Displaying items by tag: Michael Turrentine

A musical, but it’s just the voices in your head. Sounds just crazy enough to win the 2020 Pulitzer for Drama. “A Strange Loop” by Michael R. Jackson finally makes its Chicago premiere at Raven Theatre in a co-production with About Face Theatre. Mikael Burke directs a fantastic production with a knock-out cast.

Not many musicals are awarded a Pulitzer for Drama. Only 10 in fact. So, when one is selected (before it plays Broadway), there’s a lot of curiosity. “A Strange Loop” is the best kind of new musical—in that it’s hard to explain. In the era of an abundance of movie-turned-musical adaptations, it’s refreshing to see something entirely unique.

In this seven-person, one-man show, Usher (Eddie Weaver) is working as an usher at a Broadway theater while writing a musical about an usher who works at a Broadway theater. In a series of songs spurned on by his intrusive thoughts, (played by a delightful cast of six) Usher’s creative process is laid bare, and we see the playwright struggling with his identity as a black gay man.  

Ever at odds with his “Internal white girl”, Usher spends his life stuck ruminating on his relationship with his parents, his sexuality, his gender, his race and his place in the world. In cleverly written, but firmly R-rated songs, we learn about his troubled relationship with his unintentionally cruel parents and his discomfort in his own skin.

John-Payne, Michael Turrentine, Eddie Weaver, Mattheus Barbee and Christopher Wayland. Photo by Joe Mazza / Brave Lux.

Weaver’s voice and sheer vulnerability as a performer make this 95 minute show a highly concentrated emotional experience. Usher’s internal monologue is brought to life by a wildly talented ensemble of six with character names like “Thought 1” and “Though 2” played by Micah Mixon, Matheus Barbee, Christopher Wayland, Michael Turrentine, John-Payne and Naphtali Curry.

“A Strange Loop” is a show that plays against the norms of traditional musical theatre in almost every aspect, yet it borrows so effortlessly from a lot of what likely inspired Michael R. Johnson. Instead of being driven by plot, Johnson goes full meta with a concept musical like “Company” meets “for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf” but with the playfulness of “Rent”. Each song is an exploration of a life that files down to a heartbreaking raw nerve.

This show never wallows in sadness though. As is often the case, comedians mask a great deal of pain. Johnson plays up the surreal absurdity of Usher’s life. In one song alone the audience is clapping along to a church choir beautifully belting “AIDS is God’s punishment!” all the while Usher is grappling with the trauma of being raised in a strict religion that his parents still belong to. This show is dark comedy about a man finding acceptance with himself, which is highly relatable for those who chronically overthink.

There’s something really special happening in this production. This cast fills the theater to the rafters with soaring vocals and brings the house down with roaring laughter. Michael Turrentine plays Usher’s mother in a way that anybody with a mother can chuckle at. His performance taps into a near constant sense of energy that make “A Strange Loop” highly satisfying to watch and listen to. You’ll be singing some of the unsettling lyrics right out the door.

Now through November 22 at Raven Theatre. 6157 N. Clark Street. 773-338-2177.

https://www.raventheatre.com/stage/astrangeloop/

There is a saying among the Maasai people that if you do not give an elephant a proper burial, it will haunt you for days. Lynn Nottage’s play Mlima’s Tale is an elephant ghost story. And in it we learn, elephants never forget!

Mlima is a legendary elephant on the savannas of a Kenyan game preserve where he lives. This elephant is personified by David Goodloe. He is a mountain of male beauty as well he should be; Mlima means mountain in Swahili.

Goodloe's perfectly toned body glistens under the atmospheric lighting by Jared Gooding, placed against the stark set by Joy Ahn. The setting foretells the clandestine events to come. As audience members we are ready to hear Mlima's tale.

 He is being pursued by two poachers for his tusks. Mlima tells of his origins and family life in detail.

“I was once a proud warrior, unafraid to be seen,” Mlima tells us. But that was “before the violent crackle, before the drought and the madness.” Now, “I run more than I walk, and I can never catch my breath. They are watching me. Watching always. I hear them all around me. And I run, more than I walk.”

