By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

B+

I was surprised when Signature Theatre announced they were reviving Lynn Nottage’s (Ruined, Sweat) comedy as part of her residency because it is less than eight years since it was seen in New York at Second Stage. Since I rated it one of my ten favorite plays of 2011 (https://gotham-playgoer.blogspot.com/2011/05/by-way-meet-vera-stark.html), I was happy to have a chance to see it again. This new production makes a good case for its strengths without managing to minimize its flaws. 

Vera Stark (Jessica Frances Dukes; Bootycandy, Is God Is) is a young black actress who is surviving in Hollywood in 1933 by serving as the maid of an insecure aging ingenue Gloria Mitchell (Jenni Barber; Wicked, The Nance) who is emotionally dependent on her. Gloria, who is known for her dying scenes, is out to capture the role of the octoroon title character in “Belle of New Orleans.” Vera would love to get the part of Tillie, her maid, but Gloria seems reluctant to put in a good word for her. Vera lives with two roommates, the buxom Lottie McBride (Heather Alicia Simms; Fabulation, Fairview), who is eating her way to mammy roles, and the voluptuous, light-skinned Anna Mae Simpkins (Carra Patterson; Jitney, Wit), who is “passing” as a Brazilian sexpot. While waiting outside the soundstage for Gloria, Vera meets Leroy Barksdale (Warner Miller; The Old Settler), a musician supporting himself as a chauffeur. When Gloria throws a party for studio mogul Mr. Slasvick (David Turner; The Invention of Love, In My Life) and the film’s German director Maxmillian Von Oster (Manoel Felciano; Sweeney Todd, Amelie) , she engages Lottie to help Vera serve. Van Oster’s date is none other than Anna Mae, complete with thick Brazilian Portuguese accent, and his driver turns out to be Leroy.  It soon becomes clear that the mogul and the director do not share the same vision for the film. The party scene is hilarious, especially when Vera and Lottie attempt to portray the rapidly changing conceptions of their desired roles. As the first act ends, we do not know the fate of the proposed film. 

The first act is so entertaining that the shift of gears after intermission comes as somewhat of a letdown. We are now in 2003 at a colloquium devoted to the topic “What Happened to Vera Stark?” The three bloviating panelists, played by Mr. Miller, Ms. Simms and Ms. Patterson, are little more than caricatures who interpret Vera’s career according to each one’s politico-socio-cultural bent. We do get to see the delicious final scene of “Belle of New Orleans” which contains a few amusing surprises. We also get excerpts from Vera’s appearance on a 1973 talk show, after which she disappeared from sight. After a “successful” career playing a series of maids, Vera has been reduced to a two-week run on the Vegas strip. The interview scene is actually performed live, which makes for the awkward situation that the actors must freeze in place each time the interview is interrupted by a return to the panelists. The talk show host (Mr. Turner) is a blithering idiot and his other guest is a spaced-out British rock musician (Mr. Feliciano) whose inclusion is of dubious benefit. Things get interesting when Gloria makes a surprise appearance. We get a final outtake from the film that casts the relationship between Vera and Gloria in a new light. 

The actors are all very good, although I did occasionally wish director Kamilah Forbes (Between the World and Me) had asked them not to play things quite so broadly. The revolving set by Clint Ramos (Appropriate, Eclipsed) is a treat, especially Gloria’s glamorous living room and the gaudy TV show set. The period costumes by Dede M. Ayite (American Son, School Girls) are wonderful. Katherine Freer (Cellular Songs) is credited for projection design; if that includes the projected film, kudos to her.

While the satirization of Hollywood in the 30’s is hardly subtle, it is both entertaining and enlightening. Despite its second-act problems, the show is well worth seeing. Running time: two hours 20 minutes including intermission.

Bootycandy **

This work by Robert O’Hara, now in previews at Playwrights Horizons, is a loose assemblage of sketches, most of them comedic, that don’t really fit together very well. The central character is Sutter (Phillip James Brannon) whom we see as an effeminate black child, a misunderstood teenager, a black playwright with a taste for racial vengeance, and a loving grandson. The scenes that include him have a loose narrative thread. Other scenes include a monologue by a preacher who comes out as a cross dresser and another by a man trying to talk himself out of a mugging. A clever costume trick is the gimmick of a hilarious scene depicting a phone conversation with two actors playing four characters. In a darker vein there is a long scene about two brothers-in-law who have a complex and painful relationship. The final scene of act one is an amusing faux conference at Playwrights Horizons with a panel comprised of the alleged authors of the previous sketches and a clueless white moderator. After intermission there is a funny yet moving scene of Sutter’s family at the dinner table. This is followed by an overlong sketch of two lesbians, Genitalia and Intifada, undoing their commitment ceremony. A friend accurately described it as a Saturday Night Live sketch that wears out its welcome. The evening turns very dark with a playlet about Sutter and a flaming butch queen friend picking up a drunk, emotionally unstable white man in a bar and going back to his hotel. In the aftermath, there is a Brechtian moment in which the actors rebel against the playwright and decide to skip the (nonexistent) prison scene. We end with Sutter reminiscing with his grandmother at her nursing home. The language is consistently and outrageously vulgar and there is both graphic description of sexual acts and extended male nudity (tellingly, by the only white actor). The best argument for the play is the opportunity it provides for five terrific actors to show their mettle. Jessica Frances Dukes, Jesse Pennington, Benja Kay Thomas and Lance Coadie Williams play multiple roles with great gusto. The revolving set and appropriately over-the-top costumes by Clint Ramos are first-rate. Once again I am persuaded that, in general, playwrights should not direct their own work. There are multiple instances where scenes run on much too long, a fault another director might well have corrected. I really hoped I could recommend it with more enthusiasm, but its many faults cancel out most of its strengths. I won't give away the meaning of the title. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes including intermission.