BROKE-OLOGY

BROKE-OLOGY? I couldn’t figure out what the play was about from the title. I still don’t like the title much, but I loved the play. Nathan Louis Jackson’s play at Lincoln Center’s Mitzi Newhouse Theater is a pearl because it is layer upon compelling layer of a play about a family facing the progression of a debilitating illness.

I was chagrined at first that the only woman in the play was dead so early in the play. I’m cranky on the issue of roles for women onstage. But that was before I realized we hadn’t seen the last of Sonia King. Crystal Dickinson’s ethereal quality in the first scene was explained by subsequent developments. Ghost presence in dramas is a well-used convention and I liked the use of it in BROKE-OLOGY. Dickinson handles this coming and going with believable grace. William King’s wife is gone, but not forgotten and she continues to inhabit the heart’s home that he’s made for her. Once when Malcolm speaks to his father excitedly about his career aspirations, we see what William sees -- all the ways that this boy is like his mother. Alano Miller’s very sensitive, virile portrayal does mirror the aspirations of the woman in the first scene. The notes are subtle, but beautiful and when William comments about this, we audience members want to say, “He sure does.”

It’s easy for me to empathize with stage plays. I’m ready to suspend my disbelief and plunge down into any emotion you’ve got that feels genuine and well developed. Empathy is natural and easy with BROKE-OLOGY because Jackson’s play stays small and focused. The humor is used sparingly and deftly in the August Wilson mode. Jokes are more self-revelatory than mean. The lighter moments act to relax the audience and bring us into the drama to face the sadder moments. By the time the mournful beats come, we love these people too much to turn away.

Wendell Pierce’s work as William King is magnificent. He is nuanced in his sufferings and keeps a very sentimental play from going too far. Francois Battiste as Ennis is also judicious in his portrait. He wears his cap in the infuriating way of many young men, but keeps his face available to us so that we understand him and don’t dismiss him. Alano Miller sings no false notes either. His Malcolm is successful by mainstream standards, but is not slick or obnoxious. He is straightforwardly trying to come to a workable decision to care for his father. Happily, we don’t have to choose between them.

I don’t think it gives anything away to say that our profound sorrow at the play’s end anticipates that of the sons. Jackson allows William King a triumph and a succor we all would wish for, but he shows us what the cost will be to those who love us.

Talk about BROKE-OLOGY? It was more like BROKE-down-OLOGY. Dreaded Tourmaline cried unabashedly and had a damned good time. Where did DT go to pull herself together? Oh yes, the efficacy of dark, leafy greens is well documented. The Dreaded Tourmaline went uptown to MELBA’S to have collard green spring rolls --- again.

Memphis, The Musical

“Memphis, The Musical” is all it promises to be and not a bit more. It is musical -- and only that. There is no book. There are only a few events between songs. But all and everything in the production is down to the music and the really great dancing. Unfortunately, there isn’t enough music for two full acts. Because the second act sounds like a reprise of the first act even the full-out, rip-roaring dancing seems repetitive in the second act. The talent is there -- more than just there. The ensemble and the featured players are a fresh and lively group of superb singers and dancers. They need more material to work with.

Montego Glover as Felicia Farrel, especially needs more singing to do. She is Broadway electric. She is in charge of her material and has the vocal confidence to avoid the over-do. But the music is too quick to leave Memphis. In fact the music seems to leave town a lot faster than the characters. By the second act you have a hard time hearing even a glimmer of that Memphis blues-iness that the characters are talking about -- and that they served up in the first act.

Chad Kimball as Huey Calhoun, the white D.J. with a love for Black music, should sing more, too. He has a lovely singing voice with a twangy resonance that sounds Tennessee white and urban to me. I found this quality annoying in his speaking voice so I think he should have done more singing.

Another reason the players should all have sung more -- especially the lovers, Felicia and Huey, is that they are far stronger singers than actors. The love affair between the two is a little thinly realized on both parts.

The dramatic set-up is thin, too. Granted it is hard to have a feel good musical about a feel bad time in our history, but there is too little menace in the segregated community of this play’s landscape. A few unfortunate things happen, but people talk about it more than bring it to the audience.

The set is economical, but not much to see. I attended a preview performance, but there is nothing rough or unpolished about the production. Originally produced by North Shore Music Theatre and Theater Works and is co-produced by LaJolla Playhouse and 5th Avenue Theater in Seattle.

Everybody in the show can blow -- and dance. I liked Cass Morgan as Mama. J. Bernard Calloway is notable. Give him another song! Derrick Baskin as Gator is a standout in acting and singing. And the ensemble is strong vocally. There is one female voice that rises to the rafters on every group number, but the performer is impossible to identify. Kudos to this wailer. But because this is a classic broadway musical -- a skeleton script wrapped up in song and dance numbers -- IT NEEDS MORE SONGS!

Dreaded Tourmaline had a real New York encounter after the show when she tried to race a senior citizen to a stcky, red table in Times Square. He squealed, "My wife is sitting there." Dreaded Tourmaline replied, "Okay. Sorry," and headed to another red, sticky table and matching chair. There she drank her grande pumpkin spice frap from you know where. D.T. finished the outing at MELBA'S restaurant uptown at 114 and Fred. Douglas. This place is part of the lively , cosmo scene in Harlem. MELBA'S food is better than most and the room is cozy and well appointed for an after (or before) anything meal. I give them ten tourmalines for excellence for the collard green spring rolls! Check them out at: www.melbasrestaurant.com