But soon enough, Mlima is hit with a poison arrow. Not wanting to bring attention to their crime, the poachers choose not to shoot him. Instead, they watch him die an agonizingly slow death. When his death finally arrives, Mlima smears his body and face with white paint, reminiscent of the ritual body painting of African tribes.

We see Mlima's tusks travel from place to place, from one corrupt official to the next even more corrupt official, and around the world, until they end up in the home of the nouveau riche as a status symbol.

But the spirit of Mlima travels with the tusks and is present in the dealings between poachers, park rangers, wildlife directors, ivory traders, exporters, businessmen, ivory carvers, art dealers and ivory enthusiast. Everyone involved in the illicit movement and sale of the tusks receives a mark from the ghost of Mlima, a scarlet letter of sorts.

Director Jerrell Henderson has done an excellent job using 6 actors (Lewon Johns, Michael Turrentine, Collin McShane, Ben Chang, Christopher Thomas Pow and Sarah Lo) to portray 18 characters in this tale of greed, treachery and ivory to stunning results. The ensemble was some of the best work I’ve seen from a cast. Special mention must go to Lewon Johns for his interpretation of a Nigerian Government Official. His accent and characterization were spot on, as was the entire cast. Scene and costume changes are done quickly and effortlessly making the 90-minute runtime flies by.

Nottage, a graduate of the Yale School of Drama has won two Pulitzers for Sweat and Ruined, and is a MacArthur genius grant recipient among other honors. (My personal favorite Nottage play is Intimate Apparel.) Mlima's Tale is different in structure than her previous character driven plays. This is a tale told in the African folklore style.

Griffin Theatre's Mlima’s Tale is a beautiful, mesmerizing story that I promise you won’t forget. It runs at the Raven Theatre, 6157 N. Clark February 23 – March 21, 2020,  Thursday, Friday & Saturday at 7:30 pm. Sunday at 3:00 pm.

The Total Bent is a musical show so delightful I wish I could shrink it down, put it in a shoebox and show it to all my friends. But you can (and should) go see it full scale at Den Theatre, where it runs through March 10.

Ostensibly the story traces a British record producer’s effort to record a Gospel music prodigy in Montgomery, Alabama. But to be truthful the real story told by playwrights Heidi Rodewald and Stew depict with color and verve the personal journey of a creative spirit – Marty Roy (Gilbery Domally) – as he finds his voice and attains fame on a global stage.

All that is set against a sweeping portrait of the tense interplay between black music and African-American culture as the Civil Rights movement seized the day. It is told through the oedipal battle of a father and son who are at odds around matters, spiritual, social and musical.

The Total Bent features Chicago treasure Robert Cornelius as Montgomery preacher Joe Roy who has built his career as a Bible-thumping televangelist and Gospel music recording artist. This role taps Cornelius's wonderfully expressive baritone, and his stentorian delivery in the dialog.

But it is Gilbery Domally, as Joe’s young adult son, who steals the show, channelling the role of Marty Roy. He is dazzling! Domally is more like a force of nature than mere performer as he traverses a role that sees him evolve from his father’s hidden spiritual musical muse, moving across multiple musical styles and stage personae as he navigates toward his creative apotheosis on the world stage.

All this is told with an acerbic wit, and that ironic twist we get from the likes of Donald Glover, Jordan Peel, and Spike Lee.
From the moment Marty Roy prances onto the stage, we are treated to a continuous critique of his father, and an uproarious and irreverent running commentary on the conflicts between those clinging to the status quo in the Jim Crow South, as Black Power emerged.

Joe Roy is celebrated for his inspiring, traditional Gospel songs. But to keep the song mill moving, he relied on his wife, now gone, and now his son Marty, to pen the music. As the social revolution rocks Montgomery and the South, Marty encourages his father to tap into it in his preaching and singing, and provides him a lovely song with a scathing refrain: “That’s why he’s Jesus and you’re not, Whitey.” Marty asks the Music Director (Jermain Hill, who also plays Deacon Charlie, is a stitch) to do a retake: "Try a less church-y sound," he says. "I am such a pest!" 

