THE BUBBLY BLACK GIRL SHEDS HER CHAMELEON SKIN: This Perfect Fit For Encores! Off-Center's Mission Deserves A Longer Run

It's easy to imagine that, in the hands of the right director, Kirsten Childs' lightly satirical musical The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin might shed its own chameleon skin and embrace a sharper tone that could serve as an edgy commentary on the state of race relations in the U. S. today.  

As it stands, however, it still is a worthy model for the kind of programming well suited to the mission of New York City Center's Encores! Off-Center, the summertime younger sibling to the well-established Encores! series of productions of (usually) seldom-seen older Broadway shows that takes place during the winter and spring. In a similar vein, Encores! Off Center tackles Off Broadway shows.  

Now in its fourth season, Encores! Off Center has not yet fully found its footing. Some of its productions, for instance, have been little more than straight-up concerts, while others have been done (generally more successfully) in the style of the regular Encores! series, as semi-staged versions. This is how The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin has been developed, under Robert O'Hara's surprisingly tame direction (surprising, because as a playwright, Mr. O'Hara has shown himself to be quite at home with the raw and raucous with such works as Bootycandy).   


The show itself, which was last seen at Playwright's Horizons in 2000, is a semi-autobiographical tale of one young black woman's journey to self-discovery. It is divided into two acts. The first takes place in Los Angeles during the turbulent 1960s, where we meet up with young Viveca Stanton (aka "Bubbly"), portrayed by a delightful Nikki M. James whom you might remember from her Tony Award-winning role as the naive Nabulungi who longs to journey to the promised land of Salt Lake City in The Book of Mormon.  

When we first see Bubbly, she is a young child who has already developed a sense that being black puts her on a lower rung, possibly a dangerous one. Early on, she learns of the 1963 Birmingham, Alabama church bombing in which four young black girls were killed. That story finds its way into her nightmares, and she wonders if she might be in jeopardy herself.  

And so she starts to identify with her seemingly more desirable white peers. She spends a lot of time engaged in serious conversations with her favorite white doll, Chitty Chatty ("I've decided I'm going to be white, just like you!"), and only plays with her black doll when she thinks her mother is looking. She has also absorbed her father's life lesson to "Smile, Smile" at the world and to always present an upbeat positive image of herself.  

It takes a long time, and an Act II move to New York City, for Bubbly to learn that presenting herself always in this way is neither honest nor healthy. It is not until the very end of the show that the people-pleasing "Bubbly" makes way for the realistically tougher and more self-assured "Viveca."  Before that occurs, however, we will have spent a lot of time with Bubbly as she experiences the pains and tribulations of elementary, middle, and high school, where she is frequently bullied and rejected by her peers as a misfit and turncoat "Oreo"; she only briefly finds respite in her beloved dance class and during the "colorblind" hippie era with her white boyfriend Cosmic Rainbow (a very funny Josh Davis, who later takes on the role of a not-so-funny policeman).   

For a New York audience, at least, Act II is the more sharply written, and the tone is amped up with some bite. Even the costumes - all pastels in the California sequences - have become New York black. When Bubbly arrives and greets the city with enthusiasm, it is with the certitude that she will make it as a professional dancer in short order. But her " 'Scuse me, pardon me, have a nice day" is met with a chorus of "Get the fuck out of the way!"  

Production photos by Joan Marcus

Undaunted, Bubbly continues to take dance classes, and she winds up auditioning for "Director Bob" (another role well-played by Mr. Davis and presumably modeled on Bob Fosse), who is casting for a Broadway show.  In a very funny and snappy sequence, Director Bob asks Bubbly to read some lines. She does, but he wants her to try again, and this time, "don't go white on me." Taken somewhat aback, Bubbly pulls off the only thing she can think of, an excessively exaggerated Southern black reading based on the stylings of the Warner Brothers cartoon character Foghorn Leghorn. 

