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Regional Reviews: Washington, D.C. Paradise Blue
While most of the play's action takes place on two designated stage areas, audience members sit at small, four-person tables, and the actors make their way around them. More than that, the audience experience can include ordering drinks and snacks either before the show or during intermission from a bar located along one wall. (The production is immersive but not interactive; attendees are warned not to make direct contact with the actors.) The play is a fascinating blend of drama and psychological insight. Paradise is one of several nightclubs in the city's rundown Black Bottom neighborhood, and the (white) city government is interested in "urban renewal" or, in practical terms, buying up the existing buildings and leveling them to make room for new construction. The character at the heart of the drama–Blue (Amari Cheatom), a talented trumpeter–inherited the club from his father, also a trumpeter and a deeply troubled man whose actions live on in his son's memories and behavior. Director Raymond O. Caldwell ingeniously demonstrates the hold of the father's memory on the son: Cheatom visibly mimes playing the trumpet on the stage while performer Michael A. Thomas plays from among the tables. Blue, with his lingering traumas and need for transcendence, is the center of the play, as the others are his employees and, in the case of Pumpkin (Kalen Robinson), also his ambivalent lover. Pumpkin's jobs include tending bar, looking after the apartments available for rent upstairs, and cooking meals for the residents; she manages to find respite by reading poetry. Pianist Corn (Marty Austin Lamar) and percussionist P-Sam (Ro Boddie), with their bawdy interplay and dark humor, are tired of Blue's complete control over the musicians, firing one he considered a troublemaker. Then something unexpected happens: Silver (Anji White), a dangerously self-possessed woman in a sleek black dress and veil (costumes by Cidney Forkpah), walks into the bar and disorients everyone she meets. Caldwell conducts the cast members like a bandleader, bringing out the highlights in each performance and making sure the harmonies work. All of them, also including bassist Mark Saltman during the pre-show, know inside out who their characters are and how they interact. One small grace note is the appearance of the program. To summon up the time period, Studio has created a cover design that echoes the Broadway Playbills of that era. Paradise Blue runs through June 8, 2025, at Studio Theatre, Victor Shargai Theatre, 1501 14th St. NW, Washington DC. For tickets and information, please call 202-332-3300 or visit www.studiotheatre.org. By Dominique Morisseau Cast: |
