King James

 B

After well-received runs at Steppenwolf in Chicago and Center Theatre Group in Los Angeles, Rajiv Joseph’s (Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, Describe the Night) two-character play about fandom and friendship has reached New York in a Manhattan Theatre Club production at City Center Stage I. The royal personage of the title is LeBron James, whose basketball career in and out of the Cleveland Cavaliers is the focus of both devotion and frustration for Matt, a manically neurotic wine bar manager, and relatively more grounded Shawn, a would-be writer, who meet when Matt is forced by financial problems to sell his season tickets to the Cavs. The two bond over their shared fandom and become good friends. We observe the ups and downs of their friendship over twelve years at four key moments in LeBron James’s career. Luckily for us, the roles of Matt and Shawn are performed by Chris Perfetti (Sons of the Prophet, The Tutors) and Glenn Davis (Downstate, Wig Out!), who play exceptionally well together. The playwright shows us how shared fandom can serve as a socially acceptable basis for a platonic bromance. Matt is white and Shawn is black, a fact that becomes relevant for a brief scene late in the play. The lively dialog has a convincingly natural flow but I would have liked a stronger narrative arc. Todd Rosenthal’s (August Osage County, Linda Vista) set for the first act presents the rather generic looking wine bar where Matt works; the second act is set in the funky antiques cum upholstery store owned by Matt’s parents, which offers lots of interesting objects to look at. The costumes by Samantha C. Jones are apt. Kenny Leon’s (Soldier’s Play, Topdog/Underdog) direction is smooth. My only serious objection is to the inclusion of a DJ (Khloe Janel) who plays loud hip-hop music before the play and during intermission. Do we really need a trendy version of the national anthem complete with crowd noise before the play begins? In case you are concerned that the play is strictly for knowledgeable sports fans, you need not worry. It is completely accessible to all. Running time: two hours ten minutes including intermission

Ohio State Murders

 B-

At the age of 91, Adrienne Kennedy is having her Broadway debut with this one-act play from the early 1990s, now at the James Earl Jones Theatre (formerly the Cort). Since I did not respond favorably to the only other work of hers that I had seen, “Funnyhouse of a Negro,” I had some misgivings about whether to attend. Since I never miss a chance to see Audra McDonald on stage, I overcame my reluctance and bought a ticket. Although my reaction was much less negative than my previous experience, I decided that her aesthetic is just not one for which I have an affinity. While the story itself is riveting, the fragmented, elliptic, impressionistic, time-bending narrative-heavy manner of the storytelling is at times confusing, frustrating and flat. Her depiction of the deep racism pervading the college experience at Ohio State in 1950 is disheartening and, in this instance, leads to violent consequences. While McDonald is fine as Suzanne Alexander, the famous author who returns to campus 40 years later to discuss the violence in her work, it is not a role that reveals her enormous range. Bryce Pinkham, known mainly for Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, makes a strong impression as her freshman English professor. The other roles are small ones. Abigail Stephenson plays her roommate, Iris Ann. Lizan Mitchell plays her landlady, her dorm manager and her aunt. Mister Fitzgerald plays her future husband and a boyfriend who pops up out of nowhere near the end of the play. Beowulf Boritt’s abstract set features an array of legal bookcases, some floating in air, and lots of snow. Dede Ayite’s costumes suit their characters well. Kenny Leon’s direction seemed flat, but that may have been in the spirit of the piece. Go if you’re an Audra McDonald completist or an Adrienne Kennedy fan. Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission.

