By Mike Hoban

‘Nina Simone: Four Women’ – Written by Christina Ham. Directed by Kenneth L. Roberson; Christopher Rhoton, Scenic Designer; Michael Alan Stein, Costume Designer; Lee Fiskness, Lighting Designer; Lighting Designer  Merrimack Repertory Theatre at the Nancy L. Donahue Theatre through March 8

If you’re anticipating a fawning musical love letter to jazz great and civil rights activist Nina Simone from MRT’s entertaining Nina Simone: Four Women, prepare to be surprised. Christina Ham’s 2016 play-with-music is no feel-good biopic of the “High Priestess of Soul”. Instead, Ham takes the gloves off, depicting Simone as narcissistic and as classist as any old-money white guy before she undergoes a spiritual transformation late in the play. Part fictionalized history lesson and part jukebox musical, Four Women showcases some of Simone’s most popular works (as well as some solid originals), but also highlights the struggles and widely varying experiences of three African-American women that she encounters following a brutal murder that rocked the country.

Read more “Nina Simone Journeys from Artist to Activist in MRT’s ‘Four Women’”