B'way/Off-B'way Reviews: Purpose, Last Call, Love Life

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Jon Michael Hill,
Glenn Davis and Alana Arenas 
in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

The family drama is making a dynamic comeback this theater season. Cult of Love, The Blood Quilt, We Had a World, and now Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Purpose have taken the template of a family gathering where secrets are revealed and battle lines drawn to new heights. The production, directed with a sure hand by Phylicia Rashad, is now at Second Stage’s Hayes Theater after a successful run at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company. A powerful cast ignites the playwright’s intergenerational conflict within a prominent African-American family. 

Even though some of the plot devices are familiar, Jacobs-Jenkins breathes new life into them. One character spends a lot of time offering exposition in lengthly monologues to the audience, and, just as in Cult of Love, Second Stage’s earlier offering this season, a convenient heavy snowstorm keeps the combative characters from leaving the fray. Last season, Second Stage revived his Appropriate in which a white family must confront its history of racism. Here he shows the opposite side of the coin. The setting is the impressive Chicago home of the Jaspers (Todd Rosenthal designed the attractive set complete with many paintings and mementoes telling us important details about the residents.) Father Solomon or “Sonny” and mother Claudine were at the forefront of the Civil Rights movement and are still important members of the community and nationally famous. Sons Nazareth or “Naz,” a reclusive nature photographer, and Solomon Junior, a disgraced politician just out of jail for white-collar crime, are visiting. (Naz is the loquacious narrator, explaining the background for us.) Also in the house are Junior’s bitter wife Morgan, about to enter prison for charges related to her husband’s, and Aziza, a friend of Naz’s who is dazzled by his parents’ glorious reputations. 

Jon Michael Hill, Alana Arenas, Kara Young
and Glenn Davis in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

How these six come into conflict is the stuff of Jacobs-Jenkins’ drama. Both Naz and Junior have disappointed their demanding father. Junior and Morgan’s marriage is falling apart and that of Solomon and Claudine is showing cracks. Solomon’s past sexual indiscretions are beginning to resurface. The true nature of Naz and Aziza’s relationship is gradually brought to light, causing shock waves. The climate crisis, the racist prison system, the roadblocks and speed bumps against social justice erected by the Trump administration (though that name is never mentioned) all come in for full debate. And, of course, hidden agendas and secrets are revealed in an explosive dinner scene, staged with perfect building tension by Rahsad. Through the Jaspers’ struggles, Jacobs-Jenkins takes the temperature of the current African-American experience. He also leavens the proceedings by giving Solomon the unusual hobby of beekeeping which provides an important plot twist. Using humor and pathos Jacobs-Jenkins delineates the frustrations and ambiguities of the aftermath of the Civil Rights struggles and the current search for purpose.  

LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Glenn Davis,
Kara Young and Jon Michael Hill
in Purpose.
Credit: Marc J. Franklin

Jon Michel Hill admirably takes on the Herculean task of delivering Naz’s mammoth monologues which he performs with a natural ease and conveying Naz’s ambiguous attitudes towards his family and his sexuality. LaTanya Richardson Jackson scores with both comic and dramatic moments as the manipulative, flawed, yet loving Claudine. Harry Lennix convinces as the self-righteous Sonny, displaying both his arrogant self-assurance and his willingness to change, however late in the action. Glenn Davis intensely limns Junior’s grandiosity and the deep insecurity just beneath the strutting surface. Kara Young again displays the precise comic timing she exhibited to perfection in her Tony-winning role in Purlie Victorious and also imparts Aziza’s  yearning for security amidst the shattering of her illusions. Alana Arenas has the shortest stage time, but makes maximum impact as the enraged Morgan, clearly and forcefully laying out her grievances against her in-laws. 

 

Purpose may use a tried and true playbook, but it’s one of the best written, staged and acted plays of many seasons. Peter Danish’s Last Call at New World Stages also employs a familiar playwriting template. In this case, a meeting between two titanic historic figures, clashing over their differing views and philosophies. Danish dramatizes an actual encounter between Leonard Bernstein and Herbert Van Karajan, the most influential and lauded classical conductors of the 20th century, in the bar of the famous Hotel Sacher in Vienna in 1988. 

