[NEohioPAL]PD's Tony Brown Review -Karamu/Gospel!Gospel!Gospel!

Tue Oct 10 14:44:46 PDT 2006

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REVIEW 
Karamu's `Gospel' is divine
Gospel! Gospel! Gospel! What: Karamu Performing Arts Theatre and James Pickens Jr. present the musical revue by Otis Sallid. When: Through Nov. 5. Where: Jelliffe Theatre, Karamu House, 2355 E. 89th St., Cleveland. Tickets: $15-$20. 216-795-7070. 
Sunday, October 08, 2006 
Tony Brown
Plain Dealer Theater Critic 
Live theater can transport us through time and space, beyond racial, cultural, religious and societal bounds, into a world of ideas and a deeper understanding of ourselves, our fellow human travelers and our meek place in the infinite universe. 
With "Gospel! Gospel! Gospel!" - the new musical revue that premiered over the weekend and looks primed to tour the country with its good-news message - Karamu Performing Arts Theatre carried me all the way back to Yamacraw Village. 
It was more than 20 years ago and I was a young arts reporter at Georgia's Savannah Morning News. The place was the First Bryan Baptist Church, the original site of the First African Baptist Church in the country, near where Savannah was born. 
The event was a mass choir, joining the singers from many of the area's black churches. I sat upstairs in the gallery while my photographer-girlfriend at the time took pictures. She looked up at one point, and we found each other's eyes streaming tears. 
The wall of sound was that beautiful and that moving, a shared experience bringing together a couple of supposedly dispassionate white journalists with hundreds of black people, two non-believers with a sea of faith. It forever changed me. 
So has seeing, hearing and feeling "Gospel! Gospel! Gospel!" 
Created and directed by Otis Sallid, filmmaker Spike Lee's choreographer, and co-produced by Karamu alum James Pickens Jr. of TV's "Grey's Anatomy" - "Gospel!" brings the oldest black theater in the country to a new plateau of excellence. 
In "Gospel!" Sallid uses an ensemble of 13 actor-singers, the Provisions by God quartet and a single onstage pianist to narrate the 20th century African-American experience through gospel. 
Some of the spoken-word explanations go on too long, the show should at least give a nod to gospel's beginnings on the plantations of the South, too little is made of gospel's influence on other genres, and a larger, backing choir would add punch. 
But each of the two-hour evening's musical numbers packs power, inspiring back-beat hand-clapping, come-to-Jesus palm waving, jumping-up, swaying and "sing it out, girl's!" among Friday's standing-room-only, opening-night crowd. 
The moment that brought me to tears came in the Civil Rights Movement section. 
It began with Roslyn Pratt and Bernita Ewing processing down the two aisles of the Jelliffe Theatre majestically singing "Ain't Gon' Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round." It continued with a symbolic knocking down of stools to represent fallen heroes. 
And it ended with Eddie Sands, his compact torso twisted with grief onstage, singing "Peace Be Still" in counterpoint with a chorus of other singers in the back of the auditorium while Neal Hodges read Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream." 
In the dark, I reflexively took the hands of the woman sitting next to me - someone I had met maybe once before and hadn't talked to until that evening - and held them, relived that night in Savannah, and wept. 
We united, all of us, through music that expresses all that is good about this existence, and all that just might be better if we could only come together more. 
Go, now, to "Gospel! Gospel! Gospel!" Open yourself to the experience, whatever your color and creed. The music will take you to your own personal Yamacraw, wherever that might be. 
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: tbrown at plaind.com, 216-999-4181 
http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/tony_brown/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1160123679197870.xml&coll=2
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<div class=kicker><B>REVIEW</B> </div>
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<H1 class=red>Karamu's `Gospel' is divine</H1></H1>

