‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: Sharon D. Clarke (center) & cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

CAROLINE, OR CHANGE
Book & lyrics by Tony Kushner
Music by Jeanine Tesori
Directed by Michael Longhurst
Through January 9, 2022
Studio 54

254 West 54th Street
(212-719-1300), www.RoundaboutTheatre.org


By David NouNou

Topical, controversial and ambitious would be three words to describe Caroline, or Change. It’s a show with a mystique for its devoted fans and a cult following, but it has also had a bumpy road from the onset. The original opened in 2004 at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre with Tonya Pinkins as Caroline and Anika Noni Rose in her Tony-winning role as Emmie, her daughter, and lasted for only 136 performances.

Set in Louisiana in 1963, we first see Caroline, the African-American maid (Sharon D. Clarke), in the basement doing the laundry for the Gellmans, a white Jewish family. She has been working at this job for most of her adult life. She has been dealt a tough hand. In addition to physical abuse, her husband abandoned her and left her with four children to raise. Caroline is a very bitter woman. She can talk and communicate better with inanimate objects than human beings. The objects that have a human form are: a washing machine (Arica Jackson), a dryer (Kevin S. McAllister), and her radio (Nasia Thomas, Nya and Harper Miles).

The one person who does pierce her armor is an eight-year-old boy, Noah Gellman (Adam Makké). Despite her personal feelings, she likes him and tries to protect and guide him. Noah leaves his loose change in his pockets and Caroline finds them and puts them in a laundry cup to return to him. In order to teach Noah the value of money, his stepmother Rose (Cassie Levy) tells Caroline to keep that change and supplement her income with it. This prompts a dilemma for Caroline on whether to keep the money to help her by giving some pocket money to her children or to leave it in the laundry cup.

The topicality of this musical is very pertinent today what with all the racial issues and Judaism, both of which are under attack; putting them together becomes an explosive issue. The message of the story being coexistence, both in 1963 and today.

The show was set to open in 2020, but the pandemic forced it to shut down. In the midst of a pandemic, the nation went reeling with the death of George Floyd and the aftermath of racism sent shockwaves around the world. This makes the message of coexistence in Caroline, or Change that much more pertinent.

The problem of the show isn’t in the message as much as it is in the messaging. The score is unmemorable and the book is so overwrought. Being Jewish myself, I always found the Jewish aspects of the book by Tony Kushner to be cliché to the point of ad nauseam, the language and the Yiddish idioms spoken by the Gellmans at times sound like a TV episode of “The Nanny” with Nanny Fine’s family.

There is a silver lining here: Sharon D. Clarke as Caroline. She originated the role in London in 2018 and she’s sensational. The songs may be unmemorable but the voices in this show are phenomenal.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published November 3, 2021
Reviewed at November 2, 2021 press performance.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: The cast. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: Caissie Levy & Sharon D. Clarke. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: (Left to right): Nasia Thomas, Harper Miles, Nya, Arica Jackson, Sharon D. Clarke. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: Adam Makké & Sharon D. Clarke. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: Sharon D. Clarke. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: Tamika Lawrence & Sharon D. Clarke. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: Nya, Harper Miles & Nasia Thomas. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: Nasia Thomas, Kevin S. McAllister & Sharon D. Clarke. Photo: Joan Marcus.

‘CAROLINE, OR CHANGE’: Nasia Thomas, Kevin S. McAllister, Sharon D. Clarke, Arica Jackson & Harper Miles. Photo: Joan Marcus.

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CELESTIAL BODIES: Jake Gyllenhaal & Ruth Wilson in ‘Constellations.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

CONSTELLATIONS
Written by Nick Payne
Directed by Michael Longhurst
Through March 15, 2015
Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
261 West 47th Street
(212-239-6200), www.constellationsbroadway.com

By David NouNou

Set in the Multiverse, in the past, present and future, Constellations is one of those plays you are either going to get into right away or be drifting throughout its 70-minute length. Dealing with parallel universes, I’m sure I was drifting there in some of those universes. Not having taken any physics courses may have hindered my perceptions. Having the same elements as Groundhog Day, the repetition of the same events of the same day recurring over and over again until you get it right, Constellations isn’t about getting it right but repeating the same events at different times in different universes with different results in each instance.

Starting with Roland (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Marianne (Ruth Wilson) meeting at a barbeque, this same meeting plays out in five different ways. He is a beekeeper and she is a student in theoretical universe cosmology. In each instance, there is the initial meeting, and pending in which universe each has a follow-up scene but not in the order of the initial meetings. The trick here is matching up the scenes with the characters. Naturally, each scene has a different outcome.

What sustains the interest here is the perfect chemistry that Mr. Gyllenhaal and Ms. Wilson possess. He is laid back and she is hyper, but they do build an odd couple sadness. They both convey their character changes perfectly, whether by an inflection, facial expression or body movement and they are in perfect sync with each other’s movements. There are no fully realized scenes but the longer ones are compelling and engaging. The longer scenes seem to bring you back to reality until the next tangent breaks up the proceedings, and then you’re hurled out into the other universe.

Nick Payne, the playwright, and director Michael Longhurst have worked with Mr. Gyllenhaal before In Mr. Payne’s If There Is I Haven’t Found It Yet at Roundabout’s Laura Pels Theatre in 2012, so they do know each other’s patterns and techniques. Mr. Longhurst keeps things moving at a rapid pace in part due to Nick Curran’s light changes indicating different moments.

Constellations has a clever premise, the ever-charismatic, talented, always competent and gorgeous Jake Gyllenhaal, and making her New York stage debut, a charming Ruth Wilson. This past Sunday, she won the Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Drama against very stiff competition in Showtime’s “The Affair.” Most New Yorkers are unfamiliar with her work, but she is a very interesting actress to watch.

There is a lot to admire in Constellations, especially if you get into it in the right universe, at the right time, and in the right frame of mind.

OSCAR NOMINEE ON BROADWAY: Jake Gyllenhaal in ‘Constellations.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

STARRY MESSENGERS: Jake Gyllenhaal dates physicist Ruth Wilson in the U.K. import ‘Constellations.’ Photo: Joan Marcus

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published January 15, 2015
Reviewed at press performance on January 14, 2015

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