Say the words musical theatre and you will probably think of bubbly, upbeat tunes, a light-hearted story of love and romance with a show-stopping song and a happy ending.
If you enter New Yorks Eugene ONeill Theatre looking for that same old song and dance, you wont find it. What you will find is cutting edge theatre and you wont be disappointed.
Caroline, or Change is one of the most consciously innovative and engaging productions this season. The brainchild of Tony Award winners Tony Kushner (Angels in America) who wrote the book and lyrics, director George C. Wolfe, former Artistic Director at The Public Theater, the shows producer, and Jeanine Tesori who wrote music, Caroline takes this concept of change and spins it in many ways.
Its November 1963 and Caroline Thibodeaux (Tony nominated Tonya Pinkins) is the maid for the Gellmans, a Jewish family in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Her work is long and dreary, mostly spent in the basement–the only one in below-sea-level Louisiana–where she washes, dries and irons clothes day in and day out. She barely makes enough to support herself and her family and sees no way out of this life.
The change relates to the loose change she often finds in the laundry from the pants pockets of young Noah Gellman (Harrison Chad). Noah has grown moody since his mothers death and attached himself to Caroline, despite her indifference. His stepmother Rose Stopnick Gellman (Veanne Cox), a transplanted New Yorker, is having a difficult time gaining his trust and teaching him the importance of money. Shes having similar difficulty with her new husband and Noahs father, Stuart (David Costabile) who also longs for his late wife. Uneasy change is happen upstairs as well.
But change mostly relates to whats going on in the world. The civil rights movement is threatening the natural order of things in the south and emboldening young Black people, like Carolines daughter Emmie (2004 Tony winner Anika Noni Rose), a high school student not content to stay quiet over Jim Crow laws and limited futures. Emmie represents opportunities Caroline never had as a single mother of four with little education. She is outspoken and determined. Carolines friend and fellow maid Dotty Moffett (Chandra Wilson) is also trying to improve herself, going to college at night.
Everyone is moving forward except Caroline, and this has made her a bitter and angry woman. It also makes this a play of dark complexity with a tension not usually found in musicals. The manner in which this story is told represents change in theatrical terms as well, for it is really less a musical and more an operetta. Nearly the entire play is sung.
Dont expect to come away humming a number from the show however. The selection of songs, singers, and musical genres are less about creating a memorable piece and more about setting mood or enhancing the drama.
A clever and entertaining device is the voice given to inanimate objects, who play a Greek chorus or represent Carolines subconscious thoughts. Tracy Nicole Chapman, Marva Hicks and Ramona Keller shine as the radio, a kind of Motown-like girls group; Capathia Jenkins is a gospel singing washing machine, while Chuck Cooper is both a soul singing dryer, and a mournfully spiritual city bus the day John Kennedy is assassinated. There are no bad singers in this show, and in fact quite a few very good ones.
Detractors may take issue with the fact that this play doesnt follow convention. It doesnt offer a typical storybook ending and for audience members, it actually requires some work. Putting what amounts to serious subject matter in a musical format is a courageous step that not everyone may appreciate.
But if one believes new ideas should at least be encouraged and supported, then this change is a good thing.