CAROLINE OR CHANGE
Subject: Quicktake - "Caroline or Change" -book & lyrics - Tony Kuschner; music - Jeanine Tesori
Date: Sun, May 7, 10:27 PM
Quicktake on CAROLINE OR CHANGE
Speakeasy's N.E. premiere of Kuschner & Tesori's Tony nominated music drama, Caroline or Change--in association with North Shore Music Theatre--is a challenge for their established expertise, the excellent cast of mostly local singers, and the audience's attention. This modern "folk opera", with Jeanine Tesori's usual eclectic mix of musical styles ranging from Motown to klezmer, from classical to jazz is sung-through using Tony Kushner's heightened prose for most of the show. Award-winning actress Jacqui Parker, the artistic director of Our Place Theatre and the African-American Theatre Festival plays the title character, a disappointed but determined divorcee, supporting her three younger children working as a maid for the Gellmans, a well-off Jewish family in Port Charles, Louisiana. Her oldest son is in the Army in Vietnam. Her oldest daughter Emmie, sung by Shavanna Calder, is becoming increasingly rebellious and Black. It's late fall 1963. The Gellman's young son, Noah, played by Jacob Brandt, misses his mother terribly, especially since his father Stuart, played by Michael Mendiola, has just remarried one of the boy's late mother's friends, Rose, played by Sarah Corey.
This might all sound like a soup opera set against the background of JFK's asassination and the rising turmoil of the '60s, but Kuschner and Tesori start off the show with a comic abstraction. Caroline's first scene is alone in the basement, doing the daily laundry. Her companions are the washer, the dryer, and the radio. These all "sing"; this is an opera of sorts. The Washing Machine is sung by A'lisa D. Miles, resplendent in white wearing an elaborate head wrap. She also appears later in the show as the Moon, a bit like something out of "The Magic Flute." The almost satanic Dryer wearing a pompadour and ruffles is sung down and dirty by Brian Richard Robinson, Robinson also appears twice later as the Bus, symbolized by its driver, with a placard round his neck directing negro passengers to the back of the vehicle. The Radio is sung by Emilie Battle, Nikki Stephenson and Anich D'Jae Wright, in pink party dresses complete with elbow length gloves, with a MoTown sound and all the moves. The show's choreography was done by Jackie Davis. Even though the script has a basis in Kuschner's childhood in Louisiana and some family traumas, almost everything is stylized to some degree, so that moments of realistic acting become all the more powerful. The three grandparents, the Gellmans, played by Dorothy and Dick Santos, and Rose's old radical father, played by Sean McGuirk, form a base for this reality. Father expresses himeslf as often on the clarinet as through speech, while Rose, a transplanted New Yorker, rejected by her stepson and unsatisfied by her new husband, is in a quandary.
Caroline's interaction outside of her place of employment is largely with Dotty Moffet, played with sincerity by Merle Perkins. Dotty is dressing in current styles and attending night classes at the community college. The two grow further apart as Caroline's frustration and suspicion about change grows. She clings fiercely to her family as Emmie tries to become her own person, and the younger two, Jackie played by Breanna Bradlee, and Joe, played by Dominic Gates, try to please their mother. Throughout this complex story, Tesori's eclectic music leads the way under music director Jose Delgado's able control. Each character has an effective and appropriate sound, with Davis' strong alto at the center. Director Paul Daigneault has assembled an experienced and committed ensemble resulting in a unified show despite its at times rarified styling. Eric Levenson's unit set with set pieces on wagons, well-served by John R. Malinowwski's area lighting keeps the focus of the characters. Gail Astrid Buckley's costumes are of the period without drawing attention to themselves, except for the abstract characters. Once again, Speakeasy has brought a complete and satisfying contemporary production to the BCA.
"Caroline or Change" - Tony Kuschner & Jean Tesori, May 5 - June 3
Speakeasy Stage Co. in Roberts Studio, Calderwood
BCA, 527 Tremont , (617) 933 - 8600
Speakeasy Stage Co.
posted by will at 1:10 PM
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