"...funny, sad, uplifting, and at times hilarious..."

October 11, 2003 performance reviewed by Frances Benn Hall

Blanche and Her Joy Boys, now playing a limited run at the Barrington Stage Company, is far more than a one-woman show. Although one woman, the multi-talented Chris Calloway, presents it, in this tribute to her equally talented and resourceful aunt, Calloway peoples the stage with others whose characters she takes on in vignettes that trace her aunt’s buoyant history and at the same time give a history of the early black jazz movement in the 20th century.

And she sings! Dynamically, poignantly, sassily, respectfully. Writer Mark St. Germain, basing his play on an earlier version by Sheryl Bailey Heath and Chris Calloway, has woven the material into an evening that is enlightening as well as entertaining, and director Julianne Boyd has made full use of the small stage and the versatile talents of Chris Calloway.

Rapidly paced, funny, sad, uplifting, and at times hilarious, Calloway becomes the aunt she so admired. She begins with the determined young Blanche, who rebels against the confined life of Baltimore’s Black bourgeoisie to escape to New York City and the Black music life of the Harlem world, where against considerable odds she wildly succeeds, becoming the first Black woman to lead a large all Black band.

In the North she tours coast to coast. In Alabama, her first experience of traveling further South than Baltimore, she is arrested for peeing in a white rest room. The silence this outrage evoked was so great “ it was like a rat peeing on a ball of cotton.” That such wildly comic lines can erupt in the midst of a scene that might have had extremely serious consequences for the resilient Blanche gives an idea of the way the dialog and songs in this buoyant evening bounce back and forth. And there are poignant moments of real despair and pleas for spiritual advice from a God who only seems to ask a question back.

Chris is supported magnificently by musical director and pianist David Alan Bunn. His piano becomes a second performer. Scott Pinkney’s lights provided the proper moods, and the winter quarters of the Barrington Stage have grown more inviting with fine comfortable chairs. It is a cozy small theatre, getting nicer all the time, and provided an intimate setting for Calloway’s performance, although she is so dynamic that at times the play might be even more effective in a larger setting. It could command it.

My only quibble would be with the added staging devices that slid in as background for two scenes in the second act. The scenes themselves are needed to lighten some of the gloomier events that occur in the life of this resilient woman, who could and did climb out of apparent disaster (and deserved to), but Calloway’s acting and singing alone could have carried them without window boxes and palm trees. In line with the rest of the spare but effective stage setting designed by Janie Howland, a change of tablecloth and a deck chair and sunglasses were all that seemed needed.

This is a good production. The opening night performance was sold-out and ticket-seekers turned away at the doors. I suggest phoning for a reservation as soon as possible. This play will not only entertain you, but give you a surprisingly full background of important historical events in the world in which we live.

Chris Calloway’s youngest brother Cab, who rose to greater glory than Blanche, for all her success, ever did, would be proud of the honor his daughter has given the family.