Amazing Women Writing Amazing Women

I've been very fortunate to be able to see wonderful work lately.  I made a sort-of commitment to myself to center my ticket-buying on stories about, or written by, writers of color.  Especially women of color, because these new (to me) stories are the ones I'm hungering for.  Actually, most of the tickets I've purchased lately are by women I know, so...

Last week, I was really taken with Jocelyn Bioh's new play Nollywood Dreams, playing at MCC Theater.  This is one of the shows I had tickets for before the pandemic.  It was a long eighteen months to wait.  I loved Bioh's last play, School Girls, or the African Mean Girls Play, and I have been looking forward to this new piece ever since.  Like in that play, Bioh gives us gorgeous, specific, and riotously funny dialogue and beautifully crafted characters.  She has a way of showing us lightness and darkness, all at the same time.  I truly believe Bioh is one of the most talented writers working right now.

In Nollywood Dreams, it is the mid-1990s in Legos, Nigeria.  A young Nigerian director, after spending some time in America, has come back to Legos to direct his latest film and is holding an open casting call (or so everyone thinks) for the lead character.  We meet the delightful Ayamma, who thinks this audition is her chance to leave her parents' travel agency where she works with her sister Dede (who is a saucy, hilarious, acerbic wonder).  Other characters in the play include the director, Nigeria's hottest male sex symbol (who will be starring in the film), a female film star who also has her eye on that lead role, and a talk show host who pulls all of the stories together.

photo credit: Russ Rowland

This play is so funny and so true.  We feel for Ayamma and Dede, who yearn for bigger lives, dream of celebrity, and puzzle at the realities of show business.  Plus, their sisterly camaraderie is so authentic.  I laughed a lot, even while the characters reminded me of the disparity of what life in Legos actually is and how life in Legos is generally depicted in the American film industry.  Nollywood Dreams is smart and hilarious and an enormous treat.  The audience was just eating it up - there was a set malfunction early in the play and the actors played it up to the hilt.  We were all just putty in the actors' hands; the entire cast was truly amazing.  Please go see this fantastic play.

Last weekend, I went with a beautiful chum to see Caroline, or Change.  Have I ever told you the story of the first time I saw the show?  I went with a friend right before the Tony Awards; Tonya Pinkins (who was playing Caroline) was out.  The incredible Adriane Lenox played Caroline and while she was sublime, I just had to see Tonya Pinkins.  So I went back again before the show closed to see Tonya.  WELL.  Needless to say, the show itself blew.me.away and Tonya Pinkins' performance is one I will never forget.  What a force of nature!  I have been so looking forward to this revival and I'm so glad I got to experience it with my beautiful chum who hadn't seen the show before.

Caroline, or Change is a masterpiece.  Jeanine Tesori is a genius.  Tony Kushner is a genius.  Sharon D. Clarke is another force of nature.  I loved every minute of seeing this production, even from the less-than-ideal location of the mezzanine (though, if I'm honest, if you have to sit in the mezzanine at Studio 54, the last row of the front mezz isn't so bad).  I teared up many times throughout the afternoon, not only because of the story and situations, but because the show is so fricking amazing, the construction of it caused me to weep.  

photo credit: Joan Marcus

There's so much to say, I'm kind of tongue-tied.  The voices are incredible, the acting is fantastic.  Sharon D. Clarke has layer upon layer upon layer.  The devastation that comes after her confrontation with Noah is a gut-punch.  For some reason, I felt it even more than before.  Caissie Levy found a lovely, maybe softer way in to Rose; I really liked her.  How John Cariani finds so many shades and nuances, I don't know.  And his clarinet playing?  AMAZING.  The cast is so incredible, top to bottom, that Chip Zien, who I've seen dozens of times on Broadway, is playing the relatively small role of Rose's father and he is, as always, sublime.  But, really, everyone is.  Emmie?  The washing machine?  The radio trio?  The dryer?  The bus?  OMG, THE BUS.  Perfection.  The first time around, maybe this musical was too esoteric?  Too idiosyncratic?  I don't understand why it only ran for a few months, but it seems as if its genius is being recognized now.  The house was packed and the audience thrilled.  As they should've been.

It was such a delight seeing productions with such fantastic female leading characters played by incredible women who should be superstars.  The way Jocelyn Bioh captures character so utterly perfectly is awesome.  The way Jeanine Tesori writes music that says so much in so many different musical forms that perfectly embody each character is awesome.  (Yeah, Tony Kushner is all that, too, but I'm focusing on the women, thank you.)  I was moved, thrilled, and delighted by both of the productions I was fortunate enough to experience last week.  If theater continues to be this ground-shaking, I'm the luckiest girl in the world...