A Soldier's Play

A-

It has taken almost 40 years for Charles Fuller’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1981 drama about the corrosiveness of racism to reach Broadway, but it is finally here, in previews at Roundabout’s American Airlines Theatre, in a riveting production directed by Kenny Leon (American Son, Raisin in the Sun). Although it is technically a murder mystery, the issue of who is responsible for the death of a black sergeant at a Louisiana army base in 1944 is hardly the main point. Fuller paints a shameful picture of the status of black American troops, particularly in the Deep South, during WWII. The unit we meet is made of former Negro League baseball players, who are tasked with the most menial chores when they are not playing ball for the base’s glory. Their sergeant (David Alan Grier; Dreamgirls, Race, Porgy and Bess), whose duties include coaching the team, is a hard man to please. When he ends up with two bullets in him, the suspects include the local klan, racist white officers and disaffected members of his unit. A black JAG captain (Blair Underwood; A Trip to Bountiful, Paradise Blue) with a law degree is brought in to conduct an investigation of the murder, to the consternation of the unit’s white captain (Jerry O’Connell; “Jerry McGuire,” “ Mission to Mars”), who does not want to make waves. The story is told largely in flashbacks narrated by each man being interrogated. While the play is occasionally creaky, for the vast majority of the time, it is absolutely gripping. The entire ensemble (Nnamdi Asomugha, Good Grief; McKinley Belcher III, The Royale; Rob Demery, Jared Grimes, Billy Eugene Jones, The Jammer; Nate Mann, Warner Miller, By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; J. Alphonse Nicholson, Paradise Blue; Lee Aaron Rosen, Indian Ink) is superb. The performances by Grier and Underwood are sensational; O’Connell’s, not quite as strong. Leon has interpolated moments involving singing and stylized movement, some of which work better than others. Derek McLane’s set, composed mainly of wooden planks, is appropriately stark. If you are uncomfortable with racial epithets, be forewarned that there are plenty. The play’s final moments are quietly devastating. Although circumstances specific to the military have changed a lot since WWII, as a society it is depressing to see how far we have yet to go to overcome racism. Running time: one hour 55 minutes, including intermission.

American Son

B-

Lest we take unwarranted comfort in the belief that events like the one underlying this harrowing drama are safely in the past, playwright Christopher Demos-Brown has specified the time of this play as “shortly after 4:00 AM on a day this coming June.” In the waiting room of a Miami police station on a stormy night, Kendra (Kerry Washington; Race, “Scandal”), an African-American psychology professor, is frantic with worry over the whereabouts of her 18-year-old son Jamal, whose car has been involved in an unspecified police incident. She is not getting any answers from passive-aggressive Officer Paul Larkin (Jeremy Jordan; Newsies) whose inexperience leads him to cling to protocol by telling her that she must await the arrival of Lt. John Spokes (Eugene Lee; A Soldier’s Play), the public affairs officer, for further details. They engage in an unproductive shouting match which has a few ironically humorous moments. When her estranged husband Scott (Stephen Pasquale; Junk, The Bridges of Madison County), a white FBI agent, arrives, sporting a badge on his belt, Larkin mistakes him for Stokes, unlikely as that may seem, and lets loose a barrage of sexist, racist remarks. Scott is used to getting his way and reacts badly to being obstructed. The arrival of Stokes surprises them all because he is black, a hard-nosed realist who takes no guff from anyone. We learn about Jamal’s sterling qualities, his promising future and his bad reaction to his parents’ split. Although we get a glimpse of what initially attracted Kendra and Scott, their constant disagreement on just about everything makes it hard to imagine their marriage could have lasted 18 years. The action takes place in real time. The tension steadily builds until the sudden shattering climax. It’s a play that grabs your attention and never lets go. What it lacks in artistry and subtlety, it makes up for in audience involvement. The choice of a story about a mixed-race son may add dimension to the plot, but the distinction between mixed-race and black is not significant to the police. The acting is uniformly strong. The set by Derek McLane (The Parisian Woman) looks too modern and plush. It is hard to believe that it is part of a station that still has two water fountains left over from segregation days. The costumes by Dede Ayite (School Girls, Children of a Lesser God) are apt. The direction by Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, Fences) is brisk. Without Kerry Washington’s participation, it probably would not have made it to Broadway. That would have been a shame. Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission.

