Uplifting ‘Black Nativity’ makes room for everyone – inn or not
During a talkback following Thursday night’s preview performance of “Black Nativity” – gracing Milwaukee for the third straight year, courtesy of Black Arts MKE – a woman who’d watched it told director Malkia Stampley and her 15-actor cast everything that needed saying: “It lifted me,” she said.
She wasn’t alone. I’ve loved each of the three recent Milwaukee productions of Langston Hughes’ first and most popular gospel play. But this year’s exuberant version – despite being staged by the smallest of the three productions’ casts – is the best. The excellent source material helps. Hughes’ gospel plays – his most significant and lasting contribution to American theater – are an inspiring variation on his lifelong theme: whether through the blues in his poetry or the gospel in his scripts, Hughes channeled popular cultural forms to express the suffering, aspirations and liberating joy of black America.
Example: After watching an agonized and very pregnant Mary (Camara Stampley, reprising last year’s role) and earnest Joseph (Najee Robinson) fail to find lodging while being judged by moralistic elders, a community of women rallies to Mary’s cause, surrounding her in an ecstatic ring shout that culminates in Jesus’ birth.
That dance is symptomatic of what choreographer Demar T. Walker – new this year, and an associate artistic director of Ko-Thi Dance Company – has added: This “Black Nativity” isn’t just gloriously heard but also energetically embodied, through dance forms that take us from West Africa to hip-hop while energizing an audience that was rhythmically clapping all night.
Not that one is likely to forget this piece’s nearly 30 songs, arranged by music director Antoine Reynolds (keyboard) for an orchestra that includes Taurus Adams (drums), Afton Johnson Sr. (bass) and Darrien Williams (guitar).
They burnish many highlights, including Shawn Holmes' soulful vibrato when launching “Leak in the Building.” Newcomer Natalie Harris – on fire all night – bringing it home in “No Room at the Inn.” Marcus McFarlin adding clarity to “My Way’s Cloudy.” And an operatic Cynthia Cobb – stunningly dressed in white by costume designer Beverly Echols – showing a shepherd (Harris) the way in “Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow.”
As she did with Mary’s birth, Stampley’s smart staging of that shepherd’s return to the fold emphasizes the tension between church and street, the established community and the outcasts. That disconnect receives fullest play after intermission, as Stampley creates a vivid tableaux by separating churchgoing believers from protesters mourning another murdered child.
A preaching McFarlin and a charismatic Krystal Drake lead these initially antagonistic congregations, before evolving from opposition and resentment into a deftly handled call-and-response. It emphasizes all these two groups have in common – while confirming Hughes’ faith that an inclusive “gospel church” is simply an extension of Bethlehem’s humble manger.
“Black Nativity” continues through Dec. 17 at Marcus Center’s Wilson Theater at Vogel Hall. For tickets, visit www.marcuscenter.org. Read more about this production at Tap Milwaukee.com.