ART's "Best of Both Worlds" taps power of soul

Finally got to "Best of Both Worlds" at the American Repertory Theater last night. The third and final main-stage installment of Artistic Director Diane Paulus' Shakespeare Exploded! series is the most traditional, and the most traditionally affecting.

"The Donkey Show" turns "A Midsummer Night's Dream" into an immerse disco experience, and "Sleep No More" made "Macbeth" a mostly wordless nightmare, with even the audience masked. "Best of Both Worlds" takes places in a comparatively straightforward theater setting at the Loeb Drama Center, and even uses a few of the Bard's words as it sets "A Winter's Tale" in the kingdom of soul circa 1950-1970. (A big purple Cadillac and some serious threads are involved.)

Ezekiel and Maurice are two R&B titans coming off a joint tour when - in a twist that shows the connection between Shakespeare and VH-1's "Behind the Music" - Ezekiel accuses his woman, Serena, of betraying him with Maurice. Harsh words are spoken, and when she gives birth to what he thinks is Maurice's child, tragedy ensues. Act Two flashes forward 16 years, when the two men are estranged in their separate kingdoms, and a new generation tests the ties that bind. And most of it is sung rather than spoken, in a variety of styles mixing top 40 soul and stage musical.

The cast is excellent. Gregg Baker makes an intimidating and royal Ezekiel, with a barrel-deep voice to match, and Jeannette Bayardelle pretty much kills with her first act showstopper, "The Way I Love You." If I was forming a theater troupe today, though, my first draft choice might be Cleavant Derricks, who plays Sweet Daddy - the show's ebullient emcee, as well as a homeless man (1st act) turned successful club owner/pimp (2nd act). But I might also pick Mary Bond Davis, who plays both Ezekiel's magisterial, berobed mother, Violetta, and a giddy, pop-eyed whore (yellow dress in picture) whose tassel-twirling is the show's best special effect.

(Digression: The pimp's venue is the Bunny Club, and stagehands make a couple of floppy-eared plush toys gyrate during a dance scene. This is the second time in recent memory that the A.R.T. has done something weird with bunnies, after "Donnie Darko." I'm just sayin'.)

If I have any problem, it was with the play, and it's tricky to talk about without dropping a spoiler on you. Suffice to say that the show's last 15 minutes, including the big gospel finale, revolve around a statue crafted by Violetta. And since there's been zero mention of the statue before, it  comes outta nowhere. I'm not sure if Shakespeare's play has the same problem - it's been years and years since I've seen it. But a little foreshadowing early in the second act would sure help.

I don't know what Paulus' plans are for "Best of Both Worlds," but it seems like it could have a real future, with a few  tweaks. At the outset, Sweet Daddy jokes about a bunch of black people putting on a play for a room full of white people, and that's true enough. But the show's message of love's triumph isn't that different from a Tyler Perry script. The frustrated entertainment mogul in me says, recruit some mid-level r&b star to play Maurice or one of the younger characters, maybe flavor one or two numbers with a hip hop edge - there's already a little breakin', courtesy of young Sebastien Lucien - and you have a version of "A Winter's Tale" that could be a pop culture success with black and white audiences alike.

"Best of Both Worlds" runs through Jan. 3. Tix are here.

Comments

[Kati Mitchell]

Oh you do have to blame the Bard for the sudden mention of the statue in the last act of the play.... Both characters - Paulina in Winter's Tale, and here Violetta, mention the statue at about the same point in the story. Though Paulina calls it a painting she had had made in the perfect likeness of the dead queen, most productions have turned it into a statue, for obvious reasons.... I think if the statue had been mentioned earlier, people would quickly surmise that the queen never had died, dont you thyink?

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