| Admirably ambitious but a muddle. There’s a lot to work with here—Afrofuturism!—and a lot of work yet to be done. The satire is blunt and the science fiction’s bleary, but the score, and in particular the movement, give BLACK NO MORE some momentum if not precisely a coherent point of view. Regrettably, the sound design—over amplified band, murky vocals—routinely distract from what’s happening. And what isn’t happening? When a show’s this packed with incident and genre tropes it helps immensely to, you know, hear. The score owes a debt to Lin Manuel Miranda even as it’s far from comparable. But there are nonetheless some lovely and interesting moments throughout, played by a game and very good cast. And even as it doesn’t fully work, BLACK NO MORE is immediately more substantive than much of what’s produced these days. As it winds down to its three endings—pick one—you realize that the main problem has been indecisiveness. The director, Scott Elliott, hasn’t clarified the show’s intentions or its form. BLACK NO MORE is a peculiar property, but it needn’t be so unfocused. In 1931, when George S. Schyler’s book was written, the idea that a black man could become white no doubt seemed outrageous. It’s odd timing then that the subject of another recent musical was, among a lot of other things, someone who nearly managed this sad feat without the black-no-more contraption featured here. Tip of the iceberg, yes, but wow. |
