“MOULIN ROUGE” DAZZLES BUT LACKS COHESION

 The long awaited North American tour of “Moulin Rouge”, winner of 10 Tony’s including Best Musical, has finally arrived at San Diego’s Civic Center just days ago. 

Set in Paris, 1899, Moulin Rouge, the nightclub was famous for the likes of bohemians, aristocrats, artists, the brilliant and starving artist Toulouse-Lautrec, (Jahi Kearsh) various down and outers and street walkers. 

Into this gathering, lovesick and passionate American writer, dreamer Christian (Jay Armstrong Johnson) and star performer of the Moulin Rouge nightclub, Satine (beautifully charming Arianna Rosario) meet, fall in and out of love but are stopped in their tracks by the very wealthy and menacing (read Devil) Duke of Monroth ( Andrew Brewer) who pimps Satine off the highest bidder.

While the story lacks cohesion and it is rough around the edges the overall production to look at is dazzling: The choreography (Sonya Tayeh) phenomenal, sexy tangos, high kicking Can Can Dancers, the entire cast and company are pretty much in constant motion, but the sad love story itself is just choppy and in the end several in the audience were chuckling rather than feelings bit of pathos for the lovers. 

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a jukebox musical. Hits from the last  150 years; I recognized one from Nat King Cole, Mama Mia, Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? Quite a mashup from Adel to Lady Gaga, David Bowie to  Mick Jagger and  Elton John.

With Alex Timbers directing and Justin Levine’s musical Supervision, co orchestration arrangements and additional lyrics, Derek McLane’s scenic design, Catherine Zuber’s costume design, Justin Townsend's  lighting, Peter Hylensky’s sound David Brian Brown and Sarah Cimno’s hair and makeup and based on the 2001 film of the same name, this Moulin Rouge might satisfy some, but sadly, this reviewer was not one of them.

See you at the theatre.

Enjoy.

When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Through July 6.

Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown

Tickets: $56.25 and up

CYGNETS “OKLAHOMA” NOT YOUR AVERAGE RUN OF THE MILL ROGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN MUSICALS.

Call it what you will: a rehashing, a renewing, a reimagining or a revival, Cygnet’s last show at The Theatre in Old Town,  “Oklahoma” by Rogers and Hammerstein II, still has the original Hammerstein lyrics and Rogers’ book and music. What’s different is it brings out a darker, oft more modern take on our star crossed lovers of Oklahoma,  Curly and Laurey. 

Cowboy Curly McLain (Michael Louis  Cusimano last seen on Cygnet’s stage in “Natasha, Pierre” in 2024), is one hell of a handsome leading man with vocals and smooth guitar playing.

Ariella Kvashny and Michael Louis Cusimano

He and Kvashny (Laurey), who make beautiful music together, (“People Will Say We’re In Love”) have this on again off again relationship, but it’s clear she only has eyes for Curly even though she flirts with hired hand, Jud Fry, (Jacob Caltrider), a misfit in both the cowman and farmer’s world. It’s a three way relationship that can only end in tragedy.

With music by Richard Rogers and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II (the first of their collaborations), the story unfolds in what was Indian Territories before Oklahoma became a state, pitting the farmers against the cowboys (“Farmer and the Cowmen”) as the basis for the big picture. (“Kansas City”, “Farmer and the Cowman”. “Oh, What a “Beautiful Mornin’” and of course “Oklahoma!” are but some of the great Rogers and Hammerstein tunes from this show that are forever etched in our collective memories. 

Paul Morgavo, Eli Wood, Jaxon Smith, Marc Caro-Willcox 

It’s tough keeping a good show down and every now and then it’s good to bring it back to the fore for some good old fashioned folk lore, lively entertainment and just plain great music. It opened on Broadway in 1943. 

Director Sean Murray, swaggering in his red cowboy boots and big black cowboy hat, directs this new take on what some are calling part classic and part reimaged, in combining the old with the new. And it works, overall!

Love stories and comedy (some tongue in cheek) abound in the triangular relationships between cowboy Curly McClain and farm girl Laurie Williams and the petulant Jud Fry, and Ali Hakim, Ado Annie and Will Parker. 

Based on the Lynne Riggs play “Green Grow the Lilacs”, “Oklahoma”, when it was still called Indian Territory,  sails or should I say dances (Jill Gorrie choreographs this show with original choreography based on Agnes de Mille) and sings its way through one musical number after another (some seventeen).

