‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: Brandon Micheal Hall, LaChanze & Chuck Cooper. Photo: Joan Marcus.

TROUBLE IN MIND
Written by Alice Childress
Directed by Charles Randolph-Wright
Through January 9, 2022
American Airlines Theatre
227 West 42nd Street
(212-719-1300), www.RoundaboutTheatre.org

By David NouNou

Written and first performed in 1955 as an Off-Broadway show to critical acclaim, Trouble in Mind was meant to transfer to Broadway in 1957 but never came to fruition because the playwright, Alice Childress, refused to tone down the racial discourse in her play to make it more palatable for white audiences.

Being an actress herself, Ms. Childress was tired of playing maids and other types of demeaning roles, so she wrote this play within a play and created the role of Wiletta Mayer, the title character. Wiletta has been an actress for many years and has played by the rules of the stage games of complying with everything she has to do to stay in the game.

We meet Wiletta (LaChanze), walking across the stage on the first day of rehearsal, stopping center stage in order to absorb that solitary moment where she is alone on the stage and savoring the thrill of that magical moment. She is about to star in a drivel of a play set in the South. Fellow cast members waft in: John Nevins (Brandon Micheal Hall), a young actor who will be playing her son; Millie Davis (Jessica Frances Dukes), the best friend; Sheldon Forrester (Chuck Cooper), veteran of the stage playing Wiletta’s husband; Judy Sears (Danielle Campbell), the white ingénue who becomes friendly with John Nevins; and the imbecilic white director, Al Manners (Michael Zegen), a guy who has stereotypical notions of directing this show about a black family and whose word is the only word that counts.

On the third day of rehearsals, the fur begins to fly. The director wants all the wailing and flailing and broad gestures associated with black characters from his cast.  However, Wiletta tries to explain that she can’t play the character that way and wants to play it in a normal, natural, and real manner. Floodgates open.

Racial issues are at the core of this play but they are intertwined with both humor and seriousness that makes it relevant to this day.

LaChanze is a Broadway veteran who received her first acclaim and Tony nomination for Once On This Island and has never stopped being a force of nature. We know her mostly for her musical performances, but in Trouble in Mind, she hits new heights as a dramatic actress. Her blowup/meltdown in Act II leaves one breathless.

Michael Zegen, better known for playing Joel Maisel in Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” is in the unenviable role of delusional director, Al Manners. His name is an oxymoron.

Chuck Cooper adds nobility to every role he plays, and newcomer Jessica Frances Dukes keeps the laughs coming.

Not as universal in theme as Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, Alice Childress shows the universality of what every African American actress has had to endure.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 22, 2021
Reviewed at November 21, 2021 press performance.

‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: LaChanze, Chuck Cooper & Michael Zegen. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: LaChanze. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: LaChanze. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: Jessica Frances Dukes & LaChanze. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: LaChanze & Simon Jones. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: Michael Zegen, Alex Mickiewicz & Don Stephenson. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘TROUBLE IN MIND’: Danielle Campbell & Michael Zegen. Photo: Joan Marcus.

The post ‘Trouble in Mind’: ’50s drama rings true today appeared first on StageZine.

‘CHOIR BOY’: (left to right) Nicholas L. Ashe, J. Quinton Johnson, Jeremy Pope, Caleb Eberhardt & John Clay III. Photo: Matthew Murphy

CHOIR BOY
Written by Tarell Alvin McCraney
Directed by Trip Cullman
Through February 24, 2019
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.manhattantheatreclub.com

By David NouNou

Life in any prep school is fraught with teenage angst, anxiety, bullying, camaraderie, homophobia and preparing for college, but the setting for Choir Boy is the Charles P. Drew Prep School—a boarding school for teenage black men with high ethical standards—has an extra layer added, that of hypocrisy and not ratting out your fellow brothers even if they “done you wrong.”

