by Linda Chin Workman
‘Choir Boy’ – Play by Tarell Alvin McCraney. Directed by Maurice Emmanuel Parent. Music Direction, David Freeman Coleman. Choreography, Yewande Odetoyinbo and Ruka White. Presented by SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., through October 19
Like his play, In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, (which was adapted into the Oscar-winning film Moonlight), Choir Boy, by the multi-talented Tarell Alvin McCraney, powerfully reminds us that getting to love who you want and doing what you love are passions worth pursuing, as painful as the pathway may be.
Choir Boy is set at an elite prep school for boys that has been dedicated to educating strong ethical black men for 50 years, an ambitious mission for the 60s and 70s as for present day. From the moment it’s ‘lights up’ on stage, Director Maurice Emmanuel Parent deftly draws us into the lives of eight students who are uniformly dressed in blazers, buttoned-downs and slacks but unsurprisingly, each carries unique baggage on their transformational journey. The central character is Pharus Young (Isaiah Reynolds), a young gay black man who struggles with feeling unworthy and unseen and finding his voice and place in the community. He attends the school on scholarship and for years has aspired to get the coveted position of choir leader, but is all too aware that any misstep could jeopardize his future. Pharus thinks his nemesis Bobby (Malik Mitchell) has a charmed existence, that his joking manner and carefree attitude about breaking rules reflects his privilege as a legacy student and the headmaster’s nephew. Pharus doesn’t realize that below the surface Bobby carries deep hurt from grief and loss.
The storytelling in Choir Boy reaches its greatest heights when McCraney lets us climb into his characters’ skin and walk around in it for a while. McCraney provides sufficient material for actors Reynolds and Mitchell to delve more deeply into Pharus’ and Bobby’s characters and demonstrate their acting range, which is notably advanced for their years. I wish the playwright devoted less time to the scenes with the adult authority figures (the headmaster played by J. Jerome Rogers and retired teacher played by Richard Snee) and instead fleshed out the storiesof peers Anthony (Jaimar Brown), Junior (Aaron Patterson) and David (Dwayne P. Mitchell). Getting more than glimmers of these characters’ struggles with parental, societal, and self-expectations and these young actors’ dramatic abilities would have been more satisfying.
The play soars when the eight choir boys incorporate song and dance into their storytelling, in this production a luxurious mix of gospel, spirituals, step, voguing, and jazz (expertly music directed by David Freeman Coleman and stunningly choreographed by Yewande Odetoyinbo and Ruka White). Although the young men assert their individuality and make their differences known in the classroom, locker room and dorm room, the synchronized dance numbers and beautifully arranged songs show the power music has to leap directly to your heart and create unity across divides. Their rendition of Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child – sung when the boys were feeling homesick, lost, and vulnerable – will stay with me for a long time.
For Speakeasy to produce the New England premiere of Choir Boy with such a high level of artistic excellence and local talent – just six months after it closed on Broadway – is no small feat. Special kudos to Norton and IRNE award-winning actor Maurice Emmanuel Parent for making career pivot(s) of his own (Front Porch co-founder, drama faculty at Tufts, and with Choir Boy his Speakeasy directing debut) while continuing to be a dedicated Boston theater “parent.” By providing opportunities for younger theater artists to shine on professional stages (many of Choir Boy’s cast members are students and alumni from area schools including Boston Arts Academy and Boston Conservatory) Parent reminds us that mentorship can be life-changing, and that representation takes a multigenerational village. For tickets and additional info, go to: https://www.speakeasystage.com/