Jacob Caltrider

There is darkness:  In Jud’s smokehouse, where Curly seeks out Jud and taunts and teases him (“Poor Jud is Daid”) and a Dream Sequence with Laurey, who imagines the conflict within herself, recoils.  (“Dream Ballet” choreographed by Jordan Miller).

There is also much lightheartedness:  The silly romantic comings and goings of Ali Akim ( Ricky Bulda)  and Ado Annie (Jazley Genovese  (“I Caint Say No”); the on again off again romance of Curly and Laurey and the cowboy/farmer riff; the auctioning off of the goodie baskets, (“Farmer and the Cowman”).

Company

Ranking high on the Richter scale of outstanding performances Jacob Caltrider whose  presence wasn’t as much frightening (as others I’ve seen) but was rather sympathetic.  Looking young and vulnerable, he is almost awkward as he peruses Laurie, but changes on a dime when Curly gets in his way. 

Eli Woods’ Will Parker shines through in every direction with his strong dancing and acting. Wood’s trips all over himself trying not to get shot by Annie’s father, Andrew (Manny Fernandes) who is doing his due diligence, shotgun in hand aimed at Will, in case Ali, the traveling salesman,  (Ricky Bulda) does something to dishonor his daughter’s reputation. 

Ariella Kvashny, Michael Louis Cusimano

Cusimano and Kvashny, where the chemistry is there and the romance rings true to form, allow  the ongoing struggle between Jud Fry and Curley to reach a climax while both vie for her attention as it  reaches  a predictable, yet hokey take on the way the law worked then. It was interesting to watch as Aunt Eller held court.  (I hate to say it, but some things never change in some states.)

Linda Libby is Aunt  Eller, Laurey’s aunt who sings, dances and is part of the chorus. Along with the band on stage, she  is the first person we see sitting in her rocking chair , churning butter. When next Curly comes from the back of the house singing “Oh, What a beautiful Mornin’”, followed by “The Surrey With The Fringe On Top”. 

Linda Libby

As I mentioned at the outset, this is not your run of the mill Oklahoma, where everything happens around Aunt Eller’s farm house (scenic designer Mathys Herbert). If anything, this is truly an ensemble work of art where each character has his/her own place on stage and dances, sings, and acts to the hilt. 

Patrick Marion is musical director as well as playing Accordion and Mandolin. Kyle Bayquen on Bass, Erika Boras-Tesi on Cello, Sean LaPerreque on Violin/Viola, Dave Pschaida on Percussion, Cliff Thrasher on Sub Cello and Michael Reyes on Guitar/Banjo. All excel. 

Linda Libby Holding it together

Credit Lighting designer Anne E. McMills, Sound, TJFucella, Props, Jessica Cuoto, Wigs and Makeup Peter Hermann and Zoë Trautmann, Costumes to make this one of the most ‘interesting’, ‘different’ and colorful production of an ‘oldie but goody’ that’s OK  LA HOMA…OK! 

See It!

See you at the theatre. 

When:  Runs through Aug.31st. 7 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2  p.m. Sundays.

Where: Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old 

Town San Diego

Photo: Karli Cadel

Tickets: $30 and up

Info: 619-337-1525

Online: cygnettheatre.org

 

DEANDRE SIMMONS SHINES AS DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING IN NEW VILLAGE ARTS “THE MOUNTAINTOP”.

 At New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad, under the direction of Durwood Murray, Jr., and starring DeAndre Simmons as MLK JR. , Katori Hall’s Oliver Award Winning play “The Mountaintop”, is in a stunning production.

The 1963 shooting of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist Minister and civil rights activist, whose passionate 1963 “I Have a Dream” (before 200,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.) and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” sermons put him in the spotlight as #1 shaker of the Civil Rights movement. He was on the rise to becoming one of the greatest outspoken orators of his time. 

DeAndre Simmons

His ‘Mountaintop’ sermon was delivered at a rally in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee in 1963. The very next day he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with the striking workers. To say that his life was in danger at all times would be an understatement. “Fear is his companion, his lover”. 

In what Hall conjures as a conversation between King and the pretty little chambermaid, Camae (Taylor Renee Henderson) sent (supposedly) by the hotel upon his request for room service, the play unfolds somewhat like a TV sit-com. 

