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<\/a>Marin Theatre Company\u2019s Justice portrays first three female judges of U.S. Supreme Court (from left), Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Maria Sotomayor, and Sandra Day O\u2019Connor. Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n <\/p>\n The three Justice<\/em> singers portraying top-court judges can\u2019t compare to The Supremes, but they\u2019re powerful anyway \u2014 if<\/em> you believe the message can be the massage.<\/p>\n That message, of course, translates into a feminist anthem for equality, with undertones of kumbaya and patriotism.<\/p>\n Justice: A New Musical<\/em>, which runs at the Marin Theatre Company through March 12, dips into the public and private lives of the first three female U.S. Supreme Court jurists, Sandra Day O\u2019Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Maria Sotomayor.<\/p>\n The three sing and talk of being \u201can unlikely sisterhood,\u201d but also of crossing the aisle politically. Emphasized, as might be expected, is sexism \u2014 on the court as well as in the country \u2014 and the notion of \u201cwe the people,\u201d which is stressed in both opening and closing numbers.<\/p>\n Outstanding is Lynda DiVito, a Walnut Creek resident with off-Broadway credits who depicts RBG in a voice that reverberates throughout the theater, with facial expressions that instantly convey the feelings her words may or may not say.<\/p>\n Karen Murphy, a veteran of multiple Broadway, off-Broadway and touring company shows, plays O\u2019Connor, the trailblazing first female associate justice, and displays her well-earned pride helping repeal Arizona laws that violated the Equal Rights Amendment.<\/p>\n Stephanie Prentice, who outlines Sotomayor, the first Latina justice, is a Bay Area native who’s appeared withy 42nd Street Moon, San Francisco Playhouse, Shotgun Players, and Hillbarn. In character, she’s particularly poignant when delineating the Puerto Rican’s difficult childhood: a father who drank oo much and agued too much with her mom.<\/p>\n Justice contains 17 musical numbers, mostly trios and duets. It’s basically a sung-through, operetta-like presentation. Its one truly melodic song is “Notorious,” an upbeat, humorous entry performed perfectly by DiVito.<\/p>\n When the three together sing the music by Bree Lowdermilk and lyrics by Kait Kerrigan, they’re tight, clearly well-rehearsed. Direction by Ashley Rodbro is likewise tight.<\/p>\n Karen Murphy (left) plays Sandra Day O\u2019Connor while Lynda DiVito depicts RBG. Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n What’s absent throughout, however, is tension, except when the musical’s book showcases Episcopalian and staunch Republican O’Connor’s deciding vote in the December 2000 Bush v. Gore was that tilted the presidential election, a choice that caused Jewish leftist Ginsburg pronounced anguish. Here O’Conn cops to wanting a Republican president to replace her; in rebuttal, RBG claims the decision means or entire system will suffer a loss in “confidence in the rule of law.”<\/p>\n The book, not incidentally, is by super-prolific Lauren M. Gunderson, the Marin Theatre Company’s longtime artist-in-residence and a playwright with a rep for pushing a feminist agenda. Justice<\/em> is the fifth play of hers the MTC has mounted.<\/p>\n Most touching moments in it are when Ginsburg and O\u2019Connor deal with their husbands\u2019 dementia \u2014 and then when O\u2019Connor, now still alive at 92, must cope with her own. In \u201cWhen the Mind Goes,\u201d she sings sadly, \u201cYou\u2019re inside a china shop and time is a bull.\u201d<\/p>\n Humor is sporadic, but playful. The RBG character draws chuckles, for instance, when she invites Sotomayor to join her twice-weekly gym workouts at 7 a.m. Sotomayor simply scowls at the notion.<\/p>\n Personal moments, for the most part, connect better with the audience than the recitation of key court cases \u2014 such as when Justice<\/em> spotlights RBG and<\/em>O\u2019Connor\u2019s cancers.<\/p>\n One of the biggest positive outbursts from the crowd comes, however, when, near the end, confirmation of Black female Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is cited.<\/p>\n References to male justices, meanwhile, are skimpy, including that RBG has been \u201cbest buddies\u201d with her philosophical antithesis, Antonin Scalia. Merrick Garland\u2019s blocked nomination is referred to only obliquely, namelessly, and there are no hints whatsoever that Amy Coney Barrett or Elena Kagan even exist.<\/p>\n Justice<\/em>\u2019s two-story-high set is wonderfully creative. Minimalist. Still, it can turn from a bathroom sink (where RBG and O\u2019Connell are humanized as they wash their hands next to each other), into a desk, into a place where justices are confirmed, to another where they render decisions. The backdrop features massive columns and a high space where the names of major legal cases are projected.<\/p>\n Regarding recent cases, Sotomayor laments about being in the minority, about court life being filled with \u201crejections and rollbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n Every day is disheartening, she bemoans, \u201cwhen you\u2019re on the losing side.\u201d But the tone decidedly changes when the court affirms gay marriage.<\/p>\n Even though the regional Arizona Theatre Company premiered an earlier incarnation of Justice<\/em> in 2022, this 90-minute, intermission-less show is still a bit choppy, bouncing from this or that subject and timeframe, and from the legal to the personal and back again.<\/p>\n But it definitely affirms the history of three feminist icons \u2014 and underscores the refrain, \u201cWhen will there be enough women on the court? When there are nine!\u201d<\/p>\n Justice<\/em> runs at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through March 12. Tickets: $25 to $65. Info: 415-388-5200 or info@marintheatre.org<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>or on his websites, https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>and<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>https:\/\/vitality press.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The three Justice singers portraying top-court judges can\u2019t compare to The Supremes, but they\u2019re powerful anyway \u2014 if you believe the message can be the massage. That message,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":3.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106398","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"<\/a>