I managed, luckily, to see Ain’t No Mo‘ before it quickly closed on Broadway after opening to ecstatic reviews.  After numerous celebrity interventions the show hung on for one extra week and I happened to be in town for its penultimate show.  I was floored.

The basic premise for this mind-blowing assemblage of skits is an America which is offering black citizens free one-way tickets back to Africa.  Gate Agent Peaches is hurrying passengers along as this particular flight is going to be the last one.  If you stay, the law will no longer protect you.  (Weirdly that seemed too realistic.)  The flight number is 1619, the year the first enslaved Africans were carted to our shores.  Peaches might say “Category is… Critical Race Theory Extravaganza!”

The show opens at a funeral for Brother Righttocomplain.  In his eulogy Pastor Freeman lets his congregation (the audience) know that all prior grievances from his people are now dead and buried with the election of Barack Obama as President.  This evolves into wildly uncomfortable humor delivered on purpose with the intention to provoke.  He chides the audience to shout the N word during one sequence.  The African American woman in front of me looked around as if to say “you better don’t”.  My take was she was warning everyone not just nearby white people.  The author, however, seemed to have none of that trepidation.

Every scene was memorably outrageous and bitingly on point.  The tone is satire ratcheted up to offend, illuminate and tear down any pretense of tiptoeing around the issues of race.  All of that in an uproarious comedy brimming with stinging bitch slaps to a myriad of targets.

Peaches is played by the play’s author Jordan E. Cooper in a memorable drag turn filled with the expected laughs.  Not all the energy is clearly black and white.  Grays pepper the proceedings too.  Mr. Cooper spends a minute commenting on how badly he was treated by other black men in his formative years.

There is a segment lambasting the real housewives and other similar franchises.  This one slays.  A well-to-do family who has climbed up the ladder to “a deluxe apartment in the sky” has mixed feelings about returning to Africa.  They would be giving up a lot of delicious capitalistic trappings and, notably, their homeland was Nigeria.  A hidden surprise awaits.

This production is Broadway handsome with colorful and witty technical elements.  Steven Walker-Webb’s direction keeps the laughter escalating.  When there is a moment of pain, the contrast is vivid and deeply disconcerting.

Ain’t No Mo’ is a triumphant piece of theater.  That all of this hilarious mayhem came out of one person’s young mind is revelatory.  Boundaries were pushed and the results were riotous… this full throttle comedic attack on our fucked up racial history needed to be absorbed by so many more people.  That it made it to Broadway is a step.  Let’s see what the Tony Awards have to add.  They better not forget the creative force that is Mr. Cooper and at least two of his superb castmates, Marchánt Davis and Crystal Lucas-Perry.

There will likely be no productions of Ain’t No Mo’ planned in the state of Florida any time soon.

Ain’t No Mo’ closed on December 23, 2022.

The Piano Lesson marks the halfway point of my journey through August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle.  He wrote ten plays chronicling the African American experience during each decade of the twentieth century.  Each one of them thus far has been outstanding.  This masterpiece won the Pulitzer Prize as did Fences.

The drama takes place in 1936.  Doaker Charles (Samuel L. Jackson) lives in his home with his niece Berniece (Danielle Brooks) and her daughter Maretha (Jurnee Swan).  Her brother Boy Willie (John David Washington) and his friend Lymon (Ray Fisher) arrive one day early in the morning from down south.  They are sharecroppers who have a truckload of watermelon to sell.

The owner of the farm where they work is dead, having fallen down a well under mysterious circumstances.  Boy Willie believes his future lies in buying that now available piece of land.  His idea involves not only selling the produce but also the family heirloom.  The piano was carved by an enslaved ancestor.  The images include the faces of a great-grandfather’s wife and son during their enslavement.

Despite an emotionally troubled relationship with the piano, Berniece has no intention of letting it go.  Preacher Avery (Trai Byers) once brought a buyer to the house but Berniece refused to sell.  Boy Willie hatches a plan to have that buyer located.  He owns half of that piano and wants to put his inheritance to use.

Wining Boy (Michael Potts) is the elder brother of Doaker Charles.  A comical character, he fancies himself a successful musician and gambler.  In actuality he is an alcoholic who often has little or no money.  Each adult character has an opinion about this piano, some of which will evolve during the course of the story.

The play also touches on various themes related to present and past.  Never forgetting one’s roots and also woefully looking backward versus living in the present with a keen eye on the future.  That is not a generational tug-of-war but an individual one.  Boy Willie most aggressively looks ahead while Wining Boy’s best days are memories which are long behind him.

As in the superb Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, supernatural elements figure into this drama.  These people are haunted by their histories.  The piano is a physical embodiment of that deeply felt connection.  From the beginning of the play, however, a more ethereal presence is felt.  A phantasmic mysteriousness hovers over these characters as well as over the audience.

