"Like American Idol for Old People"

What can you say about something like Smokey Joe's Cafe that isn't self-evident from the hype that it's the "Longest Running Musical Review in the History of Broadway(TM)"? Either that does it for you or it doesn't. If you're (relatively) young, bent and jaded you probably won't connect with the graying clap-and-sing-along demographic excited by the highly polished but hammy renditions of popular top 40 songs from their childhood. Our friend Andy who tagged along with us described it as being "like American Idol for old people," and dared us to go dance with the one woman in the audience near the stage who was for a few minutes the only person in the room with the requisite cojones to stand up during the closing rendition of Stand By Me. Luckily the man she was with eventually stood up and clapped along next to her so we didn't have to get out of our seat to meet this dare.

If your parents are visiting from out of town and they're really in to the music of their youth and they're goofy enough to want to clap and sing along with a spectacle like this then they might have a better time here than they would if you took them to a strip club on Aurora or some scenester shit on the hill. But then again, wouldn't it be better and more cost effective to just get your elders drunk and have them do these songs themselves at the Sunset Bowl? Is that karoake fascist guy still working there?