Signature Theatre Company opens its revival of Lynn Nottage's 2011 showbiz comedy-drama By the Way, Meet Vera Stark this evening. I caught it over the weekend. As a fan of the original production by Second Stage, I was interested to see how it held up, and found that Signature's production (directed by Kamilah Forbes) mostly finds the right balance of humor, pathos and insight. I would really rank this among Nottage's best plays, and I prefer it to her Pulitzer-winning Sweat, which I think wears its messaging a little too heavily. Here, Nottage often disarms with a lighthearted touch before making a very cogent point about the legacy of racism in popular culture or the perilous place of women in Golden Age Hollywood. Forbes's direction, aided by excellent sets and lighting (by Clint Ramos and Matt Frey, respectively), strongly conveys the world of the play. Although the first act (set in the 1930s) occasionally falters in terms of tone and pacing, the second (which alternates between 1973 and 2003) is a knockout.
Jessica Frances Dukes doesn't bring the same star quality to Vera that Sanaa Lathan communicated so effortlessly in the original production, but her more hard-edged take on the role makes a lot of sense -- especially when Vera is presented as a bitter, washed-up victim of the Tinseltown machine in Act Two. The acting is pretty much universally strong, with Jenni Barber and Carra Patterson especially good.
As always, I am grateful to Signature for making such high-quality theater available at reasonable prices. |