This is the kind of thing the show could use more of; it is original, funny, and disturbing all at the same time (especially since it effectively lands her the role she has been trying out for). There are lots of other opportunities throughout the show to build on this kind of dark humor: a potentially explosive encounter with the police, some ugly moments in dance class, the unpleasant experience of working in the secretarial pool at "Glass Ceiling Corporation." All of these moments fly by with little regard as to their significance.  I'd love to see this show in the hands of a director like Lileana Blain-Cruz, who brilliantly helmed Suzan-Lori Parks' The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World AKA the Negro Book of the Dead at the Signature Theatre last year.  

The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin is, of course, a musical, and Kirsten Childs has created a nice compilation of rhythm and blues, traditional show-tunes, gospel, and even jazz-infused numbers that keep things moving forward - although there are a couple of songs in Act II that, while excellent in and of themselves, are outliers that serve mostly to highlight the raise-the-roof performances by, respectively, Julius Thomas III as Bubbly's short-lived boyfriend, and by Kenita R. Miller, as his advice-giving grandmother.  

The cast as a whole is quite excellent, as is the onstage band under Anastasia Victory's fine musical direction. And even though the show lacks the kind of bite that would ratchet up its relevance, it is well worth seeing.  Unfortunately, this production is only scheduled for two performances (regular Encores! productions generally run for five, including three on the weekends). So, if you happen to read this before, say, 5 p.m., you will have but a couple of hours to catch the second and last show at 7:30. 

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LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS: The Crowd Showers Ellen Greene with Love in Encores! Off-Center Production

The roar of the capacity crowd shook the rafters at last night’s opening performance of Little Shop of Horrors, a showcase presentation of New York City Center’s Encores! Off-Center summer program. And despite the participation of Hollywood superstar Jake Gyllenhaal and popular Saturday Night Live regular Taran Killam, the person receiving all of that love was Ellen Greene, reprising the role of the sad-eyed Audrey whom she first brought to life in the 1982 Off-Broadway production of the musical and later in the 1986 film version. 

Shouts, whistles, and sustained applause greeted Ms. Greene with every word she uttered and every note she sang.  At the end of the evening, when Mr. Gyllenhaal graciously gave her the last solo bow, she appeared to be overwhelmed by all of the attention.  Who knew that after thirty years and at a rather more mature age (you do the math), Ms. Greene — whose last Broadway appearance was in 1993 in a short-lived revival of the 1935 comedy Three Men On A Horse — had such a devoted fan base?   

If you only remember Little Shop of Horrors from the movie version of the musical, the theatrical version is smaller and its humor is darker. It is closer in spirit to the original quirky Roger Corman film from 1960 that famously featured Jack Nicholson in the supporting role of the masochistic dental patient (Bill Murray played the part in the 1986 movie).  As in the original, the musical ends in a note of triumph for Audrey II, the plant from outer space that is set on devouring all of humanity.   

The Encores! Off-Center production, directed by Dick Scanlan, does a fine job of capturing that pared-down Off-Broadway vibe, with little by way of sets and props (a pointed finger serves as a gun, for example). There are also a number of jokey remarks about the fact that this is a semi-staged reading. When Seymour, the nebbish-y shop assistant (played with self-effacing charm by Mr. Gyllenhaal) discovers the plant’s penchant for human blood, it happens when he gets a paper cut from the script that all of the cast members carry and occasionally read from. 

Musically, the score (book and lyrics by Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menckin) is fun and bouncy (the title song, in particular), with a couple of very sweet ballads (“Somewhere That’s Green” and “Suddenly, Seymour”) to round things out.  Mr. Gyllenhaal and Ms. Greene more than hold their own with their singing.  Eddie Cooper, dressed in an oversized green fake fur that makes him look like a giant Muppet on St. Patrick’s Day, handles the booming bass role of Audrey II with aplomb. The backup trio of Tracy Nicole Chapman, Marva Hicks, and Ramona Keller are first-rate, as is the on-stage band, under Chris Fenwick’s musical direction. 