The play opens as King (Simmons) is ushered into the room by his most trusted deputy and best friend Ralph Abernathy, whom he immediately sends out to get a pack of Pall Malls. Left in the room alone, he deadbolts the door pulls the curtains over the windows, turns on the lamp and he starts reciting the beginnings of his next sermon. (“Why America is going to hell…”) He then calls for room service.

When King gets a good look at the young lady holding a cup of coffee, with a newspaper covering her head against the evening’s rainfall, his eyes just about pop out of his head.  Both have no trouble flirting as in “I like what I see’ at a glance. This is her first day on the job. She tells him that while the coffee is on the house, any advances that he can pay her for ‘gettin’ my press ‘n curl wet out in this rain” would be appreciated. 

They jibe and play. He wants cigarettes with his coffee, she scolds because he doesn’t take care of himself. We glance at his frailties, his non-violent marches; does she like him better with or without his moustache? They debate seriously about the work he has yet to finish.  

He is paranoid about his room being bugged and she reminds him that he has FBI files thicker than a bible. His concerns about his role here on earth as a leader and Civil Rights Activist are contrasted against his playful self as a womanizer; a fragile human being who flirts with the chambermaid while speaking to his wife and children on the phone, has holes in his socks, likes to add a little something to his coffee and chain smokes.

Finally, after some bantering about his being afraid of the thunder and lightning she holds him close and refers to him by his childhood name. He’s suspicious she was sent to spy on him, but she admits that she was sent to help him make it through the night. 

 For those in the know, history left its mark for all to see as the television cameras rolled outside on the balcony of room 306 at 6:01 PM, April 4th 1968. Yours truly will never forget those moments.

Both Simmons and Henderson play beautifully off one another. Simmons is natural and easy; not trying to impersonate King or look larger than life. 

He was after all flesh and blood with many shortcomings.  Henderson is playful funny and delightful, cautious and with a purpose.  The chemistry flows from one to another and the laughs and chuckles are frequent as one might see in a sit–com.

But this play is anything but funny. It is thoughtful, riddled with emotions; enough for  the ending words of King to bring a tear or two to everyone’s eyes especially with his booming opera trained voice:

“God said I gotta get you ready to come on home”. And while he begs for more time she has to convince him that someone else will have to pick up the baton. 

“Will I die at the hands of a white man, too. Yes. Speak by love. Die by hate. Where will it be?

On the balcony just right there. How? Surrounded by those who love you. Will you be there to clean up the mess? It would be a honor, Preacher Kang”. 

Director Durwood Murray, JR, making  his directorial debut, surly knows his way around a theatre stage. Every movement, intonation and look is picture perfect.

Christopher Scott Murillo’s set is a copy of Room #306 at The Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., with  a visual of the balcony behind the windows. Credit to projection designer, Michael Wogluis, props, Carter Vickers, sound Andre Buck, JR, lighting, Mashun Waits, and costume and wig’s Kevane La’Marr Coleman.

How many times must we live through these throat-paralyzing sequence of days of gun play, grief and muffled drums?” (Life Magazine, June 14, 1968.

This question, written after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (on June 5th 1968), followed by the assassinations of Martin Luther King, and of course before that, John F. Kennedy in 1963, and the attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 seems eons ago. We are still asking the same question today after 26 young children were gunned down at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in New Town, Conn! 

If you are old enough to remember the Texas School Depository Building, the Grassy Knoll, the Lorraine Hotel, and The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, I’m sure you are aghast at what’s happening in 2025.

I’ve seen “The Mountaintop” several times in the past. This one, by far, stands above the rest. 

Enjoy. 

See you at the theatre.

When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through June 22

Where: New Village Arts, 2787 State St., Carlsbad

Photo: Jason Sullivan

Tickets: $25-$50

Online: newvillagearts.org

“ONE OF THE GOOD ONES” AT OLD GLOBE HAS AN IDENTITY CRISIS.

 In the 1967 controversial movie, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”, starring Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and Katherine Houghton, the plot revolves around a white woman bringing a Black man to dinner.  

It was at the height of the Civil Rights movement. MLK was assassinated a few months after that and  the family is thrown off balance. 

Benito Martinez, Angelique Cabral, Cree, Nico Greetham

But  in 2025 when  the Gomez Family, in Gloria Calderó Kellett’s eighty + minute sitcom, “One Of The Good Ones” now playing at The Globe Theatre through June 22nd.    discover that their recent college graduate daughter Yoli (Cree) has invited her special boyfriend, Marcos (Nico Greetham) for dinner, they all assume that he is Mexican because of his name. 

