by Michele Markarian
“The Purists” – Written by Dan McCabe. Directed by Billy Porter. Presented by Huntington Theatre Company at the Calderwood Pavilion at the BCA, 527 Tremont Street, Boston through October 6.
There are some casts so talented that they manage to salvage a mediocre script. There are some scripts so compelling that they manage to salvage a mediocre cast. A timely play about friendship, division and tolerance, “The Purists” is both exquisitely well-written and exceptionally well cast.
Entering the theater, we are immediately transported to an apartment building in Queens, courtesy of Clint Ramos’s impressive, lifelike set, with its interior stairwells, stoop and apartment of Gerry (John Scurti). The stoop is where he, DJ Mr. Bugz (J. Bernard Calloway) and dispirited hip hop artist Lamont Born Cipher (Morocco Omari) smoke, shoot the breeze and argue. Of the three, Lamont is the most uncompromising, with rigid ideas about race, hip hop and the music industry. Gerry, a gay man who loves musicals, has his own prejudices about what music should sound like. Mr. Bugz is the crossover, the most open-minded, although he hides what he thinks is a shameful secret. There is chemistry between the men, even when Lamont and Bugz get upset with Gerry for calling young black kids acting up on the train “thugs”. “Do you know how many black men I’ve had sex with?’ he asks them, deeply offended. Val (Analisa Velez), Gerry’s drug dealer and Bugz’s sometimes fling, is a fierce, would-be hip hop artist herself. When Nancy (Izzie Steele), one of Gerry’s colleagues, comes over to meet Lamont, her hero, and perform some hip hop herself against Val – a contest she doesn’t wish to have – the cultural appropriation is too much for Lamont. It doesn’t help that Nancy’s written an entire hip hop musical based on the life of Amelia Earhart.
Beautifully staged and directed by Billy Porter, “The Purists” is one of those plays where the audience member is continually surprised. There’s nothing obvious or overblown in the writing, which examines the struggles of people having to compromise, in art, business and friendship. Lamont’s purity of vision is all he has in an industry where he feels cheated, and he tries to impart it to Bugz, who can’t buy in. Gerry and Val support Nancy’s show by attending, even though Gerry privately thinks hip hop shouldn’t comprise musical theater. Can friendship survive clashing ideals? The show really hit home, in light of two heated political “discussions” I had on two occasions that week with different friends. Would life be easier if we choose companions who think just as we do? Or will there always be a sticking point, something small that either gets in the way of moving forward or that we overcome with love and familiarity?
Omari is an actor with unmistakable gravity and presence, someone you watch even when he’s not doing anything. He brings an intensity to Lamont – fierce smile, fiercer anger. Calloway, as Bugz, is lighter, less heavy, even when he’s crying about his mother, who has Alzheimer’s. There’s an easiness to him that’s accessible, likeable. Scurti is hilarious and touching as the gregarious Gerry. Velez is radiant as the grounded Val, and Steele is funny and vulnerable as the awkward Nancy.
“The Purists” has already been extended, which means that audiences are liking it as much as I did. I urge you to order tickets before it’s too late. For tickets and information, go to: huntingtontheatre.org