Children of a Lesser God

C+

The years have not been kind to Mark Medoff’s drama about deafness. Since it arrived on Broadway in 1980, there have been better plays, e.g. Tribes, and better films, e.g. Sound and Fury, on the subject of deafness and deaf rights. I would assume that it won its Tony and Olivier more for the seriousness and, at the time, novelty of its subject matter than for its artistic merit. In any case, it’s back on Broadway in a Roundabout production that has been imported basically intact from a Berkshire Theatre Group run. Joshua Jackson (Smart People, "The Affair") plays James Leeds, a speech instructor at a residential school for the deaf. When the school’s head, Mr. Franklin (Anthony Edwards; A Month in the Country), asks him to work with Sarah Norman (Lauren Ridloff), a graduate of the school who is still on campus as a maid, Leeds promptly falls in love with her. He tries unsuccessfully to persuade her to learn lip reading and to attempt to speak. He visits her mother (Kecia Lewis; Leap of Faith, Marie and Rosetta), who placed Sarah in the school as a child and has basically turned her back on her. Orin Dennis (John McGinty; Veritas), a student who has learned to read lips and speak, has been Sarah’s close friend for years and is jealous of her relationship with Leeds. Lydia (Treshelle Edmond; Spring Awakening) is a childlike student who has a crush on Leeds. When James and Sarah marry, the outlook is uncertain. In the second act, the play turns polemical when Orin tries to enlist Sarah to join him in an action against the school for job discrimination against the deaf. Edna Klein (Julee Cerda) is the attractive lawyer whom Orin recruits. Much of the second act is clunky. Mr. Franklin, James, Sarah and Mrs. Norman get together for an unlikely bridge game. The polemic and the personal compete awkwardly for our attention. Near the end, there is a big cathartic scene that, for many, will have made the long buildup worthwhile. The strongest argument for seeing this revival is the powerful performance by Ms. Ridloff. It is easy to see why James would be so attracted to her. Mr. Jackson gives a creditable performance in a demanding role, although I would have liked a little more variety. Mr. McGinty is strong as Orin. Kecia Lewis is impressive as Sarah’s mother. Mr. Edwards and Ms. Edmond do their best with cartoonish roles. The direction by Kenny Leon (A Raisin in the Sun, Fences) is assured, but I wish he had made a few cuts. I did not care for Derek McLane’s (The Parisian Woman, The Price) set, which features several blue door frames painted a garish salmon pink on the inside and several tree trunks. The costumes by Dede Ayite (School Girls, Mankind) are fine. There are surtitles above the proscenium arch which you will not be able to read if you are sitting in the first few rows. Running time: two hours 25 minutes, including intermission.

Smart People **

I really wanted to like Lydia Diamond’s play at Second Stage. It isn’t often that we get a chance to witness four attractive intellectuals with Harvard ties talking about the important issue of racism in America. It’s even more unusual when the discussion is punctuated by lots of humor and simulated sex. Nevertheless, I found the play somewhat unsatisfying. Diamond’s structure uses a lot of short, fragmentary scenes, often for one character addressing an unseen second person. Some of these scenes, e.g. Brian (Joshua Jackson), a white neuroscience professor criticizing his students; Valerie (Tessa Thompson), a black actress reading for an audition; Jackson (Mahershala Ali), a surgical resident arguing with his superior; Ginny (Anne Son), a shopaholic Asian-American psychologist browbeating a salesperson, are amusing, but the fragments do not fit together all that well. The whole is somehow less than the sum of its parts. The center of attention is the fallout from a research study by Brian demonstrating that whites are hard-wired to react negatively to blacks. Ginny points out that Asians, Native Americans and Hispanics are usually left on the sidelines in a discussion of race. It is unclear whether Jackson’s problems with authority are more rooted in racism or in his hot temper. I felt that the sex scenes and the gratuitous brief male frontal nudity were thrown in to grab the audience’s attention between didactic moments. The action begins in 2007 and ends with the inauguration of Obama in January 2009. While there is one scene about campaigning for Obama, the significance of his election did not seem related organically to the rest of the play. The stunningly attractive cast make their characters lively. Among the characters, I thought that Ginny was by far the most interesting and found myself wishing that the play had been focused on her. Ricardo Hernandez’s streamlined minimalist set was efficient if not visually interesting. The projections by Zachary G. Borovay seemed generic, contributing little to the production. Paul Tazewell’s costumes suit the characters well. The direction by Kenny Leon seemed a bit slack. I do give the playwright credit for writing a play that is likely to provoke lively discussion. Running time: one hour, 55 minutes including intermission.