind as all that matters for the time is the love that sears the night air. No one can deliver a steamy love ballad like BD, a fact reinforced by Breathless and Tess' Theme from Danny Elfman's Dick Tracy sound track and their amazing guard. The gangsters have to make a run for it when the comfort of romance is shattered in The Chase. Pat Williams' frenzied Threshold, The Untouchables and original music by Wayne Downey turn up the heat as the gangsters meet their ultimate fate. But can the bars of any jail hold them for good?