Siding with social conservatives, “This protesting stuff is going to ruin everything,” Joe Roy tells his son. “Is there any real money in it?” He advises Montgomery's white people to ride the buses to combat the boycott by blacks that was launched by Rosa Parks. “If our spiritual rights were in order, we wouldn’t need no civil rights,” he advises his African-American followers.

Then Marty Roy skips across to stage right, waves his hand, and offers an explanation to the audience (it's hard to imagine today, but most white people regarded Parks as a villain): “This all be the past, and shit.” Rather than labor in his father's vineyard, Marty sets out to become a secular music writer, and we watch him transform in stages, becoming a James Brown soul singer with carefully choreographed back-ups, to a Prince-like apparition who has continuous bookings in London.

The Total Bent is largely a sung work, with limited amounts of dialog. It is the latest theatrical script by the creative team of Heidi Rodewald, and Stew. The two rose to fame with Passing Strange, which won a Tony, an Obie, and a Drama Critics Circle Award in 2008. Stew (he doesn’t use his last name, See) is a singer, songwriter, and leader of a pop-rock band in Los Angeles called The Negro Problem, which recorded Post Minstrel Syndrome in 1997. As this background suggest, Stew mines a rich vein of “detached black irony” in his creations.

The music is wonderful, two band members also characters: Frederick Harris as Deacon Dennis; and Jermain Hill as Deacon Charlie. Outstanding also were supporting cast members Michael Turrentine as Andrew and Breon Arzell as Abee – the duo deftly taking on a variety of comical roles as church ladies and bumpkins.

Among so many striking aspects of the show, we get to see and hear several songs composed, Joe Roy's sacred version, then a retake by Marty Roy in a profane rock style. One such is "Sinner I Know You're Lost." It's a lovely classic hymn as Joe Roy originates it; but it is transporting when Marty Roy redoes it in a swinging rock style, coupled with the refrain, "I gotta get up on the cross." 

The Total Bent is highly recommended on its own merits, and especially to see Gilbery Domally’s amazing performance. Jointly produced by Haven Theatre and About Face Theatre, it features dummer Christian Moreno on drums, Anthony Rodriguez on winds, Derek Duleba on guitar, and Kurt Shelby on Bass. It’s at the Den Theatre through March 17.

It's not often you'll hear cool and the play 'Picnic' in the same sentence, but director Will Davis' new version at American Theater Company is just that. This is William Inge's 1953 Pulitzer Prize winner as you've never seen it before. For many, 'Picnic' triggers high school boredom flashbacks. When traditionally produced, this play can tend to be a little dry. Not the case here, with unique staging and deconstructed notions of gender, Davis brings Inge's work into our century. 

William Inge was himself gay in a time period in which it was not acceptable. The theme of secret desire in 'Picnic' parallel Inge's own struggle with being other in a more straight-laced world. Though the Midwest has certainly changed since the 1950's, much of its close-mindedness still exists and that's what remains relevant about Inge's play. 

This is Will Davis' first full season as artistic director of American Theater Company and this production is bound to get noticed. This version of 'Picnic' begins as almost performance art; a woman takes a seat at a piano and the cast enters in the shadows. In look and feel, this production couldn't be more different from the traditional staging. While jarring at first, the cast immediately finds its footing and makes Inge's dialogue come to life. Artful and visually stunning effects are peppered throughout, which make for a memorable experience. 

Performances are impressive here. Davis' gender-blind casting forces you to focus not on what a performer looks like but rather how their performance makes you feel. In the role of transient stud Hal, is Molly Brennan. While it's apparent she is female, through costuming and attitude, Brennan delivers Hal with such sincerity, it brings to mind Mary Martin's Peter Pan. Malic White is striking in the role of Madge. White's petite and soft spoken Madge turns preconceived notions about feminine beauty on its head. Spinster school teacher Rosemary is played hilariously by Michael Turrentine whose physicality couldn’t be more spot on. 

Classic plays should be analyzed in every time for their relevance. These plays can only stay part of the cannon if they connect to a modern audience. It's important for theater companies to take risks and make bold choices to usher these works into a new millennium. Will Davis' 'Picnic' hints at a fearless future for American Theater Company. 

Through April 23 at American Theater Company. 1909 W Byron St. 773-409-4125