Taylor Hackford is 'obsessed' with 'Louis & Keely'

Louis Prima and Keely Smith are struggling to save a marriage. If their relationship goes down in flames, so too might their lucrative lounge act. They have joined forces to become a Las Vegas sensation, but the emotions they tunefully profess in front of the microphone -- infatuation, desire, fidelity -- are the very things that, away from the audience, are tearing them apart.

"That was really good," director Taylor Hackford tells Vanessa Claire Smith, who's playing Smith, after she and Jake Broder, co-starring as Prima, rehearse an emotional scene of marital discord. "But you can be a little testy there."

The 64-year-old filmmaker then turns his attention to Broder, coaching him on how to shade his dialogue with some barely concealed contempt. "It's said with a smile," Hackford tells Broder of a particular line, "but it's meant to be daggers."

It's precisely the kind of intimate, soul-baring backstage banter Hackford has gravitated toward in the music movies he has directed and produced -- "Ray," "The Idolmaker" and "La Bamba." But the scene between Prima and Smith was not unfolding in front of Hackford's cameras, and there wasn't a cinematographer or a key grip in sight.

For the first time in his career, Taylor is directing a stage play, and he's taking the leap from film to theater with no safety net: He's personally bankrolling the Geffen Playhouse production, opening Thursday.

"I feel very much at risk," Hackford says between run-throughs, as he tries to pare the show's running time to about an hour and a half. "We have to prime the pump and get people there at the beginning, because if not, we'll be closed in five weeks. We are totally dependent on ticket sales."

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Hey boy, hey girl

At its most basic level, "Louis & Keely: Live at the Sahara" is the story of how one random encounter can change a life.

Prima, a New Orleans jazz, swing and big band marvel, was watching helplessly as his music was about to be eclipsed by rock 'n' roll. Then Smith, a 16-year-old singer, met Prima, 21 years her senior. The sum of their singing and comic parts -- a Sonny & Cher act years before Sonny met Cher -- was far greater than any change in the country's musical tastes could derail, and their high-energy act became an influential Las Vegas sensation throughout the 1950s.

The musical's origin follows a similar chance meeting trajectory.