‘Holler’: Not the Gospel according to Tupac

MORE SCENES FROM ‘HOLLER’: Saul Williams & Saycon Sengbloh in ‘Holler If Ya Hear Me.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

HOLLER IF YA HEAR ME
Book by Todd Kreidler
Lyrics by Tupac Shakur
Directed by Kenny Leon
Choreographed by Wayne Cilento
Palace Theatre
1584 Broadway at 47th Street
(877-250-2929), www.HollerBroadway.com

By David NouNou

Billed as an original musical, Holler If Ya Hear Me is one of the most non-traditional shows you may or may not want to see this or any other season. Inspired by Tupac Shakur’s music and lyrics, it’s a non-biographical story about the struggle of inner-city life as said through poetry. It tries extremely hard to be a relevant voice on Broadway, but comes off more like a compendium of hackneyed clichés that have been seen in better formats. There are the brilliant films Boyz In The Hood and Do The Right Thing. As constructed, Holler has certain similarities to West Side Story. Both dealing with the hardships youth face trying to break out of the hood, the gang, the violence, and certainly the deaths and the defeat of dreams for a better life. Whereas West Side Story did it with a memorable, mesmerizing and pulsating score by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim and a new dazzling language in the art of dance by the incomparable Jerome Robbins, which was revolutionary for 1957 Broadway audiences. Holler, on the other hand, serves banal, lifeless scenes strung together in search of some meaning.

Life is hard in the hood and a vicious cycle at that, and with little chance of any improvement or getting out free, or realizing your dreams. Set in the present in a Midwestern industrial city, John, (effectively portrayed by Saul Williams) has just been released from jail after serving six years in prison and has to face the world and the people who inhabit it: His best friend Vertus (the always appealing Christopher Jackson), his father, a street preacher (John Earl Jelks), Vertus’s mother, Mrs. Weston (the underused Tonya Pinkins), his girlfriend, Corinne, whom he never stopped loving (the lovely Saycon Sengbloh) and Griffy, the garage mechanic who gives him a job to start again (the engaging Ben Thompson), and the usual street gang cronies. All give fine and creditable performances, but very little emotion is ever extracted.

It’s always hard to write an effective book for a musical, but when the source is Shakur’s book of poetry entitled The Rose That Grows From Concrete, it becomes almost impossible. In order to have a good musical, one must have a strong book that can sustain the narrative. Here, the book by Todd Kriedler is so clichéd and hackneyed that it never rises to the occasion of high drama, and the scenes are not effectively built up, but instead strewn all over the place. A sharper focus was needed. The scenes shift so erratically and the characters are underdeveloped. This infraction may be the fault of Kenny Leon, the director who recently won the best director Tony for the brilliant revival of A Raisin In the Sun. Mr. Leon’s former credits have either been August Wilson plays or non-musical revivals. A musical is a different genre entirely and pacing and placement is very crucial. You have to draw the audience into every number, and a lot of the numbers here just leave you cold and seem dreary and bleak. George C. Wolfe is one of the few directors who mastered the art of navigating  both genres. Just think of Angels in America and Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk.

A biographical drama of the life of Tupac Shakur would have served for a better evening in the theatre and a better understanding of the artist himself.

TENDER MOMENT: Tonya Pinkins & Christopher Jackson in ‘Holler If Ya Hear Me.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published June 19, 2014
Reviewed at press performance on June 15, 2014