Ethel Waters comes to life at Capital Repertory Theatre
ALBANY>> You might not leave Capital Repertory Theatre’s production of “Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On the Sparrow” caring deeply about the title character, but you will leave falling in love with Jannie Jones.
Jones creates a character who makes you understand the toughness, strength and dedication that Waters needed to become one of the most important female African-American performers of the 20th century.
The 100-minute work, offered without intermission, was written by Larry Parr. It details the impressive life and career of Ethel Waters beginning with her birth in 1896 to a 14-year old mother, through rape. It goes on to detail Waters childhood which was impoverished and unloved. As a youth, her highest aspiration was to be a maid to a rich white woman. Instead, she became a successful, wealthy entertainer who broke color barriers in night clubs, on stage and in film.
Parr gives us the details of Waters’ career, the facts of her personal life and concentrates on her drive which is powered by a distrust for everyone — especially for those in power with white skin. The playwright offers many examples of the hardships she endured as a youthful performer in seedy venues and life on the road. Especially harrowing are her experiences of performing in the south where lynching was an accepted way to keep “uppity Blacks” in their place.
Parr makes a gigantic effort to show Ethel Waters as an admirable individual who overcame racial prejudice, exploitation, and her torment of going through life feeling undeserving of love. More to the point, it shows her as a person who doesn’t know how to love.
What Parr doesn’t do is make her a complex woman who had flaws of her own making. When, at the end of her life, redemption comes through her association with Billy Graham and his religious crusades, it is a happy feel-good moment. But somehow, though deserved, it feels unearned.
Nonetheless, when show comes to an end with Jones as Waters belting out the inspiring gospel song “His Eye Is On The Sparrow,” it’s an uplifting moment which permits you to forgive any unspoken flaws Waters might have had. Indeed, that moment is not about a revival of a career. It is the culmination of a journey of a woman who learned to forgive others, and by so doing, she learns how to love herself.
It is not only Jones’ presentation of “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” (which is offered three different times in the show) that adds spirit to the evening. There are more than a dozen songs, (almost all of which are familiar standards) offered in the show. Remarkably, instead of stopping the narrative the songs act as a punctuation mark for the story being told.
This play with music is, as one-person shows must be, filled with exposition with Waters telling us how she is feeling about everything in her life. It often feels like a one-sided version of events. Therefore, it’s an asset to have songs emphasize those expressions and helps us to believe the truth of her statements. Some just add joy to what often seems a life filled with obstacles.
Jones is a master of selling a song. She has a great singing voice that can be dynamic, sensitive or sexy as the moment demands. But more than sounding pleasing, her lyrical sensitivity makes you feel the song is meant directly for you and comes from within her. When Jones is singing, “His Eye Is On the Sparrow” it’s great theater.
Helping Jones is the superb accompaniment of musical director Josh D. Smith who, though on stage all night, is somehow invisible except when he has the opportunity to star in his own right during a costume change. It’s excellent work on every level.
Jones originated the role at Florida Studio Theatre in 2005 and returned to it there a couple of years ago. Here it is directed by artistic director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill at the new spacious but intimate Capital Rep theater. Mancinelli-Cahill finds all the strengths in the work and hides most of the flaws.
However, her greatest achievement is showing the potential of the new space. If a one-person show can be so visually compelling, it’s exciting to think what she will do when the days of large productions return.
Until then, visit the new Capital Rep theater for a dynamic performance about a woman who overcame almost unbelievable racial and social barriers to become a major African-American groundbreaking star.
“Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On The Sparrow” plays through Sept. 26 at Capital Repertory Theatre at 251 N. Pearl St. For ticket and schedule information go to capitalrep.org or call (518) 445-7469. Proof of vaccination is needed, and masks must be worn inside the theater.