SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Review
Joe Turner's Come And Gone
Curtainup's New August Wilson Backgrounder by Elyse Sommer|
I had the Binding Song. I choose that song because that's what I seen most when I was traveling. . . people walking away and leaving one another. So I takes the power of my song and binds them together. — Bynum
|
Roger Robinson and Marsha Stephanie Blake
|
As Wilson began so memorably with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1984) and continuing through Radio Golf (2007), he cast dramatic spells about many of his unforgettable characters. But he cast no spell more profound and emotionally binding than the one that enables Bynum (Roger Robinson) in Joe Turner's Come And Gone. An herbalist/healer/"rootworker" and boarder ("Just like glue, I sticks people together") Bynum helps the needy with his supernatural powers. Opening on Broadway in 1988, this play has a lot to do with magic and believing but is primarily about the search for self-identity and the destiny of a people who must find their roots in order to secure their present.
Inheriting the boarding house from his father, the Northern-born Seth earns his living, aside from the boarders, with a night job and making tin pots and pans. More importantly, his boarding house serves as a relative haven for the displaced and insecure.
The arrival of Herald Loomis (Chad L. Coleman), a fearsome unfriendly man dressed all in black, gives everyone the shudders. He is accompanied by his young daughter Zonia (Amari Rose Leigh) who is taken under the kindly Bertha's wing to help with the chores. Revealed as a former church deacon who has been searching for his wife for eleven years, Loomis, though given to mystical hallucinations, was the victim of Memphis-based Joe Turner, a loathsome man who falsely imprisoned blacks for years of hard labor.
Not exactly the enchanted cottage, the boarding house nevertheless acts as a neutral, healing ground for the transient souls who sojourn there. It isn't a stretch to think of O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh as you see the characters unburden themselves. They include Jeremy (Andre Holland), a would-be ladies' man with a guitar; Mattie (Marsh Stephanie Blake), a sweet woman who takes up with Jeremy after her husband just went down the road one day; Molly (Aunjanue Ellis), a cynical, sensual, good-time girl with her eye on Jeremy; and Bynum, the spiritual grounder for Loomis' apocalyptical fits and visions.
Bertha's philosophy – "That's all anybody needs, love in one hand and laughter in the other" – balances the sense of loss that permeates the play. Perhaps because of its strongly metaphysical aura, similar in tone to his later play Gem of the Ocean (that conjures up spirits of the dead) Joe Turner's Come And Gone has not proven as popular or as accessible in theme as either Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, or Fences. The current political and social climate may change that. Wilson has declared Joe Turner Has Come And Gone to be his favorite. If one play can be singled out from the other nine brilliant and ambitious plays to be his masterpiece, this may be it. Certainly this wonderful Lincoln Center Theatre production will help place it among the must see plays of this season.
A splendid ensemble, under the direction of Bartlett Sher, graces this stunning Broadway revival of the play that first appeared on Broadway 21 years ago. Having brought renewed luster to two Lincoln Center-produced revivals (the current) South Pacific and Awake and Sing, Sher once again proves a master at keeping the integrity of the original. But it is the way he has anchored Wilson's earthy text to a spatially fluid reality that is simply stunning. Designer Michael Yeargan's spare, effective boarding-house setting is enhanced dramatically by the haunting, otherworldly atmospherics created by lighting designer Brian MacDevitt. Worthy of mention is the otherwise realistic vegetable, flower and herb garden that appears to be flourishing at the edge of the stage.
Coleman, who is making his Broadway debut, has a long time to wait before he lets all hell break loose. But he is an imposing presence from the start as the deeply troubled and volatile Herald Loomis. Robinson is no stranger to Wilson's dramatic literature earning a Tony nomination for his role in Seven Guitars. What more praise can I offer Robinson than to say that he is a spell-binder as Bynum?
Danai Gurira is excellent in a role that I cannot reveal without disclosing too much. The young Ms. Leigh (Zonia), and Michael Cummings, as Reuben the boy who lives next door, are two adorable and talented children making their Broadway debuts. Another among the many fine Broadway debuts is made by Andre Holland as the white peddler who moonlights as a people-finder. A mix of the mystical and real, allegorical and earthy, the fact that Joe Turner's Come And Gone (as Sher states in a program note) "has resurfaced at this particular moment is great. " Indeed, it is.
According to an article, "The Blues as Folk-Songs" by Dorothy Scarborough, "Joe Turner, the inspiration of the song, was a brother of Pete Turner, once governor of Tennessee. He was an officer and he used to come to Memphis and get prisoners to carry them to Nashville after a kangaroo court. When the Negroes said of any one, 'Joe Turner's been to town', they meant that the person in question had been carried off hand-cuffed to be gone no telling how long."
|
Joe Turner's Come And Gone By August Wilson Directed by Bartlett Sher Ernie Hudson (Seth Holly) Latanya Richardson Jackson (Bertha Holly), Roger Robinson (Bynum Walker), Arliss Howard (Rutherford Selig), Andre Holland (Jeremy Furlow), Chad L. Coleman (Herald Loomis), Amari Rose Leigh (Zonia Loomis), Marsha Stephanie Blake (Mattie Campbell), Michael Cummings (Reuben Scott), Aunjanue Ellis (Molly Cunningham), Danai Gurira (Martha Pentecost). Setting: Michael Yeargan Costumes: Catherine Zuber Lighting: Brian MacDevitt Sound: Scott Lehrer and Leon Rothenberg Music: Taj Mahal Running Time: 2 hours 45 minutes including intermission Lincoln Center Theatre at the Belasco Theatre, 111 West 44th Street 212/239-6200 Performances: Tuesday through Saturday evenings at 8 PM, matinees Wednesdays and Saturdays at 2 PM and Sundays at 3 PM. Tickets ($51.50 - $96.50) From 3/19/09 ; opening 4/16/09; closing 6/14/09. Review by Simon Saltzman based on 4/12/09 performance |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. You can also contact us at Curtainup at Facebook or Curtainup at Twitter |
Try onlineseats.com for great seats to
Wicked
Jersey Boys
The Little Mermaid
Lion King
Shrek The Musical
South Pacific
In the Heights
Playbill 2007-08 Yearbook
Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide
Wicked
Jersey Boys
The Little Mermaid
Lion King
Shrek The Musical
South Pacific
In the Heights
Playbill 2007-08 Yearbook
Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide