Anyone Seeing Boris Kodjoe Tonight?

Hey, Im going to see "Cat" in a few weeks and I just wanted to know if anyones seeing him tonight, post your reviews here!

My friend e-mailed me this morning and this is what she had to say about Boris:

Boris Kodjoe was eye candy = not an actor in this theater. Unfortunate because this is an important role and he made James Earl Jones performance stale and ineffective. These two characters feed off each other. Everyone was hungry last night.

She also said the audience was awful. Cell phones ringing all over the place, candy wrappers, people responding out loud to the show and people having conversations all through the show as if they were sitting in their living rooms.

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Updated On: 4/16/08 at 10:50 AM

Chitowndoll - That was my experience when I saw the show as well....the audience was much more respectful and no cell phone rings at all. There was a some inappropriate chatter (as some would say..I honestly dont mind talking back) but not at all the awful audiences that most people say.

You can blame the inappropriate laughter on Debbie Allen's insipid direction.

Kalimba and chitowndoll....let me share with you 2 other parts of her review!

Let me begin by saying that the audience was a horror show. Wrappers, phones going off that no one answered and so the aggrieved party would call back soon after, people all around us having conversations as if they were sitting in their living room watching a Tyler Perry comedy, shouts of “I know that’s right” and the like, laughter at inappropriate times as if they were watching a sitcom.

However, the direction and tone of the production lent itself to the sitcom delivery. It is sad to say that much of theater today is appealing to the least of us and not the most of us. This brilliant script was presented in that same fashion. A total tragedy.

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If they wanted the Tyler Perry audience, they should have produced one of his MADEA plays, not a serious piece like CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF.

By the end of this thread I will have posted it all in bits and pieces! it is long...But here is what she said about Ms. Allen...

Debbie Allen should be banned from directing dramas. There were repetitions of motions that should only been seen in kick lines. I wish I could count the number of times any one character went to the closet and threw something in or took something out, or the number of times Brick went to bar and poured a drink. We all know he is an alcoholic. All useless motion. Allen did not know what to do with the actors.
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uncageg,

I guess I don't understand why Debbie Allen would purposely take the play in that direction? This is not a new play. This is a Pulitzer Prize winning play that has been performed many, many times before. I don't understand why she and the producer didn't just let the play stand on its own?

I saw the show on March 20th....the only thing that really bothered me was the late seating.....

uncageg - I dont know that the repitition of Brick going to get alcohol is bad staging, most of the times I noticed it was noted in the script...and it is several times.

Updated On: 4/16/08 at 05:20 PM

I saw the 4/26 evening perf. There was tremendous murmuring going on as Boris Kodjoe is seen at the start of the play; I mean, the man is a total stud. That said, I think both physically and as an actor, I'm sure Terrance Howard was much better as Brick. I think he could better do that whiny, self-pitying attitude that Brick has. Enough with the disgust already, Brick! Be a man! Kodjoe was a bit of a shell, too quiet, too removed.

I thought that the African-American cast, and the "Tyler Perry" audience (if you want to call it that), actually injected the play with some contemporary relevance. Star Jones, Terry McMillan, everybody knows the story of a black woman married to a man on the down low.

The relevation for me was Phylicia Rashad. I thought she was great as Big Mama, bringing a wonderful pathos to the long faithful wife and mother, but also an underlying strength that I think the audience (largely black) could relate to. (Interestingly, I was in a way reminded of Edith Bunker.) At the end of the play (spoiler) when Big Daddy says he's going up to the roof to survey his domain and Big Mama pleads, 'Sweatheart, can I come with you?' well, I wasn't the only one with tears in my eyes.

I would agree that the direction was a bit uneven, and failed to highlight some of the big lines or scenes. When Brick says 'Big Daddy, I'm shocked!' it just didn't have any impact (I'm not sure if that was Kodjoe's fault or the direction). A little cutting wouldn't have hurt either, IMO, as the show was a bit long (2 intermissions). While not a great production, I give it props for bringing contemporary resonance, and showing how Tennessee Williams was ahead of his time in terms of gay issues (gay athletes; husbands on the DL; gay couple--the plantation's original owners). Were the 1950's audiences shocked by such things? Even in 2008 some of the lines in the play brought gasps.

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