Mr. Jackson’s wife, Latanya Richardson Jackson, directed this clearly staged and vividly told tale.  Her husband, an enormous stage and screen star, originated the role of Boy Willie thirty five years ago at the Yale Repertory Theatre and understudied the role in its original Broadway outing.  His performance here as the older Doaker is spot on with nary a moment of showboating star power ego.

This production’s Boy Willie, John David Washington, is the son of another A-list star, Denzel.  I saw the father’s Tony winning performance in a 2010 Broadway revival of Fences.  The son is exceptionally fine in this role as well.  Boy Willie is a big character, a somewhat unlikable schemer who is filled to the brim with personality and drive.

Ms. Brooks’ Berniece is a complex combination of hard-earned strength and debilitating anxiety.  Mr. Potts depiction of Wining Boy is an edgy, comical thrill.  Everyone in the cast is excellent, including a spectacular cameo from April Matthis as Grace, a woman Boy Willie and Lymon meet on the town one night.

As Lymon, Ray Fisher delivered a phenomenally realized characterization which was deceptively simple.  A quiet type, he experiences this family as we do.  Everything about his performance was incredibly realistic with memorable physicality and an understated yet heartwarming sense of optimism.  Maybe a new life can be had in the North.

All the technical elements of this staging are excellent.  I did find the direction occasionally distracting when multiple monologues were performed dead center facing the audience rather than towards other members of the cast.

In addition to those plays already mentioned, I’ve also seen Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and Jitney.  Picking a favorite in this Cycle is impossible.  If you haven’t seen any of Mr. Wilson’s work, The Piano Lesson is an awesome place to start.  During a week of theater where I attended seven shows, this one was my absolute favorite.

www.pianolessonplay.com

The prolific playwright Tom Stoppard has said Leopoldstadt will be his final play.  He is now in his eighties having been a success since 1966’s Rosencranz and Guildenstern are Dead, an absurdist riff on two minor Shakespeare characters from Hamlet.  This new play is a very personal work as all four of his grandparents died in a Nazi concentration camps.

Mr. Stoppard has set his play at intervals between 1899 and 1955.  At the onset, a large extended family is gathered for the holidays.  A tree is being decorated.  This family traces its lineage to Leopoldstadt where years earlier they fled the Russian pogroms.  Now settled comfortably in Vienna, they are prosperous and well-educated.

The story first follows this family through ordinary events such as relationships, children and business.  The time period moves on to the impact of World War I through the Anschluss in 1938 when Germany annexed Austria.  World War II follows.  For a predominately Jewish family, the plot is not new and much of this history is known.  The viewer, however, will face this broad historical outline in a very intimate setting.

The story naturally evolves from the depiction of family dynamics to the horrors which descend upon them.  The audience is asked to bear witness and peer into a house and its people as they try to make sense of the unfolding chaos.  What does one do?  Are there options?  Were warning signs heeded early enough?

There are obvious comparisons to be made between this period and our own.  The vilification of certain peoples by the self-proclaimed betters.  The throngs of Austrians who welcomed Hitler into their midst with celebratory reverence.  That is certainly imagery we similarly witness today in undisguised fascist-like pro-Christian rallies.  There is a lot to take in here and the play is exceptionally effective.

As with many Stoppard works, there are many lines which are memorable.  In a scene set in 1924 one character comments that “the rational is at the mercy of the irrational”.  Hard to not see the direct parallel there unless you choose to be intentionally blind or, more aggressively, a stoker of racial and religious hate and fear.

Since the play concludes in 1955 some characters will survive.  A three person scene devastates in presenting morally complicated analyses and conflicting points of view.  There is no doubt about what happened or that it was horrific.  For the survivors there is only what’s next.

What is next?  That question felt important to me when leaving this occasionally overlong one act play.  (Uninterrupted sitting for 2:10 in the very uncomfortable seats of the Longacre Theatre is not ideal.)  The first and last scenes did seem excessive in length.  I will admit, however, that Mr. Stoppard deftly introduced an enormous cast, brought them to life and made us confront the demonic tendencies of the human race.

Leopoldstadt does what excellent theatrical dramas are supposed to do.  It shines a light.  Questions are asked.  We can absorb the material and its impact on ourselves while imaging what that impact is for others.  It educates and outrages us.  And, honestly, it exhausted and haunted me.  And scared me too.

Leopoldstadt is currently running on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre .

www.leopoldstadtplay.com

The screamingly hilarious POTUS is subtitled “Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive.”  This feminist farcical rant bamboozles the patriarchal pigs who rise to power.  Clearly the misogynistic buffoon numbered 45 was one inspiration for Selina Fillinger’s Broadway debut.

