Review - The Piano Lesson

Thankfully, day seven of my civic duty ended early enough that I could get out of there, head to Manhattan, and use my ticket to see August Wilson's The Piano Lesson at my favorite hangout, the Signature Theatre.  I told the court officer that I needed to get out in time to use my ticket, but they don't seem very sympathetic to having a life outside that civic duty venue.  And the civic duty venue hasn't been very good about letting us out at the appointed time.  But, all turned out well and I was thrilled to see my first play of 2013.

I think I've mentioned in the past how much I love August Wilson's plays - I find them so beautifully rich and poetic, yet completely real and familiar.  The speeches, while sometimes repetitive, can be positively Shakespearean.  And The Piano Lesson is no exception.  The play is beautifully constructed as a family drama and also a ghost story, with supernatural and magical elements, yet still maintaining a naturalistic, lived-in quality that I find so engaging.  This production is almost three hours, yet the time with these wonderful characters just flies by. 

I've never seen The Piano Lesson performed onstage before, though I did see the tv movie with Charles S Dutton that was done years ago.  So, of course I knew the story, but I still loved how surprising and new everything seemed to me.  And I had forgotten how much music was in this story, not just from the piano, but from their everyday lives.  All of these elements came together beautifully in this production, wonderfully directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson.

The entire cast was terrific, but I was especially taken with Chuck Cooper as Wining Boy and Jason Dirden as Lymon - both of whom were supporting characters, but they were so fully fleshed out, I could've seen a sequel about both of them after The Piano Lesson was over.  Not that they overshadowed the rest of the cast, but they were just so sparkingly realized that I connected to them more.  They both have scenes that are spectacularly moving and achingly real.  Not that Brandon J Dirden as Boy Willie and Roslyn Ruff as his sister, Berniece, were any less spectacular - they weren't.  Their central conflict left me on the edge of my seat throughout, and I found I could be on both their sides throughout the play.  They're both right about what should be done with the family piano, and they're both wrong.  I think that's one of the amazing things about August Wilson's plays - yes, they're written about a specific time and place, and a specific part of African-American history, but they're still so universal and understandable to all audiences (well, not to everyone.  I'll get to that later). 

The entire ensemble was terrific and they completely deserved the standing ovation at the end of the night.  I think the show is running for a bit longer, so run out and get a ticket.  Yes, being me, I did have some quibbles, especially how the climax of the play seems to come and go so abruptly, but they're minor quibbles in the face of such a majorly wonderful evening at the theater.  Take every opportunity to see an August Wilson play, please, so producers know we want to keep them coming on a regular basis.  I would hate to have to go very long without reveling in that world.

As to my seat neighbors, oh my.  Well, first, I want to mention how relentlessly upbeat the ushers were.  To hear them exclaim "Wonderful!" or "Perfect!" to everyone who handed them a ticket became amusing after awhile.  Really?  Everyone (and their seat) is wonderful and perfect?  OK.  Second, I became extremely distracted when Harris Yulin came in and sat in front of me.  I LOVE HARRIS YULIN.  A lot.  And so I was distracted for a few minutes until the play grabbed me and didn't let me go.  But still.

But the piece de resistance of the seat neighbor saga was the gent sitting next to me.  He was an older gentleman who didn't have an indoor voice, god love him.  When he arrived, he couldn't stop exclaiming about how fantastic he thought the set was (and the set WAS fantastic, but I don't think it required that much effusive praise).  He was also loudly overjoyed that there would be an intermission.  It seems as if he's tired of 90-minute plays.  Whatever.  I don't know why he would be tired of them, since he fell asleep during the first act of this play and stayed asleep until almost intermission.  Then, when his beloved intermission came, he spent the entire time ranting about how he was unable to understand the play.  Here are a couple of choice quotes, all spoken at the top of his lungs (I actually, quite rudely, I guess, wrote them down so I wouldn't forget them):  "What is this play supposed to be about??"  "They're carrying on up there as if there's nobody out here!!"  "They might as well be speaking a foreign language!"  "At least that set is fantastic!!" 

I don't know.  I consider The Piano Lesson to be relatively straight-forward, so I have no idea why he was so confused.  Maybe the particular dialect was hard for him to understand.  I just thought his outrage was hysterical, though I did hear someone else express gratitude for the intermission so she could talk to people to find out what the play was about.  Hmmmmm...

Anyway, enough blah blah blah.  Log off right now and get a ticket to The Piano Lesson.  Please.