Clyde's

 A-

Twice Pulitzer-awarded playwright Lynn Nottage (Ruined, Sweat) wrote this comedy with serious overtones and a touch of magic realism at the same time that she was working on Sweat. Both share a Reading, PA setting but are otherwise quite different. Clyde’s (formerly called Floyd’s when it premiered at the Guthrie Theater in 2019) is the name of the roadside sandwich shop owned by the titular character (Uzo Aduba, Godspell, “In Treatment”). All her employees have been recently released from jail. Taking full advantage of the fact that they are desperate, she treats them abominably and tries to squeeze any drop of hope out of them. We meet Letitia (Kara Young, Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven), a young single mother with a chronically ill child; Rafael (Reza Salazar; Sweat, My Mañana Comes), a romantic Latino; newly hired Jason (Edmund Donovan, Greater Clements, Lewiston/Clarkson), who is covered with gang tattoos; and Montrellous (Ron Cephas Jones, “This Is Us,” “Mr. Robot”), an older man of philosophic bent who inspires the others with his quest for the perfect sandwich. We learn the backstory of each employee. As they work, they describe to each other their vision of sandwich perfection and occasionally make one for the others to try. Significantly, Clyde refuses to try any of Montrellous’s creations. The acting is universally superb. The set by Takeshi Kata (Cambodian Rock Band), lighting by Christopher Akerlind (Indecent, The Last Ship) and costumes by Jennifer Moeller (Sweat, Aubergine) contribute greatly to this Second Stage production. Kate Whoriskey, who has often demonstrated her affinity for Nottage’s work before (Ruined, Sweat, Intimate Apparel), directs with smooth precision. The ending will definitely get your attention. A word of caution: don’t attend when you are hungry — the rapturous descriptions of ideal sandwiches will have you salivating. (Running time 100 minutes, no intermission.)

The Secret Life of Bees

B+

When it was announced that Atlantic Theater Company would present a musical adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd’s 2001 best-selling novel with a book by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage (Sweat, Ruined), music by Tony winner Duncan Sheik (Spring Awakening), and direction by Tony winner Sam Gold (A Doll’s House, Part 2; Fun Home), the news created great excitement and high expectations. I am pleased to report that these expectations have mostly been met. The producers have splurged on a cast of 13 and nine musicians, a rare number for off-Broadway. Musically, the results are very rich. The songs are mostly strong and are given first-rate presentation by gorgeous voices and strong arrangements. The lyrics by Susan Birkenhead (Jelly’s Last Jam) are effective in creating the characters. During the first act, I felt the book did a good job of capturing the novel’s essence. The troubled background of opposition to civil rights in the 1960s South is skillfully blended into the book. However, after intermission it seemed like the creative team realized they had too much material to cover and began a rush to wrap things up that shortchanged important elements of the novel and left out the fate of an important character. While “Fifty-Five Fairlane” is a delightful song that Zachary sings about his beloved car, there is no such car in the novel (he drives an old truck) and the time the song takes could have been better spent on something more relevant such as the back story of the madonna statue. Somehow, the occasional outbursts of violence seemed more shocking in the context of a musical. Elizabeth Teeter (The Crucible) makes a solid impression as the young heroine Lily. LaChanze (The Color Purple), Eisa Davis (Luck of the Irish) and Anastacia McCleskey (Waitress) bring the three Boatwright sisters August, June and May vividly to life. Saycon Sengbloh (Eclipsed, Fela!) is spunky but sympathetic as Rosaleen, Lily’s fellow fugitive. Nathaniel Stampley (The Color Purple) is earnest as June’s long-suffering suitor Neil. Manoel Felciano (Sweeney Todd) is properly menacing as Lily’s abusive father T-Ray. As Zachary, Brett Gray is quietly appealing. As other members of The Daughters of Mary, the group of women who venerate the black madonna statue in the Boatwrights’ living room, Romelda Teron Benjamin (Brooklyn), Vita E. Cleveland and Jai’len Christine Li Josey (SpongeBob SquarePants) add beautiful voices to the ensemble. Joe Cassidy (Waitress) and Matt DeAngelis (Hair) are fine in several small roles. The set by Mimi Lien (True West, Fairview) is simple and uncluttered with brick walls, a polished wood floor and scattered votive candles. Dede Ayite’s (American Son, BLKS) costumes befit the characters well. Sam Gold’s direction is assured. Although I had some reservations about the book, I nevertheless found the production worthwhile.) Running time: two hour 20 minutes including intermission.

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.