Pharus Jonathan Young (Jeremy Pope), a flamboyantly gay African-American teenager who has been bullied and shamed since he was eight, sings to his own tune, at his own peril. Here now, he does what he knows best and that is to sing gospel songs and he is the lead in the choir. Of course, there is also the homophobic bully, also in the choir, Bobby Marrow (J. Quinton Johnson). He also happens to be the nephew of Headmaster Marrow (Chuck Cooper).

At the onset, Pharus is taunted with racial and homophobic slurs by Bobby at a school recital, which puts the blame on Pharus for stopping in the middle of singing. Pharus is summoned to the headmaster’s office to explain his behavior. Naturally being a young man of honor and obeying the school code, he doesn’t squeal to the headmaster of what the man’s nephew did to him. Well, you see the dilemma here.

In this mix is a closeted, confused young man, David Heard (Caleb Eberhardt), aspiring to be a priest. The sympathetic and understanding straight, macho roommate, Anthony (John Clay III) and the all-around smart aleck, Junior Davis (Nicholas L. Ashe) who tries to do the right thing by all.

The problem here is the story—what there is of it—is riddled with clichés and has little substance. Written by Tarrell Alvin McCraney, Oscar winner for the screenplay of Moonlight, has a good premise, that of a young gay black teenager struggling in the world to find a place in it, and the struggle within his own race. It’s a story that should be told, but it was told better in Moonlight. This reeks of the 1992 movie School Ties with Brendan Fraser and Matt Dillon, of honor in an all-boys’ school. What is worse is that there is no focus from director Trip Cullman to give it a more cohesive narrative and badly needed fine-tuning. The redeeming grace is Jeremy Pope as Pharus. He originated this role in 2013 off Broadway, and gives the play the anchor it so desperately needs.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 10, 2019
Reviewed at January 9, 2019 performance.

‘CHOIR BOY’: Jeremy Pope & Chuck Cooper. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘CHOIR BOY’: Jeremy Pope & Caleb Eberhardt. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘THE CHOIR BOY”: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘CHOIR BOY’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘THE CHOIR BOY”: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘CHOIR BOY’: John Clay III & Jeremy Pope. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘CHOIR BOY’: Quinton Johnson & Jeremy Pope. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘CHOIR BOY’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘CHOIR BOY’: Jeremy Pope. Photo: Matthew Murphy

The post ‘Choir Boy’: Teen angst tale needs fine-tuning appeared first on StageZine.

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’: Emily Skinner in a scene from ‘Follies.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

PRINCE OF BROADWAY
Written by David Thompson
New Songs, Arrangements, Orchestration & Music Supervision by Robert Jason Brown
Co-Directed & Choreographed by Susan Stroman
Directed by Hal Prince
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212) 239-6200, www.ManhattanTheatreClub.com

By David NouNou

Any theatergoer knows that Harold S. Prince is a world-renowned producer/director and has had his hand in theatrical productions for almost 65 years. He has worked with the greatest of creative talents from Stephen Sondheim, Leonard Bernstein, Kander & Ebb to Andrew Lloyd Webber; from Jerome Robbins, Bob Fosse to Susan Stroman, and the actors he’s brought to the stage are endless: Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, Angela Lansbury, Patti LuPone, Liza Minnelli, Barbara Cook, Elaine Stritch, Zero Mostel, Joel Grey, Mandy Patinkin, Michael Crawford, and on and on.

However, trying to musicalize a producer/director’s career is much more difficult to present on stage than, let’s say, the musicals Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, based on recreating Jerome Robbins’ choreography from On The Town, West Side Story and Fiddler on the Roof or Fosse, based on Bob Fosse’s choreography for Damn Yankees, Sweet Charity and Pippin. Those are tangible works of artists recreating their creations. Dances are intrinsically more satisfying than actors trotting on stage, singing songs from a particular producer’s shows.

The nine actors consisting of Chuck Cooper, Janet Dacal, Bryonha Marie Parham, Emily Skinner, Brandon Uranowitz, Kaley Ann Voorhees, Michael Xavier, Tony Yasbeck and Karen Ziemba succeed to various degrees. They all come out on stage as Hal Prince at various times, with his signature glasses on their forehead, narrating his career. Honestly, I would have preferred having Mr. Prince narrate his own life, introducing his own productions at various stages in his career projected on a screen. This would have been more productive; it would have given us an introduction to the man himself, been less lame and more effective.