There are certainly whispers of other shockingly incompetent men who have occupied the White House.  Thankfully the President is a major character but not one on stage.  This comedy focuses on the women behind the scenes who keep him on track or at least from self-implosion.  All of them are presented as smarter than him.  There’s a nice underpinning theme which questions why the more intelligent lurk in the background.

The first word spoken in the play is “cunt”.   First thing in the morning the President was making a speech.  He incorrectly thought the First Lady was not in the room.  He explained her absence to the assembled dignitaries and reporters that his wife was having a “cunty morning”.  Julie White is the Chief of Staff and her day begins with crisis control.  She is knock down funny as she manages the escalating dramas of the day.

Suzy Nakamura is the beleaguered Press Secretary required to face the onslaught and spin the spin.  Vanessa Williams is the tough as nails, thick skinned First Lady.  I saw the false sincerity of Nancy Reagan, the political savvy of Barbara Bush and the unctuous fakeness of Elizabeth Dole.  Ms. Williams is fantastic in the part and avoiding her path is advisable.

Lilli Cooper winningly plays the newly divorced journalist from Time Magazine who recently had kids and is juggling career survival as a mom who must pump her breasts all day long.  Rachel Dratch is the President’s Press Secretary.  She is described as a “menopausal toddler”.  She speaks five languages and fears for her job security.  This role requires massive amounts of inane physical comedy and Ms. Dratch beautifully underplays the over-the-top hijinks.  As a result, she steals scenes left and right.  Hard to do in this crowd of skilled actresses.

As the President’s criminal, imprisoned, very butch sister, Lea Delaria shows up for a little pardon action.  She cannot predict the actions which will unfold on this particular day but she will relish in the proceedings.  And make us laugh hard.

Finally, and spectacularly, Julianne Hough arrives as an unknown “woke powderpuff” vomiting blue slushies in the bathroom.  I will not spoil the surprise and let you find out why she has shown up.  It is not a far-fetched scenario given the morals of the men who frequently inhabit the office.  Ms. Hough is insanely good as Bernadette.  I would have added her name to the Tony nominations for Ms. White and Ms. Dratch.  She’s that terrific.

The wildly uneven Director Susan Stroman shoots a bullseye here.  The audience laughed gleefully through the ever increasing madness.  Beowulf Boritt’s turntable set is joyfully unhinged as one White House room after another is revealed and re-revealed.  This play is simply great fun and the cast is excellent across the board.

The liberal leaning audience ate up the many zingers such as “trickle down economics are the worst!”  Jokes fly frequently and also hit at truths.  “The only reason we invited Bahrain is to show we give a shit about small Arab countries”.  This play is not political per se unless you believe that women are treated as equals in America.  Roe vs. Wade, anyone?

POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive is running at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway through August 14, 2022.

www.potusbway.com

Overheard at intermission:  “this may be the worst production of Shakespeare I’ve ever seen”.  Director Sam Gold can now confidently claim the crown of worst interpreter of the Bard in, at least, recent memory.  This version of Macbeth is utterly incomprehensible.

I often do not open my Playbill before a show.  In the case of Macbeth, I know the story and have seen many variations and adaptations.  Still running since 2011, the unique Sleep No More contained a killer rendition of “out damned spot” without language only movement.  This show was the polar opposite and the scene was dull.

Many directors approach these old classics and set them in various times with different settings.  I’ve seen dozens and dozens.  The Red Bull Theater’s marvelously macabre Macbeth comes to mind.  That was a riveting reinterpretation.  In order for any play to work, there has to be clear storytelling.  Broadway level requires even more.

After a needed post-theater beverage, I opened the Playbill which contained a pamphlet.  “A Note on the Production” on page one attempted to explain why there was minimal scenery, no major scene changes and actors playing multiple roles “like the theater of Shakespeare’s time”.

The middle two pages show pictures of the actors and list the roles they play.  A synopsis on the backside tells the whole story as if we are at the opera and the language is foreign.  Clearly they know the show is a confusing mess.  It is also an abomination of misguided vision at very high ticket prices.  If you know Macbeth fairly well, you will still be mystified as to what is going on.

Is there anything to recommend?  Daniel Craig is fine as Macbeth.  His performance in Othello downtown years ago was excellent.  Ruth Negga displays Lady Macbeth’s stature but with little depth of manipulation.  The Tony nomination for her is simply odd.  Both actors are overshadowed by the lack of focus in the staging and the storytelling.

Sam Gold’s King Lear a number of years ago was awful too.  Glenda Jackson was the victim then.  He did a wildly controversial The Glass Menagerie with Sally Field that many hated.  I actually like that one for its moments of risk taking excellence despite its bizarro staging.  I will think hard before seeing another show he directs.  The money will likely be better spent elsewhere.

That’s enough to say on this one.  A hard pass for all, including fans of these accomplished stars.

Macbeth is running on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre through July 10, 2022.

www.macbethbroadway.com

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