After a slow start, Nollywood Dreams hits all the right spots. We're big fans of Jocelyn Bioh (School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play and Bootycandy) so we jumped at the opportunity to see another comedy from her.
The Story Sisters Ayamma (Sandra Okuboyejo) and Dede Okafor (Nana Mensah) work at their parent's travel agency in Nigeria. They both have fantasies of something more in life, but Ayamma has the ambition to go after her dream when a well-known director holds open auditions for his new movie. The Performers Everyone is really strong in this play, but the women steal the limelight. You can see why the director must choose Ayamma over Fayola (Emana Rachelle) as the leading lady in his movie, despite Fayola's attempts to blackmail him. Okuboyejo is great both as Ayamma and when her character acts for the audition. She has excellent chemistry with Wale Owusu (Ade Otukoya), the famous movie star who plays her love interest - first in the movie and then for real. Nana Mensah's physical comedy as Dede is amazing. Mensah is a delight to watch - whether she is avoiding answering the phone at the travel agency or swooning over Owusu, Mensah gives her all and the results are hilarious. Rachelle also shines as Fayola - as much as you may dislike her character - in the end, she gives a great performance both in the play and in the movie (despite not getting the main role). A feel-good family comedy that will make you laugh out loud.
The Story It opens with the family members gathering and preparing for the funeral of Baneatta and Beverly's father, who was also the church pastor. Baneatta's husband is taking over the position and will lead the service. As family members prepare and convene, we hear about old rivalries (between the sisters), disapproval (of Kenny's white boyfriend), and other family drama. The smoking gun is the covert phone calls Baneatta keeps sneaking throughout the day. The Set Limited set designs, but the play makes good use of the circular space. And the characters are very creative with the props that are available. Using key props and context, a simple trunk is transformed from scene to scene. The Performers Everyone in the cast was hilarious and together they really did feel like a cohesive family. Aigner Mizzelle as La'Trice (Beverly's daughter) stands out even as a character on the periphery of the central plot. Every single time she opened her mouth or even just made a facial expression, it was laugh-out-loud funny. And Michael Urie delivers a great performance as Logan, a white gay man who is constantly uncomfortable. Logan must balance his respect for the family and the funereal circumstances with his need to assert himself as Kenny's boyfriend - all while making us laugh. In many ways this new musical succeeds in being a little out there - the concept of historical figures tripping on LSD together promises as much - but it also succeeds in normalizing the use of LSD, or at least taking away some of the mystery and shock value.
The Story In the first half of the show, each of the 3 historical figures - Aldous Huxley, Cary Grant, and Clare Luce Booth - take their first acid trip in very different settings (it's the 1950s so LSD is legal). Huxley begins to feel the effects of the drug while in a pharmacy with his wife and friend Gerald Heard. Grant demands to try it in a session with a psychologist after hearing about his wife's sessions using it. And Booth... This portion of the show makes some small claim to reality in that all 3 of them were known to have tried LSD in these scenarios. In the second half of the show, the creators take some liberties and imagine what would have happened if the 3 had met and experienced LSD together. This is the weakest part of the show and could possibly be trimmed a bit. The characters do not have a strong connection or a true communal experience while tripping together. Instead the emphasis is on a specific past trauma for each character, and the show pigeonholes the LSD experience into a straightforward way to overcome those traumas. The Songs The title song, "Flying Over Sunset," is very good and the chorus plays on repeat in my head once in awhile since seeing the show. None of the other songs are particularly memorable, but they were all enjoyable enough during the show. I'm looking forward to the release of the cast album so I can recall some of the other songs. The Direction and Choreography This was one of the strongest elements of the show. In the opening and at other moments throughout the show, the actors walk around the stage in a wide circle creating a persistent percussive rhythm as they go. The effect is palpable and mesmerizing - a perfect tone to set for a show about experiencing hallucinogenics. Another standout scene occurs when Grant, by no means a strong swimmer, walks into the ocean to save his childhood self. Huxley and Gerald follow him and the stage turns into a roiling ocean of waves. The men get farther and farther away in an effective trick of perspective and perception. The extended tap dance scene, performed by Tony Yazbeck (and Archie Leach as Grant's childhood self), was excellent albeit a bit gratuitous. Just when you thought it was going to wrap up, Yazbeck hops onto the desk and continues for another few minutes. Tap dance is one of my favorite things to watch, but this scene was a little bit long even for me. It reminded me of the old-time MGM musicals that added dance scenes and songs for pure entertainment regardless of what the rest of the movie was about. The Performers Everyone was outstanding. Carmen Cusack, as Clare Luce Booth, is an amazing vocalist and a great actor. Overall the acting was better than your average musical. Each character felt real (though not necessarily in the historically accurate sense) and delivered compelling performances both sober and under the influence of LSD. An original musical! I've been describing this show as more of a concert than a traditional musical, but that doesn't make it any less clever or enjoyable. A tight show with no intermission and minimal dialogue, SIX is comprised of catchy songs that you'll be singing for months after the show.
The Story SIX tells the stories of Henry VIII's ex-wives from each of their perspectives. The loose structure of the show is that the women are competing to see who had it the worst from the English monarch and in life. History gives a nice, neat framework with the order of how each wife fared: divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived. In the end, the wives band together in solidarity - it does not matter who had it the worst: what matters is that the women be remembered in their own right and not as simply the wives of Henry VIII. The Songs Each wife is inspired by a mashup of pop stars and the songs evoke this wonderfully. The lyrics are smart (infused with anachronistic modern references) and historically accurate (for the most part). And each song is a delightful earworm that you'll want to listen to again and again. The band - comprised of all women - plays on stage, adding to the concert-like atmosphere. The Performers All the wives are amazing performers, some better at singing and some better at dancing. A standout for me was Samantha Pauly as Katherine Howard - her song is the most heart-wrenching and she transforms with the song as it gets darker and darker. All of the women were dynamic performers and fun to watch. We saw one understudy - Keirsten Nicole Hodgens as Jane Seymour - but you would not have known without the program. She belted out her Adele-inspired ballad beautifully. The Set and Choreography Since this was a concert-style show, there was not much of a set - just the band on platforms at the back of the stage. And the choreography matched the concert energy, giving the show the feeling of a Spice Girls concert with a historical bent. This is a classic Met production, with all of the extravagance you expect - massive amounts of people on stage, intricately designed sets, and top-notch talent.
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