DECEMBER 10, 1993 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

17

ENTERTAINMENT

Two diverse Christmas productions equally rewarding

Reviewed by Barry Daniels

The Great Lakes Theatre Festival production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a splendid secular holiday treat. The Karamu Performing Arts Theatre production of the gospel song-play, Black Nativity, is a stirring religious celebration. Viewed together these two wonderful productions expose some of the differences in our society as we gather together for holiday festivities.

Dickens speaks for the idealism of late 19th century capitalism with his belief that through basic human goodness the ills of society can be cured. Gerald Freedman's staging and adaptation of the work uses as a framework a Christmas Eve reading of the moral tale by the Cleaveland family. They live in a sumptuous Victorian home and are richly costumed. In the final tableau the Cleaveland children are dazzled with a lavish presentation of the Christmas gifts: two great windows heaped with splendid toys. This nostalgia for a golden and a gilded past and this display and sharing of wealth and good cheer is very much a part of our secular and commercial holiday spirit, and it is very much a part of my own heritage. I love the glittering lights, the spirit of giving and the goodwill that fills our cities and homes at this time of year.

Gerald Freedman's production of A Christmas Carol is now in its fifth season at the GLTF the revival is supervised by Victoria Bussert. Freedman's plastic and visual sensibility, his exquisite taste, is present in every moment and every aspect of this production. John Ezell's and Gene Emerson Friedman's scenery create spectacle with great economy and imagination. The costumes by James Scott use a restrained and delicate color palette that evokes the images of faded Victorian

greeting cards. Mary Jo Donlinger's lighting artfully moves our eyes through Freedman's constantly changing compositions and a lot of theatrically artful fog. I can't imagine a better Scrooge than William Leach. His superbly comic and human portrait dominates the production in which the acting is uniformly excellent. Freedman's A Christmas Carol is as fine a piece of theater as I have ever seen. But I can't help thinking about, especially in the context of seeing another play in the heart of the ghetto, what people who live outside the world of the Cleaveland family would make of it.

If A Christmas Carol speaks to my own cultural heritage, Black Nativity at the Karamu Performing Arts Theatre takes me into truly alien territory. Black Nativity is a gospel musical created for Broadway with a text by distinguished African-American (and gay) writer, Langston Hughes. The first act tells the story of Christ's birth. The roles of Mary, Joseph, the shepherd, and the angels are performed by professional dancers while the story is recited or sung by some of Cleveland's finest gospel singers. The second act is a concert that relates the history of gospel music from the Negro spiritual through its various pop manifestations.

Director and choreographer Michael Malone has done an excellent job staging Black Nativity on the limited budget allowed him. The set is a simple group of platforms against a cyclorama that changes color. This allows him a space in which he can make eloquent and varied pictures and places focus on the lavishly costumed performers. Reggie Ray's costumes use Afro-centric motifs for the first act and fill the stage with their vivid colors. The choir robes and nightclub evening wear of the second act are equally colorful and imaginative. Through-

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out the singing and the dancing

are

ROGER MASTROIANNI

superb. Michael Le Quinn Groomes and Katherine J. Smith beautifully realize in dance Joseph and Mary. I'll not easily forget Kathi Walker and Leathia Williams' rendition of "What You Gonna Name that Pretty Little Baby," or the "We Three Kings" of Carlton lows, Tommy Sanders and Leroi Simmons. The Negro spiritual version of "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot," sung a cappella by Lawrence Maurice, Simmons, Walker and Williams, was very moving. For my African-American friend who attended the performance with me, the work brought back childhood memories of attending the Southern Baptist Church. For my other friend, a deeply religious upper middle class white woman, the production was a moving version of the biblical story that expressed the faith and hope of a community from which she and I remain, in some ways, isolated. I, a confirmed atheist, was made aware of how powerfully music can preserve the spirit of a race that has faced such profound oppression.

William Leach stars as Ebenezer Scrooge in the Great Lakes Theatre Festival's staging of A Christmas Carol.

Fel-

A Christmas Carol at the Great Lakes Theatre Festival represents our secular holiday traditionat its most refined and elegant. Black Nativity at the

of

Karamu Performing Arts Theatre reminds us that the African-American community has kept alive the faith that was at the source of our holiday traditions. If you love theater, you'll find both productions richly rewarding. See them both, celebrate diversity, and have a very happy holiday.

A Christmas Carol plays at the Ohio Theatre through December 26. Ticket prices range from $19 to $30. For performance times and reservations telephone Advantix at 241-6000. A limited number of half-price tickets are available at the box office at 5 pm on the day of the performance. $5 student tickets are available on the day of the performance. Black Nativity plays through January 2 in the Jelliffe Theatre at Karamu House. Performances are Thursday-Saturday at 8 pm, and Sunday at 3 pm. Tickets are $15. For reservations telephone 795-7077.

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