Herringbone: Do Clothes Make the Man?

"Herringbone"

Book by Tom Cone based on his play; music by Skip Kennon; lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh; sets by Neil Patel; costumes by William Ivey Long; lights by Frances Aronson; sound by Nick Borisjuk; choreographer, Darren Lee; musical director, Dan Lipton; director, Roger Rees

Cast:

B.D. Wong as Herringbone, Arthur, Louise, Grandmother, George, Lawyer, Nathan Mosely, Salesclerk, Howard, Lou and Dot
Dan Lipton as Thumbs Dubois (piano)
Benjamin Campbell as Slim (bass)
Richard Huntley as Patty (drums)

Performances: Now through June 24 at Williamstown Theatre Festival, '62 Center for Theatre and Dance of Williams College, Route 2, Williamstown, Mass.
Box Office: 413-597-3400 or www.wtfestival.org

What if we could get inside a child protégé's head to hear how the adults in his life sound as they try to get him to be what they want him to be? This is the clever conceit of the Tom Cone-Skip Kennon-Ellen Fitzhugh musical "Herringbone," a one-man vaudeville currently on stage at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts. By having a single actor – in this case the versatile and charismatic Tony Award winner B.D. Wong of "M. Butterfly," "Pacific Overtures," and "Law & Order: SVU" fame – portray the boy at the center of the story as well as all the characters who berate, cajole and abuse him, "Herringbone" powerfully conveys the anguish that a child experiences when trying to find himself amidst the personalities that others would impose upon him.

"Herringbone" follows a year in the life of eight-year-old tap dancing phenomenon George Newkins (later Herringbone) whose gifts various and sundry people want to exploit in order to help them survive the Great Depression. Starting out in rural Alabama in 1929, the story follows George and his parents to Hollywood where they hope to get rich quick by making him a child star. Along the way they meet Nathan Mosely, a parasitic manager who was once the "straight man" aka Chicken in the now defunct vaudeville act, The Chicken and the Frog. Under Mosely's tutelage, George achieves a measure of success until, quite suddenly, the boy is possessed by the spirit of the suspiciously deceased Frog, a dwarf named Lou. What ensues is a frenzied battle for control over George's body, mind and spirit. Can an innocent child fend off the manipulations of a street-wise 37-year-old lusting for lost glory and revenge?

While Lou may be the worst of the self-promoting people in "Herringbone" who try to take over George's life, he is not the only intruder into the young boy's consciousness. George's well-meaning mother, Louise, fills his troubled mind with thoughts of becoming President. His gruff and dispassionate father, Arthur, instills in him a sense of worthlessness and failure until the discovery of George's unique tap dancing ability turns his paternal vision of destitution into dollar signs. Caught between the unrealistic, albeit loving, expectations of his mother and the opportunistic conniving of both his father and his alter-ego Lou, George wonders who the real boy inside his vaudevillian's custom tailored herringbone suit truly is.

As George and all his colorful antagonists, B.D. Wong is a revelation. He delivers the show's honky-tonk style song and dance numbers with great skill and panache (despite suffering an injury on opening night that stopped the show and required emergency suturing). He also shifts seamlessly back and forth between the youthful hero and the adults who would prey upon his vulnerability, giving each one of his characters distinct voices, gestures, and personalities. For George he bows his head and speaks up to those around him in a voice that is both timid and pleading. For Louise, he assumes nervous, doting mannerisms that convey a fierce maternal protectiveness lying beneath a surface of wifely intimidation. For Arthur, he coughs and blusters, puffing up his chest and veiling selfish intentions in a thinly layered cloak of mock pride. For Lou, he assumes a penetrating stare and disarming Cheshire smile that tinge his gravelly and seductive bargaining with a chilling foreboding of evil.

Director Roger Rees has guided Wong and musical director/onstage pianist Dan Lipton to balance the show's wickedly dark humor with a touching poignancy. Nowhere is this more evident than in the show's closing scenes. In the tour de force musical number called "Three Waltzes," Wong makes us believe that three people are actually on stage at the same time: eight-year-old George, the womanizing Lou, and the hotel clerk Dot with whom Lou is trying to consummate an affair. Immediately thereafter, this madcap three-way love-making "dance" dissolves into a heartrending climax that has Lou and George struggling for ultimate physical and psychological supremacy. Here Wong is spellbinding, subtly indicating a shift in power that makes a man out of George and a boy out of Lou the Frog.

Musical numbers such as the opening and closing "One of Those Years" and the Act II opener "What's a Body to Do?" are laced with biting sarcasm and wit. The out-of-character ballad "A Mother" sung by Wong as Herringbone the narrator is a haunting tribute to the woman who, for better or worse, always had her son's welfare at heart. "Little Mister Tippy Toes" toward the end of Act I is a manic display of young George's attempts to please everyone by dancing harder and faster, moving as if he were a puppet on a set of harshly pulled strings.

A special technical nod must go to lighting designer Frances Aronson. Split-second changes in colors, fills and spots help convey Wong's often instantaneous changes from one person to another. Back and forth conversations between two, three, and sometimes more characters are much easier to follow thanks to her precise lighting cues.

"Herringbone" delivers a deceptively complex message in a tautly written and smartly entertaining show. It also doesn't hurt that star B.D. Wong wears this particular suit very well.

PHOTOS

B.D. Wong as Herringbone et al

Photos by Joan Marcus

 

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