White Noise

B+
Since seeing Suzan-Lori Parks’s Father Comes Home From the War (Parts 1, 2 and 3) over four years ago, I have been eagerly awaiting her return to the Public Theater. The wait is finally over. However, instead of the next installment of that epic work, we have an entirely new play which takes a highly original and provocative look at interracial relations in today’s America. In it we meet four 30-ish adults, two white, two black, who have been friends since college. Leo (Daveed Diggs; Hamilton) is a black artist with insomnia and artist’s block. Ralph (Thomas Sadoski; Other Desert Cities) is an emblem of white privilege who inherited a fortune from his abusive father, but is stymied as an unpublished assistant professor. Misha (Sheria Irving; While I Yet Live) makes blackness work for her with a streaming internet show “Ask a Black.” Dawn (Zoë Winters; The Last Match, Red Speedo) is a white do-gooder whose altruism is problematic. When the play opens, Leo and Dawn are a couple, as are Ralph and Misha. We learn that back in college, Leo was paired with Misha and Ralph with Dawn. There’s also another relationship hiding out of sight. After becoming a victim of police violence, Leo makes a shocking proposal to Ralph which you may have difficulty buying into. I will not reveal it, because it would reduce the impact of discovery. I hope you can suspend your disbelief because the ramifications of their agreement are the basis for the rest of the play. Parks’s writing combines humor, drama, pathos and polemic. The actors are superb. Diggs and Sadoski are a formidable combination. The ingenious set by Clint Ramos (Wild Goose Dreams, Barbecue) contains a major surprise. The costumes by Toni-Leslie James (Come from Away, Jitney) help to develop each character. Oskar Eustis’s direction is fluid. The play could use some judicious trimming and a stronger ending. Nevertheless, it stands out as one of the most original, thought-provoking plays I have seen in quite a while. Running time: 3 hours 10 minutes, including intermission.

Hamilton ****

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s highly anticipated hip-hop musical about the life of one of our most intriguing founding fathers is now in previews at the Public Theater. Stop reading long enough to buy a ticket, if you can snag one. [As of February 4, the Public website indicates that there are tickets available starting in early April.] The multi-talented Miranda not only wrote the music, lyrics and book; he is the co-arranger and, last but not least, the star. This ambitious, inventive show is strong across the board: the entertaining, informative and emotionally involving book is filled with moments of humor and pathos, the characters are vividly drawn, the lyrics are extremely clever, the deceptively simple scenic design (by David Korins) is effective, the costumes (by Paul Tazewell) are attractive, the choreography (by Andy Blankenbuehler) supports the action well, the cast is uniformly excellent and the direction (by Thomas Kail) is fluid and assured. As for the music, hip-hop will never be a genre that I gravitate to, but Miranda makes a strong case for its expressive possibilities. Miranda captures the complexities of Hamilton’s personality. Brian D’Arcy James almost steals the show as King George. Daveed Diggs excels at his two juicy roles — Lafayette and Jefferson. Leslie Odom Jr. is a fine Aaron Burr. Philllipa Soo is touching as Elizabeth, Hamilton’s loyal wife, and Renée Elise Goldsberry is excellent as her sister Angelica. Christopher Jackson has just the right gravitas for George Washington. Miranda was inspired by Ron Chernow’s 818-page revisionist biography of Hamilton. If there is a fault, it is that he was overambitious and included too much material. I was a bit exhausted by play’s end, but it was a pleasant kind of exhaustion. A transfer to Broadway seems inevitable. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes including intermission.