The biggest surprise is how well Mr. Killam takes to the stage, playing Audrey’s sadistic dentist boyfriend and a number of other smaller roles. His television-and-movie-bred sense of comedic timing translates well here, and it would be nice to see him in additional roles on or off Broadway.

Still and all, this is Ms. Greene’s moment of glory. Long may she, and Audrey, live in our hearts!

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'tick, tick...BOOM!' Gets a Loving Production at Encores Off Center!

There is so much love onstage and in the audience at the Encores Off Center! semi-staged production of Jonathan Larson’s tick, tick…BOOM! that it grieves me to have to make note of the fact that Lin-Manuel Miranda—the source of a lot of that love—is not a very good singer. Unfortunately, it is kind of hard to overlook since this a musical that we’re talking about here, and—when you set aside the admittedly impossible-to-set-aside connection with its creator’s biography—it does need a first-rate presentation to show it in the best possible light.  

Before we go further, let’s take a minute to talk about Encores Off Center! It is in its second season as an Off Broadway version of the well-established Encores! series of short runs of old Broadway shows at City Center. As a new enterprise, it is still finding its way, and perhaps even its mission. The first season saw a concert version of Mark Blitzstein’s The Cradle Will Rock; the Gretchen Cryer/Nancy Ford musical I’m Getting My Act Together And Taking It On The Road (which I didn’t see, but which Charles Isherwood of The New York Times  called “loving but creaky”); and a single performance of Jeanine Tesori’s Violet, which, of course, wound up on Broadway this season. Ms. Tesori, by the way, is the artistic director of Encores Off Center! 

This year, tick, tick…BOOM! is being joined by Pump Boys and Dinettes, as well as a single performance of Randy Newman’s Faust (featuring its composer), a show which has never had an Off Broadway production. So…what exactly is the mission of Encores Off Center! remains fuzzy. 

But getting back to tick, tick…BOOM! The title alone resonates, given that it first saw light of day just five years before Mr. Larson’s sudden death from an aortic aneurysm on the eve of the powerhouse success of his breakthrough musical Rent, a phenomenon on Broadway with a 12-year run. The version of tick, tick…BOOM! at City Center is the one that playwright David Auburn (Proof) reshaped from Larson’s original “rock monologue” for an Off Broadway production in 2001, for which Raúl Esparza (a very good singer!) won an Obie Award in the lead role. The show is about a character called “Jon” (played by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the Encores Off Center! production), who is on the brink of turning 30 and who is trying to decide whether his career goal as the writer of musicals is worth the sacrifices he’s had to make. Jon’s roommate and close friend Michael (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Jon’s girlfriend Susan (Karen Olivo) are tugging at him to hang it up and either get a “real job” or leave New York for New England, where Susan, a dancer, is planning to relocate. That is tick, tick…BOOM! in a nutshell. 

Mr. Miranda, despite his unfortunate off-key singing, does an excellent job of providing the character of Jon with a teetering balance of angst and self-deprecating humor. Leslie Odom Jr. (Sam in the 2012-2013 NBC musical drama series Smash) does nicely as Jon’s gay and HIV-positive friend Michael, who has given up his acting ambitions for a steady and well-paying job. Karen Olivo (In The Heights, West Side Story) raises the roof with a socko performance of the song “Come To Your Senses.” Add to that Larson’s running homage to his idol Stephen Sondheim, whose song “Sunday” from Sunday In The Park With George is parodied in a number about Jon’s job as a waiter serving up Sunday brunch, and there is no denying that tick, tick…BOOM! packs a truckload of charm and heart. Carrying on nicely with the Encores! tradition of always getting the music right, the onstage band is top notch, and the low-key production values are also appropriate for the small-scale musical.

It’s impossible to watch tick, tick…BOOM! without seeing what lies ahead for its composer and to think of him wrestling with his future, so out there for all of us to see. If only Mr. Miranda, who surely can find something of himself in Jon and who is not long from his own breakthrough hit In The Heights, could sing the role as well as he can act it--because it just might be time for a new Off Broadway mounting.  