The Gomez Family has an identity problem, and I must say, one of their own making. It seems Mom, Ilana (Angelique Cabral) is of Puerto Rican and Latin-American heritage but doesn’t speak Spanish. Enrique is Cuban and he and Yoli, who studied Spanish in school,  speak it together all the time, much to Ilana’s chagrin. 

Nico Greetham, Benito Martinez, Angelique Cabral, Cree

When Marcos comes calling with a bottle of wine and a colorful piñata, the family is aghast to see that his skin color is white; and we are off and running! 

He has much splanin’ to do about how his parents are white but he was born in Mexico  and speaks fluent Spanish. And the battle of who is what and what  is what continues until Yoli tells her parents that she and Marcos are secretly married…and more. 

Nico Greetham, Cree, Benito Martinez and Angelique Cabral

Now the focus is on respect and the generational gap of how this generation has no respect for their elders as they did in Enrique’s day. Ilana, on the other hand, is thrilled for her daughter; wants to know everything about the relationship between the two young’uns, things even tho' Marcos doesn’t know the half of it. 

Here’s where the piñata comes in where everyone gets to vent their anger and frustrations out on the paper mache puppet filled with candy. Everyone has a go at it until it’s in shambles, causing uproarious laughter. 

Cree, Nico Greetham, Benito Martinez and Angelique Cabral

Kollett knows how to write a sitcom coming from a sitcom background and director Kimberly Senior surely has the knowhow to stretch out the laugh lines even though beneath the surface serious issues like  assimilation and privilege wait to come to forefront, but never do.  

Overall the cast works hard to make this sitcom work. Of the cast Beto Martinez stands out as the the most consistently funny and on target, Angelique Cabral shows signs of softness and understanding of her young daughter but Cree and Nico are all over the place. 

Takeshi Kata’s set, an upscale Pasadena Gomez residence makes a stunning background, with Sarita Fellows costumes, Jaymi Lee Smith’s lighting and Andrea Allmond and Jeff Gardner’s sound design complete the picture of this LOL comedy where the laughs come fast and furious making it almost impossible to hear half of the dialogue. 

And as for ‘the good ones, it's anyone's guess. 

Enjoy.

See you at the theatre. 

When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through June 22

Where: Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park

Tickets: $29 and up

Photo: Rich Soublet II

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe

“A BEAUTIFUL NOISE”: A NEIL DIAMOND MUSICAL SALUTE.

Several, or should I say eons ago, very good friends took me to see Neil Diamond perform in concert at the old Sports Arena on Midway. What can I say. It was mesmerizing, awesome and spellbinding. We had seats close enough to almost touch him. 

In my collection of CD’s (I know), I have at least three of his, with all the songs I heard recently at the Civic Center, brought to us by Broadway San Diego, “The Neil Diamond Musical: A Beautiful Noise”.  And what a beautiful sound it was. 

Nick Fradiani and Robert Westenberg

With direction by Michael Mayer, and book by Anthony McCarten, the story  is framed and unfolds in a therapist’s office as we meet  an older version of Diamond (Robert Westenberg) with his ‘doctor’, (Lisa Renee Pitts ) who practically has to drag information out of him. 

While the information he shares with her takes too long, we do learn about Diamond’s past, his Jewish roots, (“Brooklyn Roads”), where he grew up and lived with his immigrant parents and brother. (“America”). 

Hannah Jewel Kohn and Nick Fradiani

The twenty or so musical compositions sung perfectly by Nick Fradiani took us through this jukebox musical for over two hours starting out at a bar called Bitter End Coffeehouse to signing a contract with the mob to finally hitting the big time and going on tour, to concerts in almost every country, to meeting the then President, to his two marriages after leaving pregnant wife #1 and marrying  Marcia Murphy (Hannah Jewel Kohn) whom he met at the Coffeehouse). 

They stayed together for a little over ten years. “Love on The Rocks” and “You Don’t bring Me Flowers” (the one he did a duo with Barbara Streisand) We know it’s over for them when Kohn sings “Forever In Blue Jeans”. 

Nick Fradiani and backup singers

Sounding amazingly like Diamond himself with Nick Fradiani, the house came to a roaring frenzy,  standing and waving as he sang one of his most famous “Sweet Caroline”. In the show it refers to his seeing a picture on a magazine cover as his inspiration, but yours truly heard (and who knows) the he wrote “Sweet Caroline” as a tribute to  John F Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline. You decide.

