Tarell Alvin McCraney is one of Miami's success stories.
Making headlines from Los Angeles to London, he's considered "one of the brightest American playwrights to come along in some time," according to the L.A. Times.
GableStage's Artistic Director Joseph Adler has produced four of Miami native McCraney's plays.
This season, Adler directs McCraney's newest play, Choir Boy, about five boys at an African-American prep school, who are as different as they are alike.
There's Anthony Justin "A.J." James (Datus Puryear), the stand-out baseball athlete in the school; Bobby Marrow (Melvin J. Cox), the headmaster's nephew whose running at the mouth gets him in trouble and frequently; there's Junior Davis (Vlad Dorson), the Ed McMahon to Marrow's Johnny Carson, and there's David Heard (Samuel Enmund Jr.), who has decided to devote his life to God and become a pastor.
The play's protagonist is Pharus Jonathan Young (Din Griffin), who is the student choir leader and the school's most gifted singer. He is the subject of merciless bullying because of his effeminate ways. He recounts, it seems, something he's heard adults at the school say about him. "I'm the little sweet boy they've been trying to straighten out for years."
As the play opens, Pharus's solo at the commencement is clouded by a student backstage in the wings calling him a "faggot." It sets the tone, yet this is not a play about bullying. Choir Boy is more than that — it tackles homophobia, coming-of-age and even delves into the history of slavery.
McCraney has created solid characters with his choir boys that give a foundation to his story. (His student characters are more well rounded. His adult characters, Headmaster Marrow (James Samuel Randolph) and retired teacher Mr. Pendleton (Peter Haig) are more caricatures of teacher and headmaster, although the talented veteran actors, Randolph and Haig, are a pleasure to watch.)
What's most enticing about Choir Boy, however, is McCraney's creation of a musical melodrama with the installation of a capella singing of Negro spirituals and even a rendition of L.T.D.'s Love Ballad (Jeffrey Osborne and George Benson are known for this R&B ballad).
The intimacy of Gablestage and the creation of the interior of The Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys draw the audience in closer and closer as the play moves along like a melody.
Adler nimbly directs the ensemble emphasizing the discoveries of each character as they peel away bits and pieces of themselves. He's not afraid to move the actors throughout the three sides of the space – stage right, the boys' locker room; stage left, a classroom; and center stage which triples as the auditorium stage, headmaster's office and student dorm quarters, creating portraiture vignettes that, while they could become fragmented hold together to bring the story into focus at different crucial moments.
The actors, too, are superb, especially Griffin as the picked-upon Pharus, who makes sure that his character never slinks under the pressure. One of Griffin's most poignant moments as Pharus is when he suffers an embarrassment in front of his roommate A.J. The heartfelt sympathy elicited from the audience is in no small measure because of Griffin's genuine portrayal.
Puryear's A.J. is authentic, too, and imbues his A.J. with a mature integrity; Cox gives Bobby an angry edge, yet shows the right shades of the lost boy still trying to grow up; Dorson's Junior,with his tenor voice and cherub face, adds the right bit of comic sidekick, while Enmund's confused David brings a bittersweet sadness to the role.
Haig as Mr. Pendleton has such a natural delivery, there's something downright interesting in watching how he maneuvers the character despite McCraney's thin rendering.
Each member of the ensemble is strong in their characters and, no doubt, audience members will find something in each that brings out something familiar in them.
When Randolph as the headmaster sings the spiritual Been in the Storm So Long, you know that McCraney and his Choir Boy are something extraordinary.
Music director is Christina Alexander, vocal arrangements by Jason Michael Webb; set by Lyle Baskin, lighting by Jeff Quinn, sound by Matt Corey, costumes by Ellis Tillman, props by Beth Fath, technical director, Carlos Rodriguez and Kristen Pieski, stage manager.
Choir Boy’ by Tarell Alvin McCraney will be performed at GableStage in the Biltmore Hotel, 1200 Anastasia Ave., Coral Gables, at 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 2 and 7 p.m. Sunday through Feb. 22. Call 305-445-1119 or www.gablestage.org.