The major problem here is how do you connect all these phenomenal shows? Damn Yankees, West Side Story, Fiddler On the Roof, Cabaret, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Evita, The Phantom of the Opera as well as A Family Affair, Flora the Red Menace, A Doll’s Life, Zorba, Roza, Merrily We Roll Along (mostly hits and a fair number of flops)? It’s very difficult to chose the songs and scenes from all these shows to fit cohesively in an entertaining manner. Some are extremely entertaining standing alone, as the scenes from West Side Story, Cabaret and Company. Some are visually entertaining like Follies and Phantom of the Opera, The songs from She Loves Me, It’s a Bird, It’s A Plane, It’s Superman, Parade, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Sweeney Todd, although good, make no sense. What helps make the scenes work better is mostly due to set designer Beowulf Boritt, costume designer William Ivey Long, and lighting designer Howell Binkley. They try to capture the essences of the original productions and that helps the visualization process immensely. They attempt to recapture that particular moment of each show and it does envelop us for the most part.

Two standout performers for me were Tony Yazbeck for his great phraseology of the songs from West Side Story and “The Right Girl” from Follies. His tap dancing in that song is phenomenal. The other standout is Chuck Cooper. His rendition of “If I Were a Rich Man” from Fiddler is better than what I’ve seen in recent years. He also does a superb “Ol’ Man River” from Showboat. Both these men get better and better with each successive show.

It’s great to see Brandon Uranowitz’s career blossoming. His “Willkommen” from Cabaret was chilling, and teaming up with the wonderful Karen Ziemba in “If You Could See Her ” and her solo “So What” is memorable. A treat to see Emily Skinner back on Broadway doing “Ladies Who Lunch” from Company and “Send in the Clowns” from A Little Night Music.

All in all, it is an entertaining, if not wholly satisfying or fulfilling evening. If you were fortunate enough to have seen some of the original versions, most of the scenes will evoke a fond memory or at least give you a taste of the past experience.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published August 27, 2017
Reviewed at August 26, 2017 press performance.

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’: Michael Xavier & cast perform a number from ‘Company.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’: Brandon Uranowitz sings a song from ‘Cabaret.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’: Janet Dacal in ‘Evita’ scene. Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’: Bryonha Marie Parham & Kaley Ann Voorhees sing a classic from ‘Showboat.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’: Tony Yazbeck performs a number from ‘Follies.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’: Tony Yazbeck & Kaley Ann Voorhees perform a scene from ‘West Side Story.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

‘PRINCE OF BROADWAY’: Chuck Cooper performs a classic song from ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’ Photo: Matthew Murphy

The post ‘Prince of Broadway’: Hal’s greatest hits appeared first on StageZine.

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Josh Young (center) and the cast. Photo: Joan Marcus

AMAZING GRACE
Book by Christopher Smith and Arthur Giron
Music and lyrics by Christopher Smith
Directed by Gabriel Barre
Choreography by Christopher Gattelli
Nederlander Theatre
208 West 41st Street
(877-250-2929), http://www.amazinggracemusical.com/


By David NouNou

Did you ever wonder what it would be like to be filthy rich? To have so much money that you can actually burn it? Well, if you see Amazing Grace, I guarantee you will get a sense of what it’s like to waste a lot of money (reportedly $16 million), both literally and figuratively.