‘Beautiful Noise’ refers to his ensemble dancers and backup singers including Cooper Clack, Chris Marsh Clark, Deirdre Dunkin, Ginger Hurley, Spencer Donovan Jones, Ellen McGihon, Tabitha Moruthane, Tasheim Ramsey Pack, Jeilani Rhone-Collins and J’Kobe Wallace with choreography by Steven Hoggett.

The backup band above the action is led by Conductor James Olmstead, and Fradiani’s glitzy costumes  are by Emilio Sosa with lighting by Kevin Adams and sound design by Jessica Paz, wigs and makeup by Luc  Verschuern. 

But in the end, we also learn of a lonely and depressed man/child (“I Am… I Said”, “Solitary Man”, “Shilo” ( his imaginary friend), “Hello Again”, “Longfellow Serenade”, “September Morn”, “Play Me”, “Holly Holy”, “Soon You’ll be a Woman”. 

“Soolaimmon”,  “Kentucky Woman”, Cracklin Rose”, Red Red Wine”, “Song Sung Blue” all fall into the category of lovely, bouncy and crowd pleasing, especially with Nick Fradiani sounding so much like Neil Diamond, down to the lowest of lows to those that reach their highest peaks. 

I’m all in. 

Sadly, we learn from the program notes that Diamond, now in his eighties,

suffers from Parkinson’s Disease and will not be playing at concerts. But that cannot stop his music from coming to us. 

Enjoy.

See you at the theatre.

 

When: 7:30 p.m. May 29; 8 p.m. May 30; 2 and 8 p.m. May 31; 1 and 6:30 PM through June 1st.

Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown

Tickets: $51 – $231

Online: broadwaysd.com/upcoming-events/a-beautiful-noise

 

“MERRY ME” A RUN AWAY SEX FARCE AT DIVERSIONARY.

Did you ever go to a play expecting one thing and half way through realized it was something altogether different? 

When I attended “Merry Me” written by Hansol Jung and directed by Vanessa Stalling, at Diversionary Theatre, San Diego’s oldest LGBTQIA (SINCE 1986)  Theatre on Park Blvd,  I kept thinking, “What the F”!

Agamemnon? The Trojan Battle? Tony Kushner? Shakespeare?

Greek Mythology left my gray matter after college more than 50 years ago. But just to follow the dots, we do meet an Agamemnon family… only after Tony Kushner’s Angel (Michael Amira Temple) introduces us to them… and later on she has much more to say. 

Then there are the Memnon’s: General Aga Memnon (Troy Tinker Elliot almost a cartoon like character), Mrs. Sappho Memnon (Mak Shealy), Mrs. Clytemnestra Memnon (Jacquelyn Ritz) and    Private Willy Memnon (Coleman Ray Clark). Others include Dr. Jess O’Nope  (Andréa Agosto), the psychologist, they say who was married over 40 times and Lieutenant Shane Horn ( Winnie Beasley).

All the merry’s  in “Merry Me”  take place on an  unnamed island during the Trojan conflict in an Army Camp where there is a major power failure. Communication from one part of the base to another is done the old fashioned way; cups and a wire. 

Moving along, it seems that Lieutenant Horn was just released from the brig after serving time for seducing Clytemnestra, the General's wife.  

Horne wants to sign her therapist friend Dr. Jess O’Nope ( a very convincing Agosto) in a plot to pretend to have had conversion therapy to become heterosexual in order to satisfy all the soldier’s wives on the base. 

In the meantime, Willy Memnon (sweet and bewildered, the object of everyone’s jokes and straight) has married Sapph. When she meets Shane, all bets are off between herself and Willy. What to do

In this 90 min rom com where everyone gets to have their merry’s, do you think there is an underlying message here when Kushner’s Angel tells Jess to kill half of the human race (read men) with a hatchet. 

For this reviewer “Merry Me” is more of a runaway sex farce that goes off the charts so far it almost sinks from the weight of its own smugness. Between Greek Mythology, Shakespeare, pop culture, Tony Kushner, and, according to director Vanessa Stalling, “our struggles to find true satisfaction”,  I must say, it just was not my cup of tea.  

