Juneteenth – celebrated on June 19 – marks the day that African Americans in Galveston, Texas, learned they were no longer enslaved, a full two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. The federal holiday is a reminder that sometimes journeys are hard, long and full of unexpected twists and turns. This month’s column focuses on two very different protagonists in two very different stage productions, each on a journey seeking meaning and fulfillment on their own terms. Read on for our curated selection.
In the Spotlight
“Pippin,” Signature Theatre
May 12-July 26,
www.sigtheatre.org
The lore surrounding Stephen Schwartz, Roger O. Hirson and Bob Fosse’s Tony Award-winning 1973 musical “Pippin” is almost as legendary as the musical itself. How much of the work is based on the life of medieval King Charlemagne’s first-born son Pepin the Hunchback, after whom the musical takes its name? Did Schwartz and Fosse really fall out over their competing visions during the early development of the show? Is the darkly seductive and enigmatic Leading Player the devil in disguise, manipulating the protagonist for his own dark purposes? Does any of it really matter?
Signature Theatre’s artistic director Matthew Gardiner sets the mythology surrounding “Pippin” aside to present audiences with a richly developed and glittering reimagining of Schwartz, Hirson and Fosse’s tale of a young man’s rite of passage, and it’s probably the most entertaining thing you’ll see all year. Staged in the round under a ceiling of sparkling stars, Gardiner’s “Pippin” features an ensemble cast, flawless choreography by Rachel Leigh Dolan and vocal performances that’ll knock your socks off. As a pink-cheeked, naive and youthfully exuberant Pippin looking for “magic to do,” Brayden Bambino is a wonder to watch and listen to. Paired with the slick and charming Cedric Neal as the notorious Leading Player (who leads Pippin down the path of temptation into war, sex, activism and ultimately true love), the contrast between Bambino’s ingenuousness and Neal’s painstakingly crafted Machiavellianism is a match made in theater heaven.
The campy, vampy, tongue-in-cheek historicism of Gardiner’s “Pippin” is embodied not only through Fosse’s quintessential jazz-dance-style choreography but also through sumptuous costuming by Erik Teague. The tightly buttoned waistcoats, corsets, lacy ruffs and fishnet stockings read as an ode to the faded elegance of Germany’s Weimar Republic in the early 1920s. A special mention has to go to Maria Rizzo as Fastrada, Pippin’s scheming stepmother, who clearly relishes her role as a black widow femme fatale planning the downfall of Pippin’s father King Charles (played by Eric Hissom) so as to elevate her own son to the throne. I’d watch the musical again just for her. A robust dramaturgy adds plenty of not-so-subtle references to our current political climate that’ll keep you engaged and thinking: the folly and grotesqueries of war, strongman politics and the double-edged sword of social activism.
The second act of “Pippin” can sometimes feel untethered from the first (yet more lore: Schwartz and Hirson were apparently convinced by legendary theater director and producer Harold Prince to add the second act), but Gardiner and the cast more than adequately maintain the energy throughout, deftly stitching the two acts together over two hours and 30 minutes with the promise of Pippin’s “Grand Finale,” during which the conventional fourth wall is violently and unexpectedly torn down.
“Pippin” has been so endlessly malleable and infinitely enjoyable over scores of different productions for 53 years because Pippin’s quest for something bigger speaks to all of us. No doubt the real Pepin the Hunchback would be amused to learn his brief life had inspired such a dazzling tale.
On Right Now
“Purlie Victorious,”
Studio Theatre
May 6-June 21,
www.studiotheatre.org
There’s an undeniable pleasure in pulling out an old sweater from the back of your closet and finding it still fits in all the right places. It’s cozy, comfortable, and even though it’s not as trendy as it was when you first wore it, there’s a nostalgic delight that washes over you as you slip it on. Just like your favorite old sweater, Ossie Davis’s infrequently produced 1961 play “Purlie Victorious” has been brought back to life thanks to Studio Theatre’s artistic director David Muse and director Psalmayene 24, and it’s a rare and special thing to experience.
Bringing new energy to older work on stage isn’t always easy. Much like that old sweater, there can be loose threads, stretched hems or a few stubborn stains that need an extra scrubbing. In the masterful hands of Psalmayene 24 (who’s still basking in the glowing reviews of “The Young John Lewis: Prodigy of Protest” at Mosaic Theater Company), Davis’s Beecher Stowe-styled characters are rendered in technicolor by a cast of actors fully rounded in their performances.
“Purlie Victorious” tells the tale of Purlie Victorious Judson, a highminded and loquacious itinerant preacher who returns to his home state of Jim Crow-era Georgia in the 1950s armed with a daring scheme to win back Big Bethel – the local community church – from the stereotypically evil and racist local landowner Ol’ Capn’ Cotchipee. Written by Davis in the wake of Emmett Till’s murder, the comedy highlights the inherent absurdity of segregation in the South through humor, farce and anachronistic “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” inspired characters set within a prototypical, pre-civil-rights-movement Georgia landscape.
Like old fabric worn thin yet carrying a familiar luster, Davis’s Rev. Purlie (played to detailed perfection by Warner Miller right down to the faint sheen of sweat on his forehead), his parochial accomplice and love interest Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins (Danaya Esperanza, who has oodles of fun with the role), Purlie’s brother Gitlow Judson and his wife Missy Judson (Jason Bowen and Kelli Blackwell respectively) are instantly recognizable tropes. Davis – a Howard University alum – was no doubt aware of this and the covert ability of Purlie, Lutiebelle, Gitlow, Missy and the Simon Legree-like Capn’ Cotchipee (Stephen Patrick Martin) to needle the hearts and minds of the Broadway audiences who purchased tickets to see the play when it opened 65 years ago.
Psalmayene 24’s “Purlie Victorious” is freshly laundered, updated and ready for a night out on the town. No attention to detail has been spared, from the squeaky screen door hinges to the sweet potato pie and the smooth as silk southern dialects. Alexander Woodward’s set design and Cidney Forkpah’s costuming accentuate Davis’s fast-paced and virtuosic script, which is honored by every actor onstage and by Psalmayene 24 himself. As the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is assailed across the country and as we commemorate Juneteenth, “Purlie Victorious” is a reminder that the fight is never really over. Go see it now.
