Dear Readers–Greetings from Shreveport! For the past 21+ years I have always tried to give you well-crafted reviews. This week, however, due to a variety of circumstances including having to be in north Louisiana on business, I’ve fallen behind schedule but do want to let you know about two most worthy productions that will be finishing their runs this weekend. So this may not be the most well-crafted column I’ve ever written but, even more so than usual, it certainly comes from the heart.
The Colored Museum at the New Orleans African American Museum through March 9
The NOLA Project is presenting George C. Wolfe’s The Colored Museum at the New Orleans African American Museum (NOAAM). Museum is a series of 11 short scenes that, with trenchant insight, lovingly satirizes parts of African American culture while, simultaneously, indicting the greater oppressive forces of society. If that sounds hifalutin, sorry; the play itself manages to do all that with abundant style, wit and heart. I had seen the original off-Broadway production in 1986 and remembered it very fondly. I wondered, tho, would it still hold up? Oh yes. Like fine wine it has aged very well.
What’s different about the production here is that, unlike the off-Broadway version which featured a rotating set on a proscenium stage, Directors Torey Hayward + Tenaj Wallace have staged it in and around, both on the grounds of and in a couple of the rooms of the Museum for an apt immersive feel.
It starts outdoors with April Louise, Riga Ruby and Pamela D. Roberts as three flight attendants in red, white and blue uniforms giving a preflight speech. Only this plane is about to cover the route of the Middle Passage so we are told to buckle our shackles and that “no drumming” is allowed. Wolfe’s humor is wicked with references ranging from James Brown to George Gershwin, and the three actresses do it with deadpan glee.
The show continues with Roberts as “Aunt Ethel”, a TV chef who explores “the magic of Colored Cuisine” with such dishes as “chitlin quiche” and “grits under glass”.
–Matthew Thompson, in drag (the role was originally played by a woman but no matter), as Lala, a chanteuse who may send up the self-importance of such divas as Josephine Baker and Eartha Kitt but is also a tribute to their drive and perseverance in an oft hostile world. In a fabulous feathered turban and ruffled gold silk gown (one of many terrific costumes by Aya Designs Global), Thompson perfectly navigates, with over-the-top deliciousness, Wolfe’s complex interplay of tropes both obvious and subtle…and he also knew just how to respond to latecomers.
–Lawrence J. Weber Jr. as a man who’s trying to get rid of his cultural signifiers (a dashiki, a hair pick, a CD of The Temptations) so he’ll have “no history, no past”, and Rahim Glaspy as his younger self who’s determined to hold on to this cultural legacy; titled “Symbiosis” this exhibit, like Lala, is both funny and heartbreaking.
–Similarly, DC PauL and Jordan Bordenave (both immaculately debonair), as a pair of Ebony Magazine models, may be exquisitely stylish, but might their two-dimensional world of “no pain” be worse than the messy land of reality?
–In a surreal touch, Ruby and Louise portray two wigs, an enormous Afro with “Serious Attitude” and one with flowing blonde “tresses that bounce back”, respectively, arguing over which their owner (Aria Jackson) will pick for a date that night; it may not be subtle but it well and wittily conveys the dilemma of self-presentation that Blacks must deal with.
April Louise and Riga Ruby in The Colored Museum
–and, best of all, “The Last Mama-on-the-Couch Play” which promises a “searing domestic drama that tears at the fabric of America” but instead brilliantly sends up naturalistic works like A Raisin in the Sun then adds on a parody of For Colored Girls…. Of course, Wolfe is not so much satirizing these landmark works but their successors who turned their genres into cliches. PauL, as an overdone Sidney Poitier-esque Walter-Lee-Beau-Willy, Jackson as the “Woman in Plaid” with her exaggerated choreopoem moves, Louise as a Juilliard grad whose “speech has become, like my rage and pain, classical”, and Ruby as Mama who forlornly wonders “Why couldn’t we be born into an all-Black show where everybody is happy?” are all great. 40 years after its debut, this sketch still packs a devastatingly funny wallop.
Not everything works. Glaspy beautifully layers Miss Roj, a Harlem “snap queen”, with alternating layers of sassiness and rage, but, with the vast success of RuPaul’s Drag Race, she feels slightly dated.