I can only venture to say that no one on the production or the creative side has heard of such musicals as Scandalous or Leap of Faith and what their eventual outcome turned out to be. It’s truly “amazing” that there are still believers that would entrust millions of dollars to a novice song and book writer, Christopher Smith, a man who was once a policeman in Pennsylvania, had no training in writing any form of musical, and gave up his day job because he was inspired to write a musical about John Newton, the British slave trader and son of a captain of a slave ship, who in time became an abolitionist. John Newton ultimately found redemption and inspiration in writing the church hymn “Amazing Grace,” but the fact that this alone is the basis and title for a Broadway musical is absolutely mind numbing. If I had to bet on which of the two storylines had a better chance of success—the former about investing in a novice policeman and the arc of his story to write a musical—or the latter about John Newton, the wretch that was saved and wrote a hymn, I think you know which I would pick.

In all fairness to Amazing Grace, it is not dull like the dreary behemoth Dr. Zhivago from earlier this spring, or as sloppy as other religion-inspired musicals like Leap of Faith or Scandalous; those were aimless train wrecks that kept surprising you with their ineptness. However, there is a story here, be it ever so flimsy, but the saga is hackneyed, trite and full of clichés. There are no surprises here; piety oozes from every line. It is a musical “by the numbers,” you can anticipate what the scene is about, what will happen, what the song will imply, and you can second-guess the next scene before it takes place. Needless to say, one figures out the outcome of the show by Act I, Scene II.

John Newton (Josh Young) is a no-good English wastrel and son of a wealthy slave trader. His mother died at an early age and he has grown to rebel and resent his father, Captain Newton (Tom Hewitt). He has two people who believe in him: Thomas, his slave (the excellent Chuck Cooper) and his childhood sweetheart, Mary Catlett (Erin Mackey). At a slave auction that John runs behind his father’s back, both Abolitionists and Redcoats break up the proceedings. In the fray is Major Gray (Chris Hoch), who is smitten with Mary. On a drunken Christmas Eve, John is scuttled and sent on a slave ship to Africa by Major Gray, thus clearing the way to lure Mary away. Due to John’s surliness, his father doesn’t stop the proceedings and sends John to learn about the meaning of life the hard way. His trusted slave Thomas goes with him. Meanwhile, Mary, witnessing what goes on in the slave trades, joins the Abolitionists about the unfair treatment of the slaves. John’s slave ship is sunk off the coast of Africa and is captured by Princess Peyai (Harriet D. Foy) and gets treated by her the way he treated his slaves. Suddenly, a light bulb goes off and John sees the light and, as they say, the rest is history.

Mr. Smith, composer, lyricist and book writer, has set up his scenes and characters in the most predictable of fashions and given them message songs to sing about being “Truly Alive,” “I Still Believe” and seeing the light, all laden with piety. The intent may have been very sincere, but the results are stock scenes with stock characters in stock situations and are not aided at all by Gabriel Barre’s lackluster direction.

Josh Young, who gave a sterling performance in his Tony-nominated role of Judas in the 2012 revival of Jesus Christ Superstar, has a fine tenor voice. Although he is the hero of the story, he doesn’t bring much to the scenes; he grouses and misbehaves in the beginning, sees his errors in the middle and finds salvation in the end. Oh, joy. Erin Mackay, who never gave up on John, is defiantly lovely throughout. Tom Hewitt redeems himself from his previous disaster, the Broadway musical adaptation of Dr. Zhivago; at least he can control his performance here. The best part of the show is Chuck Cooper, who always delivers a power-punch performance, this time as the slave Thomas/Pakuteh; as usual he’s imbued his character with dignity and grace, and his final scene is poignant indeed.

Since there are very few surprises to the storyline, I won’t do a spoiler alert. You’ll just have to sit through the show like I did to learn what the final song of the show is.

‘AMAZING GRACE’: (left to right) Stanley Bahorek, Harriett D. Foy, Tom Hewitt & Chris Hoch. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Erin Mackey & Laiona Michelle. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘Amazing Grace’: Chuck Cooper, Josh Young & company. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘Amazing Grace’: Laiona Michelle & Rachael Ferrera. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Erin Mackey & Josh Young. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Erin Mackey. Photo: Joan Marcus

‘AMAZING GRACE’: Josh Young. Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published July 22, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on July 21, 2015

The post ‘Amazing Grace’ never had a prayer appeared first on StageZine.