Helen Schneider and Lucca Zuchner
in Last Call.
Credit: Maria Baranova

The play is a treat for classical music fans with plenty of commentary by the subjects on their respective careers and their views on interpretation of their beloved symphonies and operas, but offers little in the way of believable structure. It’s as if Danish, who has done an admirable job of research, has pasted together enough quotes and anecdotes on the two musical giants to fill 90 minutes. There are clashes over conducting choices and reminiscences over fellow great artists such as the operatic legend Maria Callas, but the meat of the play is missing. The author provides no great reason for these two to have met in this time and place other than coincidence. Gil Mehmert’s direction successfully varies the action in what could have been a two-handed, stationary conversation. Austin Switzer’s projections which include English subtitles when the characters speak German and images of the great concert halls of the world help to create the proper atmosphere and further change the setting.

Helen Schneider, Victor Petersen, and
Lucca Zuchner in Last Call.
Credit: Maria Baranova

For some reason, the two lead roles are played by women. Other than giving capable actresses Helen Schneider and Lucca Zuchner the opportunity to play roles they might not otherwise have the opportunity to tackle, the transgender casting doesn’t serve much of a clear purpose. Both performers deliver credible performances, emphasizing the colossal egos of each as well as their plaguing self-doubt. Victor Petersen efficiently enacts the third role of an admiring bartender-waiter and, in an interesting transformation, takes on the role of Callas as Bernstein and Von Karajan praise her artistry. With the aide of Rene Neumann’s clever costumes and Michael Grundner’s effective lighting, director Mehmert transports us to a performance of the divine singer. Petersen’s falsetto imitation is admirable and the illusion enhances the devotion both actresses express for the power of music. Too bad there weren’t more moments of such imagination.  

Chris Barreca provided the elegant set, and Lindsay Jones the rich sound design which includes many of the classical pieces referenced in the script. This is a feast for aficionados of Mahler, Bartok, Brahms, etc., but not so much for drama fans.

Brian Stokes Mitchell and
Kate Baldwin in
Love Life.
Credit: Joan Marcus

While Purpose and Last Call both rely on familiar tropes, City Center’s Encores! series recently presented a short run of a totally unconventional musical which remains out of the ordinary even today. Kurt Weill and Alan Jay Lerner’s Love Life from 1948 was one of the first “concept” musicals, paving the way for such innovative works as Cabaret, Company, Follies, Chicago, and The Scottsboro Boys. Eschewing the prevalent “boy-meets-girl” plot of most tuners of its day, Lerner’s unusual book focuses on a married couple (Sam and Susan Cooper) who never age from 1791 to the time of the original production and whose marital difficulties parallel those of the country’s economic and social fluctuations. The Coopers’ story is told in the form of a vaudeville, introduced in this new adaptation by their two young children Johnny and Elizabeth. Family scenes are played as comedy sketches interspersed with satiric musical numbers such as “Progress,” “Economics,” and “His and Hers: A Divorce Ballet,” commenting on the action. The show climaxes with a multi-song “Illusion Show,” which reminded me of the elaborate “Circus” number in Weill’s earlier Lady in the Dark and clearly influenced the “Loveland” sequence in Sondheim and Goldman’s Follies 23 years later. Needless to say, this was an ambitious undertaking for 1948 and Love Life had only a modest run, although Nanette Fabray did win a Tony for Best Actress in a Musical. It has never had a New York revival until now.

Victoria Clark’s concert staging was sleek and smooth, cleverly bridging the dialogue scenes with commenting musical numbers. She has not be able to make the piece’s multiple parts quite fit together but this is not a commercial run. It’s a concert staging of a fascinating curio in musical theater history. JoAnn M. Hunter’s lively choreography worked well. Brian Stokes Mitchell and Kate Baldwin were in fine voice as Sam and Susan and entirely believable as a loving and bickering couple. Christopher Jordan and Andrea Rosa Guzman are precociously entertaining as their kids. John Edwards, Clarke Thorell, and Sara Jean Ford had flavorful solo supporting turns. The large orchestra conducted by Rob Berman sounded glorious. Love Life is not likely to appear in a Broadway revival, but it’s wonderful to have a production of this trailblazing curiosity.

Purpose: March 17—July 6. Steppenwolf Theater Company production produced in association with Second Stage at the Helen Hayes Theater, 240 W. 44th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 50 mins. including intermission. criterionticketing.com

Last Call: March 16—May 4. New World Stages, 340 W. 50th St., NYC. Running time: 90 mins. with no intermission. telecharge.com.

Love Life: March 26–30. Encores! at New York City Center, 131 W. 55th St., NYC. Running time: two hours and 30 mins. including intermission.