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Friday, July 15, 2005
‘Blue’ a funeral-home comedy with music
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
THEATER REVIEW. “Blue.” Through Aug. 7.
Blue, blue, her heart is blue. All she can do is think of Blue. When Peggy Clark isn’t listening to the music of the artist who recorded “Light Blue” and “Royal Blue,” she reluctantly inhabits the role of an African-American funeral director’s wife in a small South Carolina town.
This self-absorbed former fashion model may get the family on the cover of Ebony, but she won’t win any awards for Mother of the Year.
She buys fur coats two at a time, points her catty claws at her domineering mother-in-law, eschews home-cooked meals for expensive takeout, then goes to the trouble of pretending she cooked. Might the high-strung diva be suffering from unrequited love, midlife blahs, a tainted past?
Tune into “Blue,” the Charles Randolph-Wright play with music by Nona Hendryx that Horizon Theatre has timed to coincide with the National Black Arts Festival, to find out.
Despite the Clark family trade, “Blue” has more in common with a daytime soap than a dark comedy like “Six Feet Under,” which also chronicles the struggles of a family of dysfunctional embalmers.
The only thing scary about this play is that it has a singing ghost who thinks he’s sexy. Every time Peggy (Donna Biscoe) puts on a seductive tune by Blue (Freddie Hendricks), he emerges from the stereo to stir up memories of passion and romance. If the whole premise sounds deadly, well, congratulations, you still have a pulse. That said, it’s a testament to Thomas W. Jones II and his cast that they refuse to take the emotional dreck too seriously and try to breathe all the laughter they can into a script that’s essentially toes up.
Biscoe, in a part originated by Phylicia Rashad at Washington’s Arena Stage, is in delectable form as desperate housewife Peggy, who has the kind of overweening personality that’s hot-wired to explode. Unlike the elegant Jewell Robinson, who played mother-in-law Tillie in the off-Broadway production, Marguerite Hannah seems to draw a bit heavily on TV stereotypes of yore (remember “The Jeffersons”?). But the bossy matriarch is a juicy character that never fails this actress.
Toccarra Cash (as LaTonya Dinkins, girlfriend of Peggy’s son Sam III) has terrific timing, in a gum-smacking, country-come-to-town kind of way. But once Peggy turns LaTonya into her own personal acolyte, the young woman’s personality loses its fizz.
Taurean Blacque (as Peggy’s husband, Samuel) is a fine actor stuck in an insubstantial part. Geoffrey D. Williams (Sam III) is as hyperactive as ever, but that’s this actor’s particular charm. Neal A. Ghant seems custom-made for reflective son Reuben, while Joshua T. Tarpav (Young Reuben) proves himself to be an immensely talented eighth-grader.
And now for Hendricks, the former youth ensemble director who’s giving his first professional performance since 1988: The apparitional Blue spends most of his time sashaying down a flight of stairs to serenade Peggy or make some lyrical commentary about the action. Hendricks’ soft, EZ-listening sound is likable enough, but the actor seems a bit too self-conscious for this flashy, charismatic role that doesn’t require him to speak any dialogue until the end. Lord knows he’s stuck with a weird, thankless part and should get credit for not being cheesy. But a comeback of a lifetime this ain’t.
Think of “Blue” as more of a pine box than a Cadillac casket. Reminiscent of the work of Samm-Art Williams, it’s not great art, but it will almost certainly be a crowd-pleaser. And more than anything, it’s an admirable tie-in to the National Black Arts Festival and a gift to a community that, strangely enough in this town, is often underserved.
THE VERDICT: A funeral-home comedy. With music. (No kidding.)
THE 411: 8 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 8:30 p.m. Saturdays; 5 p.m. Sundays. Also, 3 p.m. July 23. Through Aug. 7. $20-$25. Horizon Theatre, 1083 Austin Ave. N.E., Atlanta. 404-584-7450, www.horizontheatre.com.
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