By Charlene Baldridge
SDUN Theatre Critic
Ira Aldridge Repertory Players wowed audiences and critics alike last year with Calvin Manson’s award-winning all-male musical revue “Looking for an Echo.” That show combined the talents of two dynamite doo-wop quintets. IARP and Manson return to North Park’s Sunset Temple through May 23 with the world premiere of a fine distaff show titled “Nina: A Portrayal of the Life and Music of Nina Simone.”
Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in North Carolina, Simone (1933-2003) was a singer, songwriter, pianist and civil rights activist who recorded more than 40 albums live and in studio. She intended to become the first black concert pianist but when she arrived at Juilliard and the Curtis Institute, she was rejected, primarily because she was black and a woman. She changed her name so her mother would not know she was playing “the devil’s music,” and took a job playing piano in Atlantic City, where the nightclub owner wanted her to sing as well. So sing she did through the remainder of her life, lived largely in exile. She died in Paris.
“Nina” presents 22 of Simone’s best known recorded hits, among them “I Loves You Porgy,” “To Be Young, Gifted and Black,” “Mississippi Goddamn” and “Here Come the Sun.” Manson uses four gifted divas of varying age in an attempt to capture Simone.
Possessed of a sweet, youthful voice and a great mop of hair that becomes a glowing aura in Act II, Sarah Roy, an 11th grader at San Diego School of Performing Arts, plays Simone’s hopeful inner child. Nicole Gabrielle Bradley portrays the singer on the verge of success, optimistic yet cautious.
Janice Edwards’ Simone is older, angrier and wiser. Edwards’ low-lying, guttural, sometimes pitch-undefined voice puts one in mind of Louis Armstrong. Perhaps most assured of all is long-admired vocalist Ayanna Hobson, who portrays the jaded exile.
Musical director Anthony Smith has the requisite classical edge on piano. Throughout her life, Simone imbedded fugues in her song arrangements, and Smith incorporates this feel in many of his excellent accompaniments and incidental music. He is marvelously supported by Doug Walker on bass and the amazing Richard Sellers on drums. One cannot imagine a more excellent jazz ensemble in service of this piece.
The construction of “Nina” is also excellent, with many instances of overlapping songs and narrative to speed the work along. The first act clocks in swiftly at one hour. The second act lags a bit. As a general rule, all the women must engage, look up and play to the crowd that teems in imagination. Not louder, just larger. Also noted: the microphone that is kind to the singer does not always work for the spoken word. In general, the dialogue must be crisper.
Though it is not to be missed, “Nina” doesn’t quite do for the women what “Looking for an Echo” did for the men, but in all fairness, “Nina” tackles more, trying to nab the essence of an inimitable, incredibly influential artist who suffered racism, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and breast cancer, none of which is explored. When the protagonist alone tells her story, we hear only what she wants us to hear. That is as it should be, perhaps, but a dramatic arc demands more.
“Nina” continues at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 4 p.m. Sundays through May 23 at Sunset Temple, 3911 Kansas St., North Park. Tickets are $25 with optional dinner on Sundays (dinner at 3, show at 4). For more information go to iarpplayers.org or call 283-4574.
