Kim Wayans finds herself a heavenly role
‘In Living Color’ alum stars in ‘An Act of God,’ opening at Bristol Riverside Theatre
‘AN ACT OF GOD’ STARRING KIM WAYANS
For four years, actress/comedienne Kim Wayans was one of the most malleable players on the groundbreaking hit FOX-TV sketch comedy show “In Living Color.”
While she wasn’t as immediately identifiable as Jim Carrey’s Fire Marshall Bill, or her brother Damon Wayans’ Homey D. Clown, or David Alan Grier’s Men on Film character, she was the go-to for celebrity impersonations such as Oprah Winfrey, LaToya Jackson, Whitney Houston, Dionne Warwick and Tina Turner.
But starting today, when Bristol Riverside Theatre kicks off its 33rd season, Wayans will have the ultimate role.
She’ll play God.
Wayans has the title role in the sinfully funny “An Act of God,” the Broadway play written by
13-time Emmy Award winner David Javerbaum. They play is scheduled to run for 28 performances, through Oct. 13.
Tickets, at $43-$45 and $10 child or student with ID, are available at the theater box office at 120 Radcliffe St., at brtstage.org and 215-785-0100.
Wayans, in a phone interview from her Los Angeles home, says that in a 37-year professional career, this will be just her third theater role. Several years ago, she did a one-woman show she wrote — then she did “Barbecue” at The Public Theater in New York in 2015.
“But it’s something that I kind of put it out there, in the universe, I want to do more theater,” Wayans says, “because I love the experience and I love the challenge. And so I think I drew this to me in some ways.”
The play is based on Javerbaum’s Twitter persona @TheTweetofGod, which has 6 million followers. The audience is seated at the staircase to Heaven, and God — assisted by angels Gabriel and Michael — answers some of the deepest questions that have plagued mankind since Creation.
It’s described in publicity material as “a mental romp around the Old and New Testaments, with a dissatisfied God who, having grown weary of the original Ten Commandments, has arrived in the theater to offer new version … or a modern world.”
Wayans said she had no reservation about being a woman playing God (on Broadway, it had Jim Parsons of TV’s “The Big Bang Theory,” then Sean Hayes of “Will & Grace” as God)
“I thought it was really cool and very timely, you know, that [Bristol Riverside Theatre founding director Susan D. Atkinson] thought in this direction. We’ve seen enough men play God.
Why not a woman playing God? Why not a black woman playing God? You know, I think it’s right on time.”
Wayans said “the theater, the producer, the director, they actually made an offer to me to come do the play. And I read the play and I thought it was a hoot. I thought it was hysterical. I thought it was thought-provoking. The subject mater was of interest to me.
“And come on, let’s face it … The role of God — that’s an offer you can’t refuse, right?”
In a statement, Atkinson says she knew Wayans from her work not just on “In Living Color,” but also as the mother struggling to understand her 17-year-old daughter in the 2011 film “Pariah.” But she says it was seeing her little niece with a copy of Wayans’ book “Amy Hodgepodge,” about a blended family, that persuaded her to cast her.
“Go ‘Amy Hodgepodge’!” Wayans says in the call. “That’s really interesting. I love hearing that. It’s just so interesting how we’re all so connected in ways that are quite magical.”
Wayans says she wrote the six-book series with her husband, Kevin Knotts, inspired by her own niece, who is mixedrace.
“She was having some difficulties in school for different reasons, and she shared with us her story of what was going on in her school, and that just sparked an idea,” Wayans says. “We wanted to get her a book, we wanted to buy her some books, so she could see, like, little girls who look like her reflected in the pages. And we couldn’t find them anywhere.
“So we decided, ‘OK, let’s create a series. Let’s create a series called ‘Amy Hodgepodge’ and tell stories that are universal — you know, that can help children deal with different things that they’re going through in their little young lives.’”
Wayans says the book are “kind of a full-circle moment” for her.
“When I was in fifth grade, I use to write children’s stories,” she says. “And my teacher, whom the ‘Amy Hodgepodge’ series is dedicated to, would send me around to various classes in second and third grade to read my little stories to them. So as a grown woman, that never really left me – that desire to tell children’s stories.”
Wayans also counts “Pariah” as a career highlight. It gave her a chance to showcase her dramatic abilities, and got her a nomination from the Black Reel Awards for Best Supporting Actress.
“That was a really special experience,” Wayans says. “‘Pariah’ was really a wonderful movie. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the life that it should have had, I think — the theatrical run. It just didn’t get the support and attention it would need to push it to the next level. But people are discovering it now — they discover it on Netflix or whatever and they see it really, really was a very beautiful, amazing movie.
“I am so grateful to [writerdirector] Dee Rees for giving me the opportunity. ‘Cause most people prior to that had just always thought of me as a wacky comedienne — that that’s all I can do. So she gave me the opportunity to show the industry and show the world that, you know, take me out the box, ‘cause there’s a lot more I can do.”
That’s a statement of recognition about how strongly people identify Wayans with “In Living Color.”
Though from 1995-98 she starred as Tonia Harris on the NBC-TV and UPN sitcom “In the House,” and had a recurring role on “A Different World,” it was “In Living Color” that had the largest impact. The show won two NAACP Image
Awards, for Outstanding Variety Series and Outstanding Comedy Series; a People’s Choice Award for Favorite New TV Comedy Series; and an Emmy Award for Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Series.
And Wayans says she’s fine with that.
“I’m just so proud of that series,” she says. “I’m proud of my brother, Keenan, for creating that series. I’m proud of the work I did on it. I’m proud of the ways in which it shifted culture and opened up doors for so many other young comedian voices and voices for people to come through.
“And I’m so proud of the legacy of ‘Living Color’ and how, here we are, all these years later, and people are still watching the reruns and still laughing almost as hard as they laughed the first time, with everything still being so relevant. I just think it’s pretty amazing. I feel very, very blessed to have had the experience and lucky.”
Asked about a possible reunion show (next year will mark the 30 years since its debut), Wayans says, “The public really wants that from us. [But] I think if we ever did anything like that — and it’s a big if — it would just be like a reunion show, like a one-off. Like one two-hour special or something like that. I said I would be open for that.
“But bringing ‘Living Color’ back as a series, I wouldn’t be open for that. I don’t think Keenan (her brother, series founder, writer and actor Keenan Ivory Wayans) would either. You know what I mean — it’s, like, we did it. We did it at the highest level it could be done. So why go back and try to repeat that?”
Several other of Kim Wayans’ career projects have been connected to her family. She had roles in the films “I’m Gonna Git You Sucka” and “Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood,” both directed by Keenan Ivory Wayans, and “Lowdown Dirty Shame,” which Keenan wrote and in which he starred.
“It’s like having your own baseball team,” she says. “It’s a sense of, like, community within your family. To have a bunch of people who are creative and who, in a lot of ways, are likeminded and really understand each other’s humor and each other’s point of view and help to encourage and support and develop that is really wonderful. Very special.”
She says she remains close with them. “Oh yes,” she says with a laugh. “Very much in touch with them, very close with my brothers. I talk to all of them at least every week, and see them as frequently as we can.”
Kim Wayans says she has other works in progress. “I’m developing a couple of things now to go out and pitch,” she says. “So fingers crossed, I’ll be able to sell them. And then I have another one-woman show that I’m trying to get set up that I wrote.”
But she says she’s looking forward to her role as God.
When the interviewer jokingly tells her it’s the first time he’s spoken with God directly, Wayans laughs.
“Are you impressed thus far?” she says.
Morning Call Lehigh Valley Music reporter and columnist John J. Moser can be reached at 610-820-6722 or jmoser@mcall.com