THEATER
The Ladies and the Ghosts
Colored Girls, Tina Turner, and Dickens hit the boards
BY CHRISTOPHER BYRNE
When Ntozake Shange’s
“For Colored Girls
Who Have Considered
Suicide/ When
the Rainbow is Enuf” arrived at
the Booth Theatre in 1976, it was
a revelation. The interconnected
series of 20 monologues and dances
gave voice to a group of black
women. Shange called her piece a
“choreopoem,” and the intermixing
of lyricism and hard-edged
honesty was joyful, eye-opening,
and harrowing all at once. The
piece also had the distinction of
being only the second play by a
black woman to get to Broadway
— after Lorraine Hansberry’s “A
Raisin in the Sun” in 1959.
The piece is back at the Public
Theater, and it is still as exhilarating
and profound as it always
was. Perhaps given the current
environment it is even more timely.
It’s a reminder that simple words,
movement, and authenticity can
make truly exciting theater.
The poems talk with artful
frankness about identity, abortion,
bad relationships, and the
challenges of being a black woman
in this world. Watching and, most
importantly, listening, one is alternately
cheering and crying — and
always feeling. Under the direction
of Leah C. Gardner with choreography
by Camille A. Brown, the
piece sweeps the audience into the
lives of these women in a way that
is both highly presentational and
remarkably intimate.
The women are identifi ed only
by a color, as in The Lady in Green,
Blue, etc. The company is extraordinary,
including Celia Chevalier,
Danaya Esperanza, Jayme Lawson,
Adrienne C. Moore, Okwui
Okpokwasili Alexandria Wails,
and, at the performance I saw, D.
Woods. Together they form a fl uid
ensemble that is ever present even
when others have center stage.
They are there for each other. You
should be there for the artistry
and gorgeously moving theatricality.
Okwui Okpokwasili in Ntozake Shange’s “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/ When the
Rainbow is Enuf,” directed by Leah C. Gardner, at the Public Theater through December 15.
What’s art got to do with it?
That’s the question that hangs in
the air throughout “Tina: The Tina
Turner Musical.” Turner is one of
the most electric, exciting rock
goddesses to ever hit the stage. It’s
a story of grit, survival, and unique
talent that has all the components
of exciting theater. And then there
are the songs. If those don’t have
you dancing in your seat, it’s hard
to imagine what will.
Unfortunately, what’s on stage
at the Lunt-Fontanne is a bland,
predictable jukebox musical that’s
a literal chronology of Tina’s life
while offering no insights into
the character. Tina’s story is well
known, from a 1993 biopic and
countless tabloid stories. Born
Anna Mae Bullock, she caught the
eye of Ike Turner who made her
a star, named her Tina, married
her, abused her, and drove her
away. Devastated, she recreated
herself and went on to become a
bigger star than ever. If there were
ever an opportunity to explore the
internal life of an artist and what
JOAN MARCUS
drove her to succeed (other than
needing to pay the mortgage), this
would be it. The book, though, by
Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar
and Kees Prins, never looks below
the surface of the woman.
As with many jukebox musicals,
the songs often feel forced into the
narrative. Why, for example, has
“Private Dancer,” a song about a
sex worker, been put in the context
of dealing with hard times?
On the positive side, though, “I
Can’t Stand the Rain” makes more
sense in that context.
Phyllida Lloyd’s direction is mechanical
but ploddingly capable
until Tina gets a chance to cut
loose. The effort would have been
more entertaining if it had been
crafted as a tribute concert showcasing
the songs. That’s what the
last 20 minutes are anyway, and
it’s then that the show becomes
exciting. Adrienne Warren as Tina
is a dynamo. She’s got the wigs,
the iconic outfi ts, and the pipes
to channel Tina, and she does so
beautifully. Still, ending with an
amped up concert doesn’t excuse
what has gone before.
As with many of these undertakings,
the company outshines
the material. Daniel J. Watts, in
particularly, is marvelously mercurial
as Ike, the most well-developed
character in the piece. Mark
Thompson’s sets and especially
costumes are evocative, and Bruno
Poet’s lighting design is generally
excellent. The sound design
by Nevin Steinberg is frequently
muddy in the book scenes, but
bright and dynamic in the concert
scenes.
This is undemanding and familiar,
so that may be its edge in
marketing a Broadway show. For
tourists or die-hard Tina fans, it
may be worthwhile. But if you love
what’s new and interesting in the
theater, you problem don’t need
this jukebox.
Within weeks of its fi rst publication
in 1843, Dickens’ “A
Christmas Carol” was being
knocked off with pirated versions
selling for a penny a copy and had
already been adapted for the stage
by other writers. Dickens railed
against unscrupulous “vagabonds
and thieves” — he ultimately won
a costly and emotionally draining
lawsuit against Parley’s Illuminated
Library to stop the production
of “A Christmas Ghost Story”
— but he gained nothing from it,
given the virtually non-existent
copyright laws of the time. The
vulgarization and trivializing of
his work, to say nothing of the lost
revenue, haunted him for the rest
of his life.
In the nearly two centuries
since, the “Carol,” of course, has
seen innumerable permutations
from movies to musicals, Muppets,
and Mr. Magoo. Still, Dickens
would surely have counted
among the biggest “vagabonds”
Jack Thorne for his ghastly, ghostly
2019 adaptation.
It’s not that Dickens’ text is
sacrosanct but what is especially
appalling about this version is
➤ A CHRISTMAS CAROL, continued on p.29
December 5 - December 1 28 8, 2019 | GayCityNews.com
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