Rider University impresses with this old-fashioned musical.
By: Stuart Duncan
In an age of battlements, crashing chandeliers and ear-splitting orchestra pits, Spunk is an old-fashioned musical, with a cast of 10 re-creating life in the rural South during the late 1920s and early ’30s.
The noted Broadway director George C. Wolfe adapted three short stories by African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston, put them into storybook theater form (the characters narrate what they are doing while they are performing), added the sounds of the blues on a guitar, and let the results speak for themselves.
Spunk is being revived at Rider University’s Yvonne Theater in a terrific production that is hopeful, joyful and, in short, spunky.
Ms. Hurston has fallen into some disrepute. She reached her heights during the Harlem Renaissance, then faded during the 1940s and ’50s. This can be traced to a book she wrote during the Civil Rights Movement. In How It Feels To Be Colored, she said: "But I’m not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all." This attitude clearly did not please the activists.
The evening consists of three of Ms. Hurston’s tales: "Sweat," in which an abusive husband betrays his loyal wife and is justly rewarded; "Story in Harlem Slang," a sassy piece of street-talk pyrotechnics, with bravado pimps cut nicely down to size; and the "The Gilded Six-Bits," a work that seems to sum up the writer’s outlook on life without hitting the message too hard.
All of this is underscored with the strumming of Ayodele Maakheru, a musician and songwriter brought in for the show, plus the singing of Rachel Baird as "Blues Speak Woman." The music is by Chic Street Man (who performed at Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick just a few weeks ago).
The remaining cast of eight then divides up the roles, moves scenery, becomes shrubbery or whatever else is called for. All move with graceful authority; all sing. Justin Beazer stands out as Sykes, the abusive husband of the first piece, then returns as the arrogant, deceitful Slemmons in the third. Rahmael Magny and Bjorn Stowers parry and thrust as zoot-suited rivals in Harlem. Milagros Rivera impresses in her first dramatic try as a wife trying to show her husband that love really can conquer all. In fact, half of the cast is making Rider stage debuts, including the forementioned Ms. Baird, a freshman we can look forward to her talent for years.
Richard Homan has directed with stunning touches. Kim Chandler Vaccaro has choreographed magnificently. Freshman Phred Patak has costumed with a fine eye. This show is a real knockout.
Spunk continues at the Yvonne Theater, Rider University, 2083 Lawrenceville Road, Lawrence, through Feb. 28. Performances: Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m. Tickets cost $10, $5 students. For information, call (609) 896-5303. On the Web: www.rider.edu