Play On!: Greg Watkins and Jalisa Williams – Photo: Daniel Rader
The marvelous cast of Signature’s musical Play On! kick up their heels and sing up a storm in a vivacious new production staged by Lili-Anne Brown. Originally conceived by Sheldon Epps, with a book by Cheryl L. West, the three-time Tony-nominated musical employs a bevy of jazz and blues standards by D.C.’s own Duke Ellington, laced through a romantic comedy plot inspired by Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night.
Turns out, the Bard and the Duke complement each other well. Twelfth Night‘s tale of a cross-dressing waif embroiled in a convoluted matchmaking scheme cuts a fine figure upon which to hang Play On!‘s 1940s backstage romance set amongst the all-Black cast and crew at Harlem’s storied Cotton Club.
The famed nightspot is brought to life brilliantly through Dan Conway’s stunning set, soft-lit to smoky perfection by lighting designer Jason Lynch. An elegant temple to the jazz gods, the club extends into the house of the MAX Theatre, with tables arranged around the proscenium stage.
An aspiring songwriter fresh off a bus from Mississippi, Vy (Jalisa Williams) is thrilled just to enter the Cotton Club. She’s convinced by her tap-dancing uncle Jester (Wesley J. Barnes) that her big-time dreams of writing songs for Duke Ellington (Greg Watkins) are out of reach for any woman. Songwriting is a man’s game, he tells her. To beat the game, she passes herself off to the Duke and everybody else at the club as hip dude, Vy-man.
And the Duke digs Vy-man’s songs — so much, in fact, that he entreats Vy-man to use those songs to help him woo the object of his affection, the club’s star diva, Lady Liv (Awa Sal Secka).
Play On!: Awa Sal Secka – Photo: Daniel Rader
Lady Liv likes Vy-man’s songs, too, but cottons even more to the songwriter, who, in turn, falls for the Duke. Shakespearean complications ensue as the club’s cast of performers rehearse a new show under tough taskmaster Rev (Chuckie Benson), who’s also smitten with Lady Liv.
Of course, the lady’s a raging, temperamental handful, but also a scintillating songstress whose vocal magic captivates crowds. Count us among those captivated by Secka’s sublime singing in the role, which she embodies with comedic flair as a lady of refinement but without much filter.
Yet, when Liv’s not tearing into backstage hand Miss Mary (Kanysha Williams), she’s tearing it up onstage, laying down Ellington tunes like “Mood Indigo,” a classic Secka pours out like some bittersweet elixir. She and the six-piece band, led by Brian P. Whitted on piano, keep it smooth as the emotion of the song swells to the sharpest climactic rest I’ve ever heard, before the delicate finish.
Music director Jermaine Hill has the score, the performers, and musicians operating in admirable synchrony, and the band keeps the joint jumping all night long — not only when Secka is singing, although she delivers another highlight of the show with a powerfully passionate “I Ain’t Got Nothing But the Blues.”
Liv conveys that lived-in feeling of having been through things, although we won’t learn exactly what those might be. West’s script, funny and filled with ’40s slang, offers only peeks behind the curtains of these characters’ pasts, and the show, in general, romanticizes their present-day circumstances.
The reality that these Black performers are not actually allowed to patronize the segregated Cotton Club is brought up just once, as a pointed, though brief, disruption of the romantic mood.
Joy, rather, is what prevails in the story, and throughout Brown’s stellar production. The joy these characters exude, the art and culture they create, the dignity with which they live their lives comes dancing right at us in Breon Arzell’s electrifying swing choreography and the evocative period costume design by Samantha C. Jones.
The joyful legacy left by the Duke and his peers flows through these talented performers singing and scatting, swinging and bouncing, serving “all that exuberant energy” that has sustained and nurtured Black communities through centuries of adversity.
Play On! (★★★★☆) runs through Oct. 5 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Avenue in Arlington, Va., with a Pride Night performance Sept. 5, Affinity Night – Chocolate City: A Ball for Black Excellence on Sept. 12, and Discussion Night performances on Sept. 10 and 30. Tickets are $47 to $133. Call 703-820-9771, or visit www.sigtheatre.org.
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Sounds of backstage bustle are audible until lights up and a quick phrase of transition music plays us into the next scene, as if we were enjoying a live taping of a sitcom or radio drama.
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