Laiona Michelle |
Rare is the biographical theater piece that seems to create a new genre of theater. But such a one is on view at Merrimack Repertory Theatre (through March 11). DinahWas, Oliver Goldstick's tightly scripted, Obie-winning musical revue/narrative about the life of Dinah Washington, is ingenious and engaging and turns out to be about much more than the singer’s life.
Dinah Was would be entertaining even if all it did were to present singer/actor Laiona Michelle crooning Washington’s signature hits, which include “What a Diff’rence a Day Makes” and “Come Rain or Come Shine.” But it does much more. Goldstick has taken vignettes from Washington’s life and interwoven them with her jazz and blues standards. And the writing and the characterizations are so skillful that the script moves easily forward and backward through time. (Merrimack's projected titles pinpointing year and locale also help.)
The play begins with Washington’s arrival at Las Vegas’s Sahara Hotel in November of 1959 to perform a show she hopes will be her breakthrough gig as a crossover artist. But it’s a long walk to the stage when the singer discovers that there’s no room at the inn for people of color. Instead, a fleet of trailers awaits in the parking lot. What’s an acolyte of Billie Holiday to do? Stage a lobby sit-in while still in her underwear (a tightly structured black slip). “The Queen of the Blues prefers indoor plumbing,” she tells the officious manager before launching into the mournful ballad “Bad Luck” (by Washington and Juanita Hall).
The two-act play goes on to offer a bone-chilling look at the institutional racism of the day, which is cunningly countered by Washington’s white record-company boss, Sam Greenblatt (W.T. Martin). But more enthralling than the social picture is the character of Washington herself. She’s a pistol — impatient, headstrong, ambitious. In the scenes with her mother, Mama Jones (played with vicious righteousness by Nadiyah S. Dorsey), you see exactly why she is as she is. Mama is quick to judge her talented daughter, finding fault with everything from her name change (from Ruth Jones) to her fashionable fur coat. “I can’t be walking on stage like I just walked out of the cotton fields of Tuscaloosa, Alabama,” Dinah tries to explain. “So now you ashamed of where you from,” Mama retorts.
Bill Clarke’s set design, with floor-to-flies sheer blue curtains to conceal a crackling pit band, adds to the cabaret flavor, as do costumer Theresa Squire’s ’50s garments, which include appropriately baggy-sharp cuts for the guys’ suits. Director Charles Towers presides over a charismatic cast that has Dorsey doubling as Washington’s long-suffering assistant, Maye, plus J. Bernard Calloway as Washington’s amour, Boss, and John Kooi as Rollie, her patient manager. And Michelle doesn’t mimic Washington so much as summon her will, spirit, and spark. The title of the play may be Dinah Was, but this is a vibrantly present-tense production.
