Marie & Rosetta

Saw this tonight and it's the second time, I recall, thinking that a play that isn't terribly well-written, is a "must-see." The other time was Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill. I was looking forward to this, as I admire the two women who star and they did not disappoint, but I was also interested in the story of a woman about whom, I knew nothing. And, that's the issue with the writing. I still know nothing about her. I understand that it's difficult to write true story bios in play-form and they often fall into the "and then this happened, and then this happened.." trap. This does not fall into that trap, but there is nothing at stake for either character (there might be, but it's offstage and unresolved or explored, so it doesn't matter). There is a gimmick that is awkward and took a few second to figure out and needs better direction.

Without going into spoilers, this is the story of a true life gospel singer, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and her first rehearsal with a new, young protege, Marie Knight. We don't really learn much about the women and we don't take any kind of a "journey" with them.

That said, this is never boring and doesn't drag. The play is loaded with raise-the-roof gospel performances. Indeed, maybe to many songs and too little story, but Kecia Lewis & Rebecca Naomi Jones give it their all.

The play (with music) is, like Lady Day, a badly written play that is thoroughly entertaining, with winning perfrmances by both women.

Updated On: 9/1/16 at 12:33 AM

The short version: I saw the show yesterday and really enjoyed four-fifths of it. Kecia Lewis is a force of nature, and, God love her, she can really swing the hall. Her acting is very moving too. Drama Desk Award over here, please! The play is worth seeing for her alone. Rebecca Naomi Jones gives a highly professional performance, and you would expect no less from her. And the music they make together is transporting.

The show is derailed, sad to report, by an absolutely horrible and cheesy ending, and the audience, formerly so enthralled, is left to exit with a bad feeling toward the show. Thus the "four-fifths."

The long version: I think it's problematic to portray famous musicians on stage. You have to get actors who look like the person to some degree, who can convincingly portray the person, and also play or sing like the person. This is very difficult.

There are a couple of ways to go. In the wonderful production of Satchmo at the Waldorf at the Westside Theater in 2014, John Douglas Thompson portrayed Louis Armstrong without blowing a single note on a trumpet, and without pretending to either. That's a credit to an extremely accomplished actor and a solid script.

Marie & Rosetta has been compared to Lady Day at Emerson's Bar and Grill. I definitely see the similarities. In that play, Audra McDonald aced the look and sound (amazingly) of Billie Holiday. Marie & Rosetta has it both tougher and easier: easier in that Rosetta Tharp, an early gospel singer with blues in her soul, is not as well known today as Holiday. But the production has a tougher job in that Tharp was known for her guitar playing and was also a pianist. Marie played the piano also. You can see it starts to get complicated. How do you find actresses who can accomplish all that? 

I don't want to give anything away, but Marie and Rosetta...

That didn't bother me at all, but my theater partner was kind of distracted by it.

Anyway, all that would be forgiven if the ending were better! I agree with wolfwriter that there is a compelling story here, somewhere, but it doesn't show up on the stage except in the singing. Still, to me, this play is worth seeing.

 

 

Updated On: 9/4/16 at 11:31 AM

little_sally said: "I saw this last night and didn't care for it overall. It is not a well-written play, and you don't really learn anything about these two women. Yes, both actresses are great and sing wonderfully but there's almost too many songs. It almost felt like a jukebox musical where songs are just shoe-horned into the book. The ending comes out of left-field and is very bizarre, especially in tone."

 

Agreed.

 

To me, the writing was alright. Film it with bright even lighting with Queen Latifa and it's a Lifetime movie, turn off a few lights, and it's an HBO movie. 

I thought both actresses did very well, but the bad miming of guitar playing was very distracting.

I agree the last 10 minutes were not needed. It felt like an epilogue at the end of a movie, "SoandSo went on to graduate law school and found a cure for the common cold." It was just a device for the actors to say what happened to the women after "this night."

The ending did seem abrupt and different in tone but then again so does The Humans, which I loved 4 times.

I kinda took Marie and Rosetta's end as a sort of letting the audience know what happened to this incredible performer that many people aren't familiar with. A way so we don't have to rush to Wikipedia to find out how her life turned out. It was a lot of info crammed into 5 minutes but I didn't mind it. And it's true Rosetta died in the 70's so she would know these things that happened in her life after this night we've watched. Still, it didn't take away from the great performances and singing that came before. And the look of joy and peace and calm on Ms. Lewis' face as Ms. Jones is talking to her at the end of the play was beautiful. I can't remember a curtain call in a long time where the actor, Ms. Lewis, seemed totally drained.

And any chance to see Kecia Lewis is a joy. I always felt her career should have been bigger. She was was so great in Once On This Island but a lot of the time she's cast with not much to do, i.e., the latest Radio City Spectacular and earlier Drowsy Chaperone. She really gets to shine here.