Caroline or Change at The Guthrie Theater on 5/2/09
By: Susan Sink
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| Jamecia Bennett (The Washing Machine), Felicia Boswell, Aurelia Williams and Lynnea Doublette (The Radio) and Greta Oglesby (Caroline Thibodeaux) in the Guthrie Theater production of CAROLINE, OR CHANGE. Photo credit Michal Daniel. |
So, OK, an opera. It’s important to set your expectations before you go into this production. What was clear to me about Kushner, knowing only Angels in America, was that he pushes the conventions of theater to include as much spectacle, character and ideas as he can. He also pushes it to include as many settings, characters and costumes as he can. Reading Angels, you realize it is written like a novel and lives fully on the page. It’s hard to imagine how anyone can do what he’s proposing in the script on a stage.
Caroline, or Change does the same thing with the musical format. Kushner packs in a tremendous number of musical styles (Motown, funk, soul, rock, gospel, klezmer, jazz, and on and on), sometimes in a single song/speech. What would have been a monologue for August Wilson, or an aria for Giuseppe Verdi, becomes for Kushner a medley of arias with the depth of a Wilson monologue.
When it was on Broadway, Caroline was nominated for six Tony Awards. The one it received was for Best Featured Actress, awarded to Anika Noni Rose in the role of Caroline’s daughter, Emmy. This role is also well-sung and played in the Guthrie production by Nikki Renee Daniels. It is not, however, one of the more interesting roles in the musical. However, she has discreetly demarcated songs to sing, which makes her role stand out. The role of Caroline Thibodeaux, played by Greta Oglesby with great emotional intensity and wonderful singing talent, is astonishing demanding, as she goes from song to song, scene to scene, aria to aria, with few breaks. Of the secondary characters, the most impressive were Regina Marie Williams as Dotty and Julie Reiber as Rose Stopnick Gellman.
But it is the washing machine and the radio who steal the show. The washing machine is possessed by Jamecia Bennett, who in a full island-style dress and turban sings of Caroline’s troubles. The radio is played by Felicia Boswell, Lynnea Doublette and Aurelia Williams, a trio of Motown singers in bright pink shimmy dresses and spike heels dyed to match. They provide a wonderful chorus and soundtrack to Caroline’s life, a show of her spunk and attitude, and dreams gone by the wayside. T. Mychael Rambo has a powerful solo as The Bus, and a small, smoldering role as The Dryer, and overhead serenades Aimee K. Bryant as The Moon.
Another thing the program promised that varied widely from my experience of the play was that “This play reminds us that once again we are living in a time that calls for individual choices, for greater responsibility, for profound change within ourselves, the culture, the global economy.” Further, that “Hope is at the end of this play, hope for change.” I think the play is better than these easy platitudes—platitudes that have lately revived and again flattened through overuse. Caroline goes through a transformation during the course of the musical, but it is from anger and regret to resignation. Her personal choices result in a slim moral victory, but if you are concerned about the life and happiness of Caroline Thibodeaux, the end of the musical is more tragedy than comedy. Hope resides in her daughter, Emmy, who inherits her better chance at life from Martin Luther King and the sacrifices her mother has made. And as far as I can tell, the white people who employ Caroline do not learn their (any) lesson, though poor Noah has an illusion or two broken. The Gellman family is all the more interesting, however, when one realizes that Tony Kushner himself grew up as the son of a clarinet playing father and bassoon playing mother (like Noah), Jewish New York transplants to Lake Charles, Louisiana. And if the musical format and plot restraints keep their family life from being overly realistic, it does not flatten them into stereotypes—they seem also to reflect a myriad of mid-century white, Jewish, American experience. (The one small reference to homosexuality comes when Noah imagines buying Barbie dolls on the sly with his Hanukkah geld).
I highly recommend this production. The sets, costumes, direction and performances are all first rate (and even Noah has his charm). And I haven’t even mentioned how much amazing music comes from what turns out to be an 8-piece combo above the stage. Just don’t forget that this is a Tony Kushner musical, which means it is not light, and it is not airy. But it also means it’s well worth the effort of your attention.
Caroline or Change runs through June 21st. Tickets and more information from http://www.guthrietheater.org
Location Info:
The Guthrie Theater
Artist Info: Guthrie Theater
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