And if the final piece, “A Party” (which wildly imagines Nat Turner & Eartha Kitt, Aunt Jemima & Angela Davis sharing plates of greens at some fabulous gathering), gives The Colored Museum an ending that’s more whimper than bang, that’s certainly not the fault of Jackson who gives airy power to this ode to self-acceptance, but, rather, the blame can be split between Wolfe and the directors for not ending with some sort of ensemble piece.
Otherwise, Hayward + Wallace have directed with the surest of hands, smartly divvying up the opening scene (“Git on Board”) among three actresses (it had originally been a solo monologue), keeping the movement flowing throughout the NOAAM, and guiding their entire cast to give fearless, pitch-perfect performances.
What more could one want? Only The Colored Museum 2.
Next to Normal at Slidell Little Theatre through March 10
I vividly remember seeing Next to Normal on Broadway. It had won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. People around me were audibly sniffling. I, however, was unmoved and underwhelmed. Its story of Diana, a suburban Mom battling mental illness, never grabbed me; its score I found forgettable.
When Slidell Little Theatre announced it was doing it, however, I was intrigued as it’s not your typical community theater show. I went with a skeptical, but open, mind. I left very impressed.
Why the change of heart?
First, something that I usually consider a negative turned out to be a positive here. Director Jennifer Gesvantner’s staging is rather static; there’s only the barest amount of movement on stage. This may not be the most visually engrossing of productions but it works to the show’s advantage as Next to Normal has a dense, knotty libretto by Brian Yorkey that’s nearly entirely sung through. Unlike Broadway’s busy staging, Gesvanter allows the story to breathe and an audience is able to be fully drawn into it. This is a case where less is truly more.
Also, the set design of Gesvanter and John Wesley is barebones–a skeleton of a house with no decor. That too is fine. We don’t need a hyper-realistic set. We know what a suburban house looks like. We lose nothing by not having it all spelled out for us except an unnecessary distraction. The only decorative touch are dozens of pill bottles that have been placed all over the stage, which give a simple but effective visual representation to Diana’s (over)dependence on such medications.
Also, unlike Broadway, Donnie Stafford & Sean Noggerath’s sound design keeps the music from overpowering the singers (for the most part) allowing you to better hear Yorkey’s lyrics and, thus, be more drawn into this terribly sad tale.
And then there’s the cast.
As Diana, Katie Harrison, an actress new to me, is simply a marvel. Her voice is clear, pitch perfect, and has the power of steel tempered by an underlying warmth. Incredibly, it was as exquisite after two hours of challenging singing as it was at the start.
Moreover, Harrison is a superb actress, always avoiding sentimentality and never making Diana at all self-pitying. Without ever overplaying the “drama” of Diana’s situation, she conveys this woman’s inner life through small but telling gestures, filling in the libretto’s gaps. I look forward to seeing more of her.
Likewise, Skylar Broussard is excellent as Diana’s daughter Natalie who has issues of her own. Hers is a quirky performance for a quirky character. I’m not sure I buy all of Natalie’s actions and I still don’t fully comprehend why Henry, Natalie’s boyfriend (extremely well-played by Randy Mortono-Chai) puts up with her, but when Harrison and Broussard finally get to have a duet together, the blending of their voices takes you to musical theater heaven.
As Dan, Diana’s rather bland husband, Nicholas Anthony Smith brings tremendous empathy to the role and is an outstanding singer.
The less said about Gabe, Elijah Krieger’s character, the better (to avoid any spoilers), but Krieger very capably embodies him; if he didn’t have a tendency to go flat on his high notes, he would be perfect.
I suspect that out of necessity Gesvanter cast a woman to play the two doctors we see working with Diana (they’re typically played by a man and men typically tend to be in short supply for such community theater productions). This too is a plus.
First of all, Theresa Sharp has an amazing voice that fulfills the demands of the role way better than I think a man could. Second, and perhaps even more importantly, she brings a notable compassion to the parts. This shifts the story away from being one of the failure of medicine (my take on the Broadway production) to a more humanistic perspective of a doctor doing the best she can when faced with the extraordinary challenges of mental illness.
I still wish Next to Normal had a more compelling book, that Tom Kitt’s score was more memorable. In the tremendously capable hands of Slidell Little Theatre, however, it provides an abnormally worthy evening of entertainment.
