Paradise Blue

B

Things look very promising upon arrival at the Linney Theatre at Signature Center for the final installment of Dominique Morisseau’s (Skeleton Crew, Pipeline) Detroit trilogy. The walls of the theater are covered with vintage posters for jazz concerts. The set by Neil Patel (An Ordinary Muslim; Time and the Conways) evokes the look of a seedy bar in the Black Bottom area of that city in 1949. At one end we see an upstairs rental room perfect in period detail down to the mauve chenille bedspread. Two huge electric PARADISE signs overhang the set, each facing half the audience seated on opposite sides of the stage. A lively burst of jazz plays as the lights dim. We meet each of the colorful characters: Blue (J. Alphonse Nicholson), the bar’s owner and trumpet player; Pumpkin (Kristolyn Lloyd; Dear Evan Hansen, Invisible Thread), Blue’s lover, cook and cleaning woman, who likes to memorize poems; Corn (Keith Randall Smith; The Piano Lesson, Jitney), pianist, widower and longtime friend of Blue’s; P-Sam (Francois Battiste; Prelude to a Kiss, Head of Passes), a young drummer down on his luck; and Silver (Simone Missick), a sultry black widow who rents the upstairs room. Blue’s bar is at the heart of a thriving area of black-owned businesses, threatened by a new mayor who wants to eliminate “blight.” Each of the characters has personal reasons for wanting the bar either to remain open or to close. The characters, mostly richly drawn, would feel right at home in an August Wilson play except for Silver, who seems to have wandered in from a noir film. Skillful director Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Jitney, The Piano Lesson) is in his comfort zone. The period costumes by Clint Ramos (Night Is a Room, Appropriate) are wonderful. Because the production has so much going for it, I am sorry to report that the play does not fully live up to its promise. The plot is not as coherent as it should be. The character of Blue is so relentlessly unsympathetic and devoid of charm that it is hard to care about his fate; I am curious whether another actor could have fared better with the role. Nevertheless, I enjoyed seeing the other first-rate actors making the most of juicy roles. Ms. Lloyd and Mr. Smith are especially fine. It’s not up there with Morisseau’s  Skeleton Crew, but it is still worth seeing. Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes including intermission.