Black
Ensemble Theater's
newest production "Don't Make Me Over" honors the career of Dionne
Warwick with
style, energy, and enthusiasm in a hosted stage revue featuring a fabulous
on-stage band and a stalwart company of singers. While this musical production
is burdened at times with a book that tells rather than shows us Ms. Warwick's
story, the songs we wait for are many and familiar and we are not disappointed
when they come resoundingly forth.
Our
host Miss Divine (Jeniel M. Smith) is a character we can choose to see as a woman or a
genderless being in beautiful clothes guiding us along the musical journey of
Dionne Warwick. (The choice of a drag name such as Miss Divine is intriguing.)
We are provided biographic historical data entries (marriages, children,
significant years in a significant career) in a few scripted illustrative
exchanges involving Dionne (played by three singer actresses Paulette Bruce, Carrie, and Alexis J. Rogers), Dionne's sister Dee Dee (Marquecia
Jordan),
Dionne's mother Lee (Jacqui Thomas) and Dionne's aunt Cissy Houston (Toi Overton) and selected men involved in
Dionne's professional life (Shay Ames, Gemini, Dwight Neal, and Nikita Harris playing several roles). As noted above, these
conversations do not soar as great theatre but serve to provide transitions
between song sets.
We
are not meant to learn all the nuances of the life story of the woman behind
the music. Indeed, we are warned away from expected juicy biopic details about
lovers and friendships quite explicitly by our host in a "take you out of
the moment" sequence that challenges the audience members to offer equally
private details of their own lives in exchange for similar details from Ms.
Warwick's. While this challenges the theatricality of the piece, this sequence
and all of the action in "Don't Take Me Over" is intended to respect,
to hold up, to educate, to revere, to record this important twentieth and twenty-first
century American's life. Miss Divine leads this sequence of the story, saying
in essence: we all have problems and issues in our families and they are
private family matters. I respect this gossip line, yet found myself yearning
for more exposition of the woman who sings the songs we celebrate with this
work.
This
is an ensemble piece through and through. The playbill itself provides a song
list but not the actors who perform them. (A simple and useful addition to the
existing playbill song list would be the year of publication and/or the year of
Ms. Warwick's recording of each tune.) The decision to essentially subdivide
the character of Dionne according to vocal styles (a decision that also allows
for 'back up' singers in a tidy way when necessary for any tune) further
cements this sensation. Certain performances brought my audience to its feet
several times, but each performance has its moments.
The
sound and lighting designs by Denise Karczewski and Ron White are serviceable for the current
small performance space utilized by the Theater. (Note: the Theater has
recently purchased a new building and exciting plans are afoot to fund
renovations in the new space.) The musicians led by Jimmy Tillman are tremendous -- the horn
section is particularly strongly highlighted in several songs. The simple stage
set by Denise Karczewski with steps up to the band becomes a dance floor deep in the second
act, with one of those show stopping performances "in one" in front
of now illuminated stairs a la "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise".
And the lovely costumes by Jackie Taylor and Evelyn Danner, especially those worn by Miss
Divine and the three Dionnes, are just luscious.
This
production as a piece of theatre could be tweaked to communicate biographical
facts with more dramatic flow and power (e.g. through the use of playbill notes
or stage projections rather than characters reporting historical details). The
piece as a performance set is exhilarating. This is a good old fashioned house
party with a great house band If you love the songs of Ms. Warwick you will
have a fabulous time with this company.