Lots to say and that in itself is something to be excited about! There were many news outlets outside the theatre to include Broadway's return in their news cycle. Once inside pretty much everyone was good about their mask wearing, but there were two people not wearing their masks and standing directly in front of two women who seemed to be an usher and a house manager. The younger of the two was reminded by someone he was with to keep the mask up, but the older man kept his down and not a word was said to him. I wish some words were said, but I understand not wanting things to get confrontational.
The house was mostly sold out, but I was in the mezzanine and the entire row in front of me was empty. The rest of the house seemed well-sold, and yes, they were a lively audience. The staff at the August Wilson received a standing ovation prompted by someone seemingly involved in the production. The orchestra responded enthusiastically when the playwright and director entered. When that curtain rose, I was reminded of how much I'd missed that experience. It was genuinely emotional.
Onto the play...all three actors were excellent. I, like the person who posted above, am not familiar with previous version of the script, but I really enjoyed this. It was so funny, so raw, and so moving. I had a hard time with the n-word being thrown out so much in the first ten minutes, but that's addressed in the play and one of the points. For me, things picked up after those first ten minutes when Gabriel Ebert's white character entered and we got the juxtaposition between the characters. So many cringeworthy and hilarious moments. I have questions about the end, so **SPOILERS** if you don't want to know. At the end of the play, Moses asks Kitch to kill him. Kitch hits him as the cop enters, but Moses is seemingly alive and summons his power and become the leader that his name implies he is in order to stop the cop from hurting him and his friend. The cop repeats, "You're a man" while looking at one of the men and seeing him as a human instead of the stereotype that formed his previous view. Moses and Kitch dance and declares that they've transcended race. The cop then strips naked and walks off. Moses then does the same. It seemed to me that that was supposed to symbolize their recognition of humanity over separate races, but Kitch stays clothed and is tempted to take the gold chains offered to him by Ebert's first character who returns. Are we supposed to take from this that he has not fully been able to escape the hold that race has over us? Or because earlier he said that in his heaven, he would be wearing gold chains are we supposed to believe that he (and maybe all three of them) have died and gone to their own ideas of heaven? Can't wait to hear what others think of the ending.
After the play, audiences exited onto 52nd street where a DJ was playing music and entertaining the crowd. It was very crowded and hard to move, so I didn't last long. This was already a night surrounded by a lot of people, so I didn't need much more. I also thought that Victor's and a couple of other restaurants were going to have kiosks of food for sale, but I didn't see anything. Seemed just to be the DJ. Still a nice gesture to end the night with a bang. So happy to have Broadway back!
Updated On: 8/5/21 at 12:24 AM
