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Wash Post gives ‘Brewster Place’ a tepid review
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks has weighed in on “The Women of Brewster Place,” the new musical by Tim Acito that had its world premiere at the Alliance Theater in September. And Marks, like yours truly, thinks the piece finds beautiful music in the commonplace lives of its characters but that it needs a lot of work.
In his review, Marks writes:
Like its hardscrabble heroines, the new musical version of “The Women of Brewster Place” radiates potential. Composer-adapter Tim Acito tackles the daunting assignment of extolling and embroidering the lives of seven — count ‘em, seven — central characters, all of whom wash up in a rundown housing project in a hope-starved inner-city neighborhood.
The possibilities seem ripe for a poignant examination of the everyday struggle of being black and working-poor in the urban America of the mid-1970s. As yet, however, this musical, in a world premiere at Arena Stage, provides only tantalizing glimpses of the narratively integrated and emotionally enriching evening it strives to Although Acito proves a skillful tunesmith, conferring on his show a winning soulfulness, he hasn’t quite figured out how to whip the women’s disparate plights into a satisfying whole.
As a result, “The Women of Brewster Place” feels less like a polished bit of storytelling than it does a mere cycle of agreeable songs inspired by the sounds of the ’70s pop and R&B. Lacking a compelling center of gravity, the show hopscotches from character to character, vignette to vignette, in ways that too often seem to be excuses to sing rather than opportunities to shed light on the imploding lives of these spirited women.
By the end of the evening, we have to feel, as much as these characters do, that the imposing stone wall that separates blighted Brewster Place from the rest of an unnamed Northern city really could be obliterated by the power that the women derive from one another. At present, this cumulative strength is never adequately conjured, in part because the tale is so unfocused.
Here is Marks’ full review.
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By M
October 31, 2007 11:59 AM | Link to this
That said by Wendell and Mark, please note that the audience gave standing ovations at every performance at the Alliance and continue to stand at Arena. Though the play might have not been thoroughly satisfying in the minds of the critics, it spoke directly to the hearts of the audiences who showed their appreciation with nightly standing ovations.