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<div class=subhead><B>Gospel! Gospel! Gospel! What: Karamu Performing Arts Theatre and James Pickens Jr. present the musical revue by Otis Sallid. When: Through Nov. 5. Where: Jelliffe Theatre, Karamu House, 2355 E. 89th St., Cleveland. Tickets: $15-$20. 216-795-7070. </B></div>
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<div class=byln>Sunday, October 08, 2006 

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<div>Tony Brown</div>
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<B><B>Plain Dealer Theater Critic</B></B> </div>

<div>Live theater can transport us through time and space, beyond racial, cultural, religious and societal bounds, into a world of ideas and a deeper understanding of ourselves, our fellow human travelers and our meek place in the infinite universe. </div>

<div>With "Gospel! Gospel! Gospel!" - the new musical revue that premiered over the weekend and looks primed to tour the country with its good-news message - Karamu Performing Arts Theatre carried me all the way back to Yamacraw Village. </div>

<div>It was more than 20 years ago and I was a young arts reporter at Georgia's Savannah Morning News. The place was the First Bryan Baptist Church, the original site of the First African Baptist Church in the country, near where Savannah was born. </div>

<div style="OVERFLOW: hidden; WIDTH: 1px; POSITION: absolute; HEIGHT: 1px"></div>
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<div>The event was a mass choir, joining the singers from many of the area's black churches. I sat upstairs in the gallery while my photographer-girlfriend at the time took pictures. She looked up at one point, and we found each other's eyes streaming tears. </div>

<div>The wall of sound was that beautiful and that moving, a shared experience bringing together a couple of supposedly dispassionate white journalists with hundreds of black people, two non-believers with a sea of faith. It forever changed me. </div>

<div>So has seeing, hearing and feeling "Gospel! Gospel! Gospel!" </div>

<div>Created and directed by Otis Sallid, filmmaker Spike Lee's choreographer, and co-produced by Karamu alum James Pickens Jr. of TV's "Grey's Anatomy" - "Gospel!" brings the oldest black theater in the country to a new plateau of excellence. </div>

<div>In "Gospel!" Sallid uses an ensemble of 13 actor-singers, the Provisions by God quartet and a single onstage pianist to narrate the 20th century African-American experience through gospel. </div>

<div>Some of the spoken-word explanations go on too long, the show should at least give a nod to gospel's beginnings on the plantations of the South, too little is made of gospel's influence on other genres, and a larger, backing choir would add punch. </div>

<div>But each of the two-hour evening's musical numbers packs power, inspiring back-beat hand-clapping, come-to-Jesus palm waving, jumping-up, swaying and "sing it out, girl's!" among Friday's standing-room-only, opening-night crowd. </div>

<div>The moment that brought me to tears came in the Civil Rights Movement section. </div>

<div>It began with Roslyn Pratt and Bernita Ewing processing down the two aisles of the Jelliffe Theatre majestically singing "Ain't Gon' Let Nobody Turn Me 'Round." It continued with a symbolic knocking down of stools to represent fallen heroes. </div>

<div>And it ended with Eddie Sands, his compact torso twisted with grief onstage, singing "Peace Be Still" in counterpoint with a chorus of other singers in the back of the auditorium while Neal Hodges read Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream." </div>

<div>In the dark, I reflexively took the hands of the woman sitting next to me - someone I had met maybe once before and hadn't talked to until that evening - and held them, relived that night in Savannah, and wept. </div>

<div>We united, all of us, through music that expresses all that is good about this existence, and all that just might be better if we could only come together more. </div>

<div>Go, now, to "Gospel! Gospel! Gospel!" Open yourself to the experience, whatever your color and creed. The music will take you to your own personal Yamacraw, wherever that might be. </div>

<div>To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: tbrown at plaind.com, 216-999-4181 </div>

<div><A href="http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/tony_brown/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1160123679197870.xml&coll=2" target=_blank>http://www.cleveland.com/entertainment/plaindealer/tony_brown/index.ssf?/base/entertainment/1160123679197870.xml&coll=2</A></div>
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