{"id":19276,"date":"2015-06-22T12:52:48","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T19:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=19276"},"modified":"2015-06-22T12:55:08","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T19:55:08","slug":"choir-boy-is-a-powerful-drama-in-marin-buoyed-by-spirituals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/choir-boy-is-a-powerful-drama-in-marin-buoyed-by-spirituals\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Choir Boy\u2019 is a powerful drama in Marin buoyed by spirituals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pharus (Jelani Alladin, left) and his teacher, Mr. Pendleton (Charles Shaw Robinson), share a connective moment in \u201cChoir Boy.\u201d Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p>\n

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Headmaster Marrow (Ken Robinson, left) admonishes his nephew, Bobby (Dimitri Woods), in \u201cChoir Boy.\u201d Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p>\n
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Choir members (from left) Anthony (Jaysen Wright), David (Forest Van Dyke) and Pharus (Jelani Alladin) meet for their first practice in \u201cChoir Boy.\u201d Photo by Kevin Berne.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n

[Woody’s [rating: 5]<\/span><\/p>\n

I can\u2019t remember ever feeling as white as when I saw \u201cChoir Boy,\u201d the new Marin Theatre Company drama.<\/p>\n

The play, which provides scaffolding for the notion of tolerance, is incredibly powerful.<\/p>\n

And incredibly black.<\/p>\n

Playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney immediately sets the tone with a black prep school commencement where the words \u201csissy\u201d and \u201cnigger\u201d are hurled at a gay student.<\/p>\n

I thought I\u2019d been color-blind all my life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d banded on civil rights issues in the early \u201860s with militant black attorney Paul Zuber and self-styled radical lawyer Paul Kunstler.<\/p>\n

Earlier, I\u2019d joined my father in welcoming into our home in a New York suburb what then were called Negroes. I\u2019d enjoyed rhythmic, bluesy \u201crace records\u201d spun by \u201cMoondog\u201d (deejay Alan Freed) and spirituals by Mahalia Jackson and less famous African American artists. I\u2019d been moved beyond belief by Billie Holiday wailing \u201cStrange Fruit,\u201d a musical lamentation for a lynching.<\/p>\n

I thought I\u2019d earned my liberal stripes.<\/p>\n

In 100 \u201cin-your-face\u201d minutes, \u201cChoir Boy\u201d showed me I\u2019ve been practically delusional.<\/p>\n

Being Caucasian inevitably precludes a total understanding of the black condition.<\/p>\n

\u201cChoir Boy\u201d is markedly pertinent today, when city after city in the United States face sharper racial divides than in decades.<\/p>\n

During rehearsal of the show, director Kent Gash told his actors: \u201cNo play happens in a vacuum\u2026As we have seen in recent events in Baltimore, African American male lives are at risk. It\u2019s hard not to feel like an endangered species sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u201cChoir Boy\u201d is more than more an eye-opener \u2014 it\u2019s a masterpiece.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen four previous plays by MacArthur \u201cgenius\u201d grant winner McCraney \u2014 April\u2019s \u201cHead of Passes\u201d at the Berkeley Rep, and each part of his \u201cBrother\/Sisters Plays\u201d trilogy at the MTC, A.C.T. and Magic Theatre.<\/p>\n

Each was extraordinary. Each was formidable.<\/p>\n

This drama is better still.<\/p>\n

Craney seems to be growing exponentially as a playwright as he matures (he\u2019s only 34 now).<\/p>\n

\u201cChoir Boy,\u201d a coming-of-age story but so much more, pits a gifted homosexual scholarship recipient, Pharus, against Bobby, a student with current and historic family ties to the Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys.<\/p>\n

That fictional school is based on real black history.<\/p>\n

Before desegregation, about 100 such schools existed in the United States (only four remain today), which I hadn\u2019t known.<\/p>\n

Jelani Alladin instills vitality and reality in Pharus, a young man caught between a desire to be accepted and one of being himself, a theme that\u2019s also reflected in other characters, particularly David, a conflicted, wannabe pastor played by Forest Van Dyke.<\/p>\n

Pharus contrasts sharply with Bobby, hot-headedly portrayed by Dimitri Woods as a privileged rebel.<\/p>\n

The play, which premiered in London in 2012, is not without periodic injections of humor. But it\u2019s the anguish and poignancy that are unforgettable.<\/p>\n

And mind-blowing.<\/p>\n

Each of the seven \u201cChoir Boy\u201d cast members is superb, with each of the six black performers layering individualized vocal chops onto their thespian skills.<\/p>\n

Ken Robinson, who plays Headmaster Marrow, a rule-oriented man steeped in tradition, has the richest, deepest voice.<\/p>\n

None of the others are vocal slouches, though.<\/p>\n

Spirituals \u2014 both familiar (such as \u201cSometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child\u201d and \u201cWade in the Water\u201d) and not \u2014 are sprinkled throughout.<\/p>\n

They definitely buoy the drama.<\/p>\n

Were the originals uplifting and freeing, or did various slave songs include \u201ccoded messages\u201d? A cerebral onstage debate may feel like a distraction from the plot yet is a meaningful connection to black history.<\/p>\n

So\u2019s the performance of the sole white in the all-male cast, Charles Shaw Robinson, who\u2019s believable as Mr. Pendleton, a compassionate teacher who\u2019d marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and participated in countless sit-ins.<\/p>\n

You probably know somebody just like him.<\/p>\n

Rotimi Agbabiaka, as Junior Davis, Bobby\u2019s enabler and sidekick in delinquency, is responsible for most of the humor (though the Pharus character has his share).<\/p>\n

And filling out the cast is Jaysen Wright as Anthony (\u201cAJ\u201d), a sensitive athlete-scholar.<\/p>\n

The play, it should be noted, includes full-frontal nudity.<\/p>\n

Alladin \u2014 in a post-play \u201ctalk-back\u201d response to a question \u2014 explained it well: \u201cThe nudity is more than about being naked. It\u2019s a moment when the audience is being asked, \u2018Are you comfortable in your skin?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Most significantly, the play shows that African American men, like all others, are not one-dimensional, not stereotypes, but complex human beings.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a lesson I\u2019m unlikely to forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cChoir Boy\u201d plays at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through June 28. Night performances, 7 p.m. Sundays; 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays; 8 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Matinees, 1 p.m. Thursdays; 2 p.m., Saturdays and Sundays. Tickets: $10 to $55. Information: (415) 388-5208 or marintheatre.org.<\/em><\/p>\n

Contact Woody Weingarten at www.vitalitypress.com\/<\/a> or voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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