Like a slow-burning comedy routine, Charles Smith’s Golden Leaf Ragtime Blues takes its time with the setup, but the payoff is worth it. Directed by Smith’s longtime collaborator, Chuck Smith, in its local premiere at American Blues Theater and starring longtime ABT ensemble member Dennis Cockrum, the play taps into the bitter nostalgia of aging vaudevillians that won former vaudevillian George Burns an Oscar in 1975’s The Sunshine Boys . Only here, instead of preparing for a reunion, Cockrum’s Pompey is lost in memories of his dead comedic partner, Ollie (James Sherman), who appears to him in what might be hallucinations brought on by early dementia, and nags him about forgetting the lines in one of their classic routines.

Pompey seldom leaves his decaying apartment on Belmont Avenue

See Full Page