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Woman Around Town’s Editor Charlene Giannetti and writers for the website talk with the women and men making news in New York, Washington, D.C., and other cities around the world. Thanks to Ian Herman for his wonderful piano introduction.

Josephine Baker

Josephine-a burlesque cabaret dream play

01/21/2018

This is the third or fourth one woman Josephine Baker show I’ve seen and, despite serious issues, it’s better than the others. Tymisha Harris is attractive and full of personality. She’s beautifully dressed, moves well, and sings with feeling. (Terrific Costume Design including the epochal banana ensemble- Tymisha Harris.)

Josephine Baker, (1906-1975), born poor as Freda Josephine McDonald, was a flamboyant entertainer who, while only in her teens and much to her surprise, took Paris by storm. Having left a harshly segregated America, she settled abroad, eventually touring internationally. Baker was unselfconsciousness about exploiting her own body. With success, this became exhibitionism that amounted to branding. She was married five times and a sexual libertine; reveled in and generous with money as if it would never run short. The star knew simply everyone of note in her time.

Unable to bear children and with no stable relationship, Baker began acquiring youngsters on her tours – purchasing, spiriting away (sometimes to parental or government objection) and adopting 12 kids of widely diverse race whom the press called her “rainbow children.” As finances dwindled, and Baker toured, their lives were often difficult and spare between treats. (Read Jean Claude Baker’s book.)

During the war, Josephine was a successful, unsuspected spy, easily sequestering messages in lingerie. Later in life, aware of what was going on in America, she became something of an activist. The performer worked, if rarely and fleeing creditors, as long as venues would have her. She retained her amazing body and proud stature.

Having read a number of books and interviewed her adopted son, the late Jean Claude Baker, at length, I find the show well researched. You won’t gain any insight into the artist and omissions run in Baker’s favor, but presented facts are, at least, facts.

As far as I can tell, musical numbers are also accurately chosen, even the flirty, novelty “Don’t Touch My Tomatoes” (performed in a Carmen Miranda get-up) about which I was at first skeptical. Unfortunately, Tod Kimbro’s Musical Direction lacks skill and finesse. Accompaniment is hit or miss. (Music is taped.) Also, Harris’s French is not good. As she’s apparently been on the road with this for some time, one would think…

Josephine was an untrained talent. Awkward improvisation of early dancing fits the story. (Baker was looser.) Choreography is also credited to Harris. Singing with polish comes too soon on the timeline, but the actress lowers and scratches a later vocal effectively indicating age. The song to which I refer, performed at Martin Luther King’s iconic Washington, D.C. rally (Baker was there at his invitation), goes on much too long, tipping the balance of the piece in favor of civil rights – a misnomer. One can’t fault Harris for lack of spirit, however.

Either Director Michael Marinaccio is too close to his collaborative partner in creating the show – thus, uncritical, or Harris is playing fast and loose with what was prescribed. Intermittent, Fanny Brice-like mugging does neither Baker nor the show any favors. This extends to presumably ad-libbed asides like “Awesome!” and “Don’t judge,” which are likely not in the script.

Despite the title, a swell pair of pasties, and interaction with the front row–the request that a male patron put on her bra-like costume top and, later, seductively sitting on a woman’s lap (Baker was bisexual), one can hardly call it burlesque. Don’t get your hopes up. Note: Neither of these directorial devices can be seen by 95 percent of the closely packed audience.

The play is not without entertainment value if you lower your standards and know little or nothing about Josephine Baker. Its parts simply don’t make a polished whole. Frustration comes with attributing Tymisha Harris with greater chops than evident in this production. If she’d had a better, more strong-willed creative team, Josephine might’ve been a more worthy piece.

Photos Courtesy of the Production

Josephine-a burlesque cabaret dream play by Tod Kimbro
Created by Tymisha Harris, Michael Marinaccio, Tod Kimbro
Directed by Michael Marinaccio
SoHo Playhouse  
15 Van Dam Street
Through February 11, 2018

Shuffle Along – Or The Making of The Musical Sensation of 1921 And All That Followed

05/23/2016

An Appreciation

Pound for pound this musical showcases more talent than half the new productions on Broadway combined. Almost every superb black performer you might recall from recent years of theater and music is on this stage.The artistic team is crackerjack.