While the acting overall is wonderful, especially Michael Amira Temple’s angel) and the sets (Mathys Herbert), lighting design (Annelise Salazar) costumes design, (Clair Peterson) and sound designer/composer (Padre Crisafulli) are all in keeping with the play, it just did not resonate with me.

But that shouldn't stop you from seeing it. 

See you at the theatre.

When: Runs through June 15th. 7 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Diversionary Theatre, 4545 Park Blvd., University Heights

Tickets: $11.50-$61.50

Photo: Talon Reed Cooper

Info: 619-220-0097

Online: diversionary.org

 

“JAJA’S AFRICAN HAIR BRAIDING” : A POWERFUL COMEDY... TO BE TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

 As someone who owned a hair salon with my daughter for over thirty years, Jaja’s African Hair braiding Salon is a world apart and a mile different. 

Kicking off the la jolly playhouses 42nd season by mounting  Ghanaian-American Playwright Jocelyn Bioh’s award winning comedy Jaja’s African Hair braiding” (she also wrote “The Curious Incident of the Dog In The Nighttime”) as directed by Whitney White, hits all the right notes of joy, fear and expectation, especially in today’s climate of immigration paranoia and dread of deportation. 

Jaja’s salon is located in Harlem where most of the  women working there are West African immigrants with the exception of Jaja’s daughter Marie (Jordan Rice) who is a Dreamer. 

Victorie Charles and cast

The customers all consider Jaja’s a sacred and safe place where they can come sometimes, for the whole day, and when they leave, feel special oft times looking  like a new person with braids cascading down their backs. 

As for the ‘stylists’’ they come with  different personalities, from different countries, backgrounds and accents. They worry about being deported, but mostly, they work long hours in Jaja’s making a living to make ends meet. 

Set on a ghastly  hot summer day in 2019, Jaja’s daughter, high school graduate Marie, is running the salon as her mother is getting primped for her wedding day which  happens to be this particular day. 

Tiffany Renee Johnson, Bisserat Tseggai, Jordan Rice and Aisha Sougou

Not everyone in the salon, including Marie, is thrilled about Jaja’s choice of a new husband whom they do not trust (and for good reason which will be revealed, but no spoilers here). Jaja hopes that with this wedding she will be able to get her green card, her daughter can attend any college of her choice and deportation would be a thing of the past.

In the meantime , customers come and go, all with their own stories especially one wanting to look like  Beyoncé. 

The stylists work their fingers to the bone turning the customers’ hair from dowdy to cornrows, to jumbo box braids to cornrows to micro braids.

Tiffany Renee Johnson and Claudia Logan

Over the course of the day, this eclectic group of braiders laugh, dance, argue about which customers belong to who, watch African TV soaps, deal with jewelry hawkers peddling their wares, chide the skilled Aminata (Tiffany Renee Johnson), for giving her hard earned money to her lazy, out of work husband. And the beat goes on. 

To the letter, there isn’t a weak link in the ensemble which includes…stunning Jaja (Victorie Charles) who makes a brief but eye popping entranced in her wedding gown, Bea (Claudia Logan), Ndidi (Aisha Sougou) , Onye Eme- Akwari who plays several male roles and stylist Miriam ( Bisserat Tseggai), whose client (Mia Ellis) is a journalist.  Miriam is the only stylist whose story we hear about. 

Obie award winner and director, Whitney white, keeps the pace on the fast track, missing nary a beat. From braiding to sparring to dancing to having affection for one another, Jaja’s in Harlem is the place to be. 

David Zinn’s colorful set design is authentic looking from cans of hairspray on the shelves to two hanging tv sets to roll about chairs, mirrors on the walls and individual bags of hair looking like they are waiting to be braided.

Claudia Logan and Melanie Brezill, Jordan Rice in background

I couldn’t help but be blown away by Dede Ayite’s richly colored costumes( she became the first black woman to win a tony award for best costume design in a play) and Nikiya Mathis’ wig and hair design with Jiyoun Chang’s lighting.

Aisha Sougou (left) and Melanie Brezill

All of these women call America ‘home’ but in today’s world, they are outsiders. For Jaja and her followers, sadly, deportation is staring them in the eyes. 

Enjoy.

See you at the theatre.

When: Runs through June 15. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: La Jolla Playhouse,  Mandell Weiss Theatre, 

2910 La Jolla Village Drive, UC San Diego.

Photo: Rich Soublet II)

Tickets: $30-$90

Info: 858-550-1010

Online: lajollaplayhouse.org