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That is a weird comment, huh? But it did.
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It tracks the story of Langston Hughes' emotional and creative growth and change in the Harlem Renaissance and beyond into the 40's and 50's..
It is a musical with music put to Langston's poetry. Sometimes blues, sometimes jazz, sometimes gospel, sometimes the poems were simply performed as "Spoken Word' art.
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Blues were the most prevalent and moving of the style choices (although a couple of the spoken word performances were mesmerizing).
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What worked, BIG TIME, was the growth and maturity that evolved in his work. Often evolving into anger, into frustration that he managed usually (but not always) to bring back to a creative space.
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His emotional arc mirrors so many of our own - regardless of color, creed or sexual orientation. We grow up, we learn, we enjoy, we see wrongs and scream at them, then scream at the world and then, hopeful accept the world and try to change it in our own ways. We try not to admit defeat, but we don't want to spend our lives tilting at windmills. We want more, but learn to accept the happiness we have gratefully.
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The two pictured above, Josh Tower as Langston Hughes and Kenita Miller as Zora (Zora Neale Hurston) blew me away with their skill.
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But this isn't a review. My review will be out later - but this is an acknowledgment of an absolutely beautiful work that made me think. It is a World Premiere, not of the poems, but of them set to music and the story behind them.
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If you are in New York - it is at the Urban Stages (30th between 7th and 8th). SEE IT.