Fabulation, or The Re-Education of Undine

C

As the first installment of Lynn Nottage’s residency, Signature Theatre has revived this work from 2004. Theatergoers who know her only from serious plays such as Pulitzer prizewinners Ruined or Sweat may be surprised to see something in a lighter mode. Undine Barnes Calles (Cherise Boothe; Milk Like Sugar) is the invented persona of Sharona Watkins, who grew up in the Brooklyn projects, won a scholarship to Dartmouth, broke off all contact with her family who, she said, had died tragically in a fire, and for 14 years has run a successful PR firm catering to nouveau riche African-Americans. Two years ago she married Hervé (Ian Lassiter; Junk), a sexy Argentinian. When we meet her, she is yelling at her assistant Stephie (Mayaa Boateng; Fairview) for being unable to find a celebrity to attend the Fallopian Blockage benefit she is planning. Imperious in her gold lamé outfit at her teak desk, Undine is clearly ripe for a comeuppance. In short order, her husband absconds with all her money, she becomes the subject of an FBI investigation, she finds out she is pregnant, she is forced to move back home to the family she rejected and she ends up in jail after being mistaken for a drug addict. We next see her in a drug rehab group session where a college professor (Dashiell Eaves; A Time To Kill) is waxing rhapsodic over the pleasures of cocaine. Guy (Lassiter again) is a security guard in the group who takes a shine to her. We see their first date at a BBQ restaurant. A scene of her frustrating visit to a social services office is a bit heavy-handed. Undine’s attempts to become a better human being are not completely convincing and the second act flounders a bit. Truth is Undine, with her droll asides, is much more entertaining company than Sharona. Ms. Boothe is excellent and is supported by a strong ensemble of seven (Heather Alicia Simms; Fairview; Nikiya Mathis, Skeleton Crew; J. Bernard Calloway, Memphis; Marcus Callender, plus the three actors already mentioned) who play multiple roles. Some of the costumes by Montana Levi Blanco (In the Blood, Fairview) and wigs by Cookie Jordan (Once on This Island) are delightfully outlandish. Adam Rigg’s (The House That Will Not Stand) set converts effortlessly to a variety of locales. Director Lileana Blain-Cruz (Red Speedo, War) keeps things moving. It is sporadically entertaining but the satire misses as often as it hits. Running time: one hour 55 minutes including intermission. 

Mlima's Tale

B-

This new work by two-time Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage (Ruined, Sweat), now at The Public Theater, is a moral tale about the illicit ivory trade. If you have been hiding under a rock, you might not know that poachers are still killing elephants for their tusks even though the ivory trade has been outlawed. Ms. Nottage traces the path from the brutal killing of Mlima, one of Kenya’s oldest and largest elephants, to the unveiling of the art work created from his tusks at a rich collector’s penthouse. Along the way, we meet the greedy and corrupt people who fund the poachers, bribe the police, shipping company and customs officials; commission the art and carve the ivory with pretended concern for its  source. All these people are played by three fine actors — Kevin Mambo (The Fortress of Solitude), Jojo Gonzalez (Small Mouth Sounds) and Ito Aghayere (Junk, Familiar). Occasionally  I became confused about who they were playing at any given moment. The fact that the first roles played by Ms. Aghayere are men compounded my confusion. Ms. Nottage attempts with intermittent success to give the characters enough individuality to keep them from seeming just cogs in a machine. Her most stunning creation is Mlima, charismatically portrayed by Sahr Ngaujah (Fela!, Master Harold and the Boys) more by movement than by words. Mlima is a witness to the action who daubs each character with white paint as each becomes a guilty participant. Perhaps this marks them for future haunting or punishment; they receive none here. The spare set design by Riccardo Hernandez (Miss You Like Hell, Indecent), expressively lit by Lap Chi Chu, avoids distraction. Between scenes, texts that I assume are African maxims, are projected. Jennifer Moeller’s (Sweat, Cardinal) costumes are a big help in identifying the characters. Musician Justin Hicks plays the drums and occasionally sings evocatively. Jo Bonney (Father Comes Home from the War) directs with great fluidity. It’s all admirable, but a bit remote and didactic, unlike previous plays by Ms. Nottage that I have enjoyed. Running time: one hour 20 minutes, no intermission.

Sweat **** A

After acclaimed productions at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and Arena Stage, the timely new play by Pulitzer winner and MacArthur fellow Lynn Nottage (Ruined; By the Way, Meet Vera Stark; Intimate Apparel) has finally arrived at the Public Theater. It was worth the wait. The play might have been subtitled “Reasons To Hate NAFTA” or “How the Rust Belt Creates Trump Voters.” However, while corporate greed, globalization, racism and immigration policy all underlie the action, the play is not a sociopolitical screed. Nottage wisely keeps our attention on vividly drawn characters and on how forces beyond their control are refracted in their lives. Most of the action is set in 2000 at an after-work bar popular with employees of a metal tubing plant in Reading, PA. We meet three middle-age women — Cynthia (Michelle Wilson), Tracey (Johanna Day) and Jessie (Miriam Shor) — who have worked together on the plant floor for over 20 years. Cynthia’s son Chris (Khris Davis) and Tracey’s son Jason (Will Pullen), who also work at the plant, are best buddies. Cynthia’s estranged husband Brucie (John Earl Jelks) also frequents the bar. Stan the bartender (James Colby) used to work at the plant too until he was injured by a defective piece of equipment. Oscar (Carlo Alban), the bar’s Hispanic porter, might as well be invisible for all the attention he gets from customers. Cynthia is black, but her race has never been an issue until she is promoted to management over others. Her new position is hardly enviable when the plant owners decide to downsize. The play’s first and final scenes are set in 2008. As the play opens, parole officer Evan (Lance Coadie Williams) is conducting separate interviews with Jason and Chris, who have finished prison terms for a crime they committed eight years earlier. We flash back to 2000 to see the escalating events that led to the shocking crime and finally back to 2008 to see the consequences. It all makes for a gripping experience. The cast is uniformly excellent. John Lee Beatty’s revolving set is evocative, as are Jennifer Moeller’s costumes. Director Kate Whoriskey (Ruined) once again does Nottage full justice. Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes including intermission.