Any suggestions for who might head up the cast?

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‘The Cradle Will Rock:’ Brecht and Weill For The Rest of Us

Encores!, the well-established and popular series of quickie revivals of seldom-seen Broadway musicals, now has a younger sibling.  Called Encores! Off-Center, it hopes to follow in its predecessor’s successful footsteps by offering up semi-staged versions of Off-Broadway shows. 

To judge from its first production at City Center, Marc Blitzstein’s Depression-era musical The Cradle Will Rock, it is still a little wobbly on its feet. 

In a speech before the invited dress rehearsal, artistic director Jeanine Tesori talked nervously about the breakneck speed at which everyone involved put the production together.  But, with all due respect (and I do have tremendous respect for the near-miracles that Encores! has pulled off over the years), if you want to be part of the Encores! family, that’s how they operate. 

So, let’s take a look at this first effort. 

On the plus side, the cast is wonderful, with outstanding performances by Anika Noni Rose, playing both the downtrodden prostitute Moll and the condescending woman-of-wealth Mrs. Mister;  Judy Kuhn as a corrupt newspaper editor; and Danny Burstein as the arrogant and powerful Mr. Mister, owner of the steel mill and pretty much everyone and everything in the town. In smaller but key roles, Raúl Esparza and Da’Vine Joy Randolph give rousing star-turn performances of their respective numbers as well.

However, there are some problems, beginning with the fact that—even though the talented Sam Gold is credited as director—this is a concert production, not even partially staged. In truth, Encores! itself does not always hit a homerun in the staging department, but still…a concert is a concert.  If you go, know that you will be seeing folks dressed in tuxes and gowns sitting on a row of chairs and rising to sing at stand mikes. 

Second, while the performers are nicely accompanied by a 13-piece orchestra, under the sure hand of Chris Fenwick, the orchestrations are not the ones that Mr. Blitzstein wrote; rather, they have been written by Josh Clayton.  Mr. Clayton is a fine orchestrator, but using the originals is kind of a hallmark of Encores! productions and serves its mission well. 

The Cradle Will Rock has a famous (indeed, legendary) history surrounding its first performance, which featured Mr. Blitzstein doing solo duties at the piano.  The new orchestrations are cool, but the originals would have been cooler, and having just a piano accompanying the singers would have been coolest.  A couple of years back, I saw a piano-accompanied production by Theater 1010 at the Park Avenue Christian Church.  It was vibrant, very well performed, and strove to capture the feel of the 1937 original.  I was hoping for the same again.

As for the musical itself, The Cradle Will Rock is a solid work, thanks to Mr. Blitzstein’s timeless and always-engaging jazz and pop-infused score.  It certainly owes much to Brecht and Weill—and the Encores! Off-Center production, which has shrunk the show to a taut 90 minutes, plays up the themes of corruption and cynicism, which, for obvious reasons, resonate with today’s audiences.  It even evokes the spirit of the founder of the philosophy of cynicism, Diogenes, though the use of one of his more stinging quotes displayed in large letters on the back wall:  “In the rich man’s house, the only place to spit is in his face.” 

If you’ve never seen a production of The Cradle Will Rock, I do recommend you go.  This initial outing by Encores! Off-Center may disappoint for the reasons I’ve explained, but given the caliber of talent singing into those mikes, it is certainly worth the visit.

By the way, the other two productions for this initial season are the already-sold-out single performance of Jeanine Tesori’s own Violet (starring Sutton Foster), and Nancy Ford’s I’m Getting My Act Together and Taking It On the Road.  

I wish Encores! Off-Center well.  To have a home like this for Off Broadway musicals is a splendid enterprise.  Some suggestions:  The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Dames At Sea, Little Mary Sunshine, or even something else by Blitzstein, perhaps No For An Answer, his follow-up to The Cradle Will Rock.  

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