Gil (Colman Domingo) and Mo (Duane Boutté) embark on a wild road trip in WILD WITH HAPPY,receiving its West Coast Premiere June 5 – 30 at TheatreWorks at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Photo credit: Mark Kitaoka
WILD WITH HAPPY: Comedy by Colman Domingo and directed by Danny Scheie. TheatreWorks at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro Street, Mountain View. (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.Through June 30, 2013.
Wild with Happy at TheatreWorks a hysterical bittersweet ride.
The meaning of the title of Colman Domingo’s smash hit that is gracing TheatreWorks stage in Mountain View does not become known until the penultimate scene of his 90 minute opus. From the opening song “Get Happy” (Forget your troubles, come on get happy. Get Ready for the Judgment Day) played before the curtain rises to the final fireworks a cast of four playing multiple roles will take you on a ride to end all rides. Since the play is sort of a gay fairy tale, in more ways than one, be assured that it will have a happy ending . . . well sort of.
The play is non linear with characters breaking the fourth wall for explanations and smoothly moving from the past into the present time frame with nary missing a beat. Our hero Gil (Colman Domingo) returns from New York to Philadelphia to make arrangements for his mother’s funeral. But there are problems both emotional and financial. He is afraid of church. Flash back: He is 10 years old and his Mother Adelaide (Sharon Washington) has dragged him into a Black Church revival ceremony to end all ceremonies and after an unnamed singer (Duane Boutte) belts out a gospel that drives the congregation mad including Adelaide who goes into a frightening swoon.
Gil, with feelings of guilt up to his expressive eyeballs ends up at the Four Seasons Funeral home where you “always check in but never check out.” Gil meets Terry (Richard Prioleau), fourth generation owner of the establishment. Sparks fly, physical humor abounds, the unexpected happens. Gil loses a shoe after he “bonds” with Terry, and Mother Adelaide is cremated.
Enter our protagonist, Gil’s Aunt Glo (Sharon Washington) who expresses in no uncertain terms that Black people don’t do cremation and her description of what should be done and how it should be done is a lesson in class culture with humor and sincerity abounding. “You only do cremation when you’re too fat to fit into the coffin!” “We’ve got tradition going back to Lucy.” Aunt Glo may be into tradition but she is not above emptying the departed Adelaide’s clothes closet in a scene that is hilarious and reminiscent of Zorba the Greek. Later she accepts modern technology taught to her by Mexicans (really?).
Along comes Mo (Duane Boutte), Gil’s best friend and former lover to take Gil and Adelaide’s ashes where she was most happy. Not only where she was most happy but ‘wild with happy.” You will have to see the show to find out where that is.
Thus begins the wild ride in beautiful cutout cars (Sets by the Eric Flatmo) with TV projections of Gil, Mo and the cremation urn in the robin-egg blue convertible Zip Car being chased by Glo and Mo in a brown sedan using the Mexican installed GPS chip in a Cinderella doll. Remember that fact and a previous fact above. They will give you hints to the climactic ending.
Aunt Glo (Sharon Washington) and Gil (Colman Domingo)
Sharon Washington as Aunt Glo is a whirlwind of action, actually verbal action, which is astounding as she shifts adroitly between her two roles. Coleman Domingo almost matches Washington’s performance, after all he did write the script. Director Danny Sheie splashes on some shtick giving Duane Boutte the opportunity to be overly gay and emote. This includes a scene of being chased up and down the aisles and ending up twirling a baton. Understandably handsome Richard Prioleau as Terry is attractive to Gil. Think the Prince and Cinderella.
All is not comedy and Domingo has inserted a few scenes, including the surprising ending that adds the needed pathos. So, forget your troubles, come on get happy and head down to TheatreWorks for this 90 minute evening of fun without intermission.
Kedar K. Adour, MD
Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com
