➤ SOLDIER’S PLAY,, from p.25
timely in their exploration of race
in America. Despite the fact that
Fuller’s 1981 play won the Pulitzer
Prize for drama, the current production
is largely unremarkable.
Yes, there are issues of race,
racism, and, in particular, life in
a segregated, all-Black base in
the South during World War II as
the soldiers wait to be deployed.
In Kenny Leon’s staging, though,
these issues are muted, and the
play is reduced to a kind of whodunnit
procedural, such as one
can fi nd on TV any time. Nearly 40
years since its debut at the Negro
Ensemble Company, the play feels
dated as the plotting overwhelms
the deeper issues.
The story surrounds the murder
of Sergeant Vernon Waters at Fort
Neal in Louisiana in 1944 and the
efforts of the outside lawyer Captain
Richard Davenport to fi nd the
killer. While the initial assumption
is that the Klan was responsible,
as Davenport digs into the case,
often at odds with the white Captain
Charles Taylor, who wants a
quick resolution and is concerned
about his men, it becomes clear
that there is much more going on.
Everyone comes under suspicion,
including two white offi cers who
had means and opportunity, as
these tales go. In a series of fl ashbacks,
we see that Waters was
crazed and determined that Black
soldiers who didn’t refl ect well on
his race should be marginalized,
severely punishing those who did
not live up to his ideal. Waters’ passion,
bordering on psychosis, is at
moments understandable given
the context of the times, yet his the
extreme violence of his temperament
made life miserable for his recruits.
He busts one man down to
private for a small infraction, and
he tortures a gentle solider with an
unfair accusation that drives him
to a desperate act. Themes of toxic
racism, inherent bias, and fear
play out as each of the soldiers is
interrogated, but the plodding nature
of the staging mutes the emotional
impact.
The company is very good,
though the secondary characters
are devices that are for the
most part merely sketched. Of
the principals, Jerry O’Connell is
sympathetic as Taylor, the white
offi cer in charge of the base. Blair
Jerry O’Connell and Blair Underwood in Charles Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play,” directed by Kenny Leon, at
the American Airlines Theatre through March 15.
PHOTO ASHLEY PRODUCTIONS
Ashley Blaker in “Goy Friendly” at SoHo Playhouse
through February 23.
Underwood, however, is largely
wooden and mechanical as Davenport.
There’s a moment when
he appears without a shirt, which
prompted catcalls from the audience,
and served no other purpose
than to show that Underwood is
still in excellent shape in middle
age — an unnecessary display of
vanity out of sync with the character.
David Alan Grier as Waters
gives an incomplete performance
that is largely shouting and mannerisms
and never convincingly
conveys the character’s tormented
complexity.
“A Soldier’s Play” was written at
PHOTO JOAN MARCUS
a time when there was still “Black
theater,” as there was “gay theater.”
In the ensuing decades, in a more
progressive time, those modifi ers
have dropped away. That’s a step
in the right direction, but as with
last year’s revival of “Torch Song,”
time can blunt political impact,
and the earnest, important works
of the past may not deliver the
punch they once had.
“Goy Friendly,” the new piece
from Ashley Blaker bills itself
as stand-up comedy. Blaker
does stand for the entire thing, so
there’s that. As for comedy, well,
not so much. Rather, it’s a tiresome
lecture about the traditions
of Orthodox Jews wrapped in few
comic one-liners, cultural clichés
lifted from other comics, and pop
references from the 1980s. The
British Blaker says his purpose
in doing this is to introduce non-
Jews (goys) to Orthodox ways, but
despite a bit of English charm, his
pedantry, almost total lack of timing,
and often fl at delivery reduce
this to the level of a high school diversity
assembly.
The cold heart of the patter is
a review of the original Ten Commandments,
with gags about being
attracted to an ox, and Blaker’s
new version for Orthodox Jews.
Blaker also talks about his Muslim
friend with whom he teamed
up to do comedy, noting they share
the same quirks and that both religions
include very funny traditions.
Blaker pokes fun at the traditions,
but goes further to actually
demean them without providing
any context for why they exist in
the fi rst place.
He also has three anti-gay gags,
including the false assertion that
the Torah bans gay sex. The jokes
do nothing to dispel the idea that
among the ultra-Orthodox, homophobia
is rife. And then Blaker
doubles down on the whole mess
by showing a slide of a group of
rabbis and suggesting no one could
be sexually attracted to them anyway.
There is surely hypocrisy in
Blaker’s revised commandment
that “thou shalt avoid all media.”
What is the theater if not a medium?
The most ecumenical aspect
of the show is the acknowledgment
that the demands of religion often
prove fl exible enough to satisfy
the earthly ego. At the end of “Goy
Friendly,” Blaker says that he stays
in the Orthodox Jewish life because
he loves it — even if he never
gives us reason to believe him.
Surely, his love is about more than
the correct, rimmed skull caps,
binding one’s arms in leather, and
fi nding a Shabbos goy.
I have to give him this: “Goy
Friendly” does give one fi rst-hand
experience of that other tired trope
of Jewish experience: suffering.
GRAND HORIZONS |Second Stage
Theater at the Helen Hayes Theater,
240 W. 44th St. | Through Mar. 1:
Tue.-Thu. at 7 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. at 8
p.m.; Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3
p.m. | $79-$199 at 2st.com or 212-
541-4516 | Two hrs., 10 mins, with
intermission
A SOLDIER’S PLAY |Roundabout
Theatre Company at the American
Airlines Theatre, 227 W. 42nd St.
| Through Mar. 15: Tue.-Sat. at 8
p.m.; Wed., Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun . at 3
p.m. (with some 7 p.m. evening curtains)|
$59-$299 at roundabouttheatre.
org or 212-719-1300 | One hr.,
50 mins, with intermission
GOY FRIENDLY |SoHo Playhouse,
15 Vandam St. at | Through Feb.
23: Mon.-Thu., Sun. at 7:30 p.m.;
Sun. at 5 p.m.; Wed. at 3 p.m. | $50
at sohoplayhouse.com or 212-691-
1555 | One hr., 20 mins, no intermission
February 13 - February 26, 2 26 020 | GayCityNews.com
/2st.com
/sohoplayhouse.com
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