Shuffle Along

Brandon Victor Dixon and Joshua Henry

Critical voices have been raised in regard to the piece’s two hour forty minute running time to which I respond, yes, it could’ve been shorter without losing a whit of pith or entertainment value, but so what? Journalists and historians have also weighed in on George C. Wolfe’s decision to downplay such things as the application of blackface, on-the-road segregation, and theatrical naysayers. When important, of-the-time-author Carl Van Vechten denies the musical’s place in future collective memory, we realize a cultural response which is not otherwise emphasized.

As we see glimpses of blackface, exposition there seems missing. Otherwise, it’s a case of not being all things to all people.  (An attempt at rounding up history occurs with biographical epilogues.)

Shuffle Along

Brandon Victor Dixon and Audra McDonald

Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake met in 1915. As The Dixie Duo, they were the first negro performers to eschew blackface. The collaborators provided songs for the musical in question and respectively had long, successful, musical and theatrical careers. Producer/Performers F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles became friends as students and then a vaudeville comedy team. They both produced and performed in this 1921 show (here, in traditional blackface to which, one would have thought, their partners might’ve objected), afterwards mounting and writing others.

Sissle, Blake, Miller and Lyles encountered one another at an NAACP benefit where the vaudeville team performed a sketch called ‘The Mayor of Jimtown.’ Finding themselves likeminded, the four decided to turn it into a show about a small town election, creating the first all black musical to viably compete with Broadway productions.

Shuffle Along

Adrienne Warren, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Billy Porter, Audra McDonald and The Ensemble

After a grueling, squabbling hand-to-mouth tour, Shuffle Along landed at an off the grid West 63rd Street Theater without an orchestra pit, where, to everyonelse’s surprise, it ran 500 performances. It wasn’t that its flimsy book or staging were innovative, but rather that this black cast and creative team showcased energy, ebullience, and talent as skilled as anything on 42nd Street. The landmark production nurtured young performers like Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, and Paul Robeson, revising expectations and opening the door to black revues outside of Harlem.

Brian Stokes Mitchell (F.E. Miller) not only returns to The Great White Way with bankable, resonant vocals and signature style, he tap dances! Billy Porter (Aubrey Lyles), last seen cavorting in Kinky Boots, sings, dances, displays terrific comic flair without regressing into parody and, turning serious at the last, brings it home.

Shuffle Along

            Joshua Henry, Brandon Victor Dixon, Billy Porter, Brian Stokes Mitchell,                   Richard Riaz Yoder

Brandon Victor Dixon of the musical Motown, is utterly charming as the pixilated, two-timing Eubie Blake. Dixon taps, sings, and acts with naturalness that allows us to excuse the character’s weaknesses much as Lottie does during their on again/off again affair. His reaction to a mouse is priceless. Joshua Henry (Noble Sissle), who was unequivocally great in The Scottsboro Boys, here lightens up without losing an iota of authenticity or grace. And oh, that voice!

Adrienne Warren (Gertrude Saunders/Florence Mills) delivers a sassy performance with bright-eyed finesse and nimble footwork while veteran Brooks Ashmanskas plays a slew of roles, each with pitch perfect comic timing and precision dancing he makes look ridiculously easy.

Shuffle Along

Audra McDonald

As to the visibly pregnant Audra McDonald (go quickly lest you miss her!), she’s simply magnificent. Fully inhabiting Lottie Gee who was herself, a regal cut above the environment in which she achieved fame, the artist’s vocals, acting, and yes, tap dancing, are a veritable joy to behold.

Daryl Waters’s Music Supervision, Arrangements & Orchestrations are immensely clear and rich. (Sound Design-Scott Lehrer) Choreography by Savion Glover is exuberant, loose-limbed, gorgeously synchronized, and feels fresh, though its underpinnings reflect the era. Company numbers are a master class. The visual creative team excels with Ann Roth’s Costumes and Mia M. Neal’s Hair Design original, yet accurate stand-outs.

Shuffle Along

Adrienne Warren and The Ensemble

If you’re anything of a theater-goer, you know there’s been a fracas about whether the musical is a revival or an original, the latter putting it in competition for the juggernaut called Hamilton. In the opinion of this journalist, book writer George C. Wolfe’s framing device as indicated in the show’s subtitle, should have set it firmly in the latter category.  Though there are lots of recreated numbers, the story of its artistic collaboration provides vertebrae. Alas, my view is among a minority.

Photos by Julieta Cervantes
Opening: The Ensemble

Shuffle Along
Or The Making of The Musical Sensation of 1921 And All That Followed
Music and Lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake
Original Book by F.E. Miller and Aubry Lyles
Book by George C. Wolfe
Directed by George C. Wolfe
The Music Box Theater
239 West 45th Street