Photo by Kyle Flubaker
Somewhere in the middle of Play On!, Sheldon Epp’s brilliant reimagining of Twelfth Night, now onstage at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, I lost myself in the music and dreamed my way to Harlem.
Let me set the stage.
The show started strong. I love Shakespeare and Jazz music, and Play On! was giving plenty of both.
Conducted by Theodis Rodgers Jr., the band was playing the hell out of Epp’s ingenious arrangement of Duke Ellington songs, hit after hit woven together to the topsy-turvy, romantic, deceptive, melancholic, farcical beats of the Bard’s masterpiece of comedic chaos and mistaken identity. From the ensemble’s ‘Take the A Train’ to the four-part, show-stopper ‘Solitude’, with stops at Jazz standards like ‘Don’t Mean a Thing’, ‘C Jam Blues’, ‘Mood Indigo’, and ‘Don’t Get Around Much Anymore along the way, the show’s First Act left no doubt that Play On! was a hit.
Here, a brief program note. According to Epps, he and bookwriter Cheryl L. West collaborated on the 20th anniversary reboot in an effort to “Celebrate Black Excellence, Black Brilliance, and Black JOY… in simple but effective ways.” With choreography by Edgar Godineaux and an All-Star cast, featuring Alan H. Green (Rev), James Harkness (Jester), Kaylah Janssen (CC), James Earl Jones II (Sweets), Alanna Lovely (Miss Mary), Eldred Utomi (Duke), and Hailee Kaleem Wright (Vy)… Epps and West’s plan was clearly working.
Now, back to setting the stage. The quartet performance of ‘Solitude’ ended, and it kinda crushed me, but in a good way. And I knew the show was good, very good. So at intermission, I went and bought a Diet Coke, checked my phone, and took a pic of our beautiful Chicago skyline at night from Navy Pier, always a highlight. Then I went back to my seat, the lights went down, and Krystal Joy Brown, in her role as the alluring, fragile diva Lady Liv, came out and set the theatre on fire and burned the whole place down.
Photo by Kyle Flubaker
I mean it. It was incredible. She was incredible. There was the show before Brown sang ‘I Ain’t Got Nothin’ But the Blues”: outstanding. Then came the blaze. And there was the show after the theater was a smoldering ruin: Magic. I should probably try to describe it here, but I won’t. Can’t be done. Brown had already crushed ‘Mood Indigo’ in the first act, but this was something altogether more crushing, more extraordinary. It was magic.
So there it is, the part when I lost myself in the music and dreamed my way to Harlem. But it didn’t stop there. Next came Green’s performance of ‘I’m Beginning to See the Light’ in a fabulous yellow suit with the chorus egging him on. Gold. And Wright on ‘I Didn’t Know About You’. So right. And Jones II with Harkness brought the house down with their joyful, thunderous ‘Rocks in My Bed’. Wow, just wow. A show-stopper.
Duke Ellington and Shakespeare were born 335 years and 3,678 miles apart.
Shakespeare wrote 38 plays, 154 sonnets, and several other poems, including collaborations that make a definitive number impossible.
Ellington wrote more than a thousand songs, and when you include film scores, collaborations, and symphonic suites, the number climbs above 3,000.
Shakespeare revolutionized the way we tell stories. Ellington revolutionized how we experience music. Epps brought them together on stage.
That’s what I was thinking about as I watched the first act. What a great idea. Shakespeare and the Duke! And the music is wonderful.
But I wasn’t thinking about any of that when Brown sang ‘I Ain’t Got Nothin But the Blues’ and Play On! caught fire.
In the second act. I was dreaming of Harlem.
Play On! is playing at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater at 800 E Grand Ave, Chicago, IL 60611 until October 18. Check the here for specific dates, times, and tickets. Find more information about current plays at theatreinchicago.com.