BWW Reviews: Nat King Cole Bio-tuner I WISH YOU LOVE Swings Mildly at Hartford Stage

I Wish You Love
by Dominic Taylor
Directed by Lou Bellamy
at Hartford Stage through July 24
www.hartfordstage.org

One has to give playwright Dominic Taylor credit.  His play with music I Wish You Love attempts to be more than a greatest hits-meets-flimsy plot  bio-tuner.  Covering the final tumultuous episodes of Nat King Cole's short-lived television variety series, Taylor tackles a substantive storyline of the racism faced by African American performers while managing to fit in almost two-dozen classics from the Cole songbook.  While his effort is not entirely satisfying dramatically or musically, he and the Penumbra Theatre (the producing organization of this touring production) get points for trying to bridge the divide between serious theatre and the schlock bio-musicals that oftentimes get programmed at theatres as a quick cash grab (a prime example is the touring Nat King Cole musical Unforgettable that was more regrettable at Hartford Stage in 2006).

I Wish You Love commences as Cole, played by Dennis W. Spears, and his musicians arrive to film one of the final episodes of his 1956-1957 television series.  Between commercial breaks and news announcements chronicling the Eisenhower Era's troubling race history, we see Cole put on a television show with its own troubling history.  Moved around to various timeslots by the network with little support from sponsors skittish about bankrolling the work of a black man, Cole's television show managed to take the high road in terms of quality content as it struggled to find and maintain an audience and profitability.  The network has asked Cole to pay for the series' second season himself as it is already operating at a loss. 

The fascinating and complex dynamics of this pioneering program are, surprisingly, undercut by the musical numbers in the first half of the first act.  The exposition is clunky and does little to advance a sense of story as the action keeps halting for pairs of songs.  The musical numbers generally do not serve the narrative and, tragically, are performed to canned backing tracks with the musicians miming their playing (Cole, a master pianist, included).  There is little sense of the urgent high-wire act that comes with filming a live television show.  Cole performs a number, then people come in and have a bland conversation like they aren't filming a television show, they leave and he sings another two numbers.

And then something wonderful happens, albeit too briefly.  The second half of the first act, the play becomes a real play.  Cole and his bandmates Jeffrey Prince (played by Eric Berryman) and Oliver Moore (played by Kevin D. West) have a real conversation.  They become real characters with real interaction and relationships.  As the trio cracks wise and rehearses for an upcoming show, the play feels loose and engaging and the songs suit the storyline.  The R&B swing of "Send for Me" actually swings, as opposed to the somewhat starchy numbers performed earlier in the act.  Charlie Chaplin's "Smile" becomes a call for courage as they face a tour that will bring them into the white-hot crucible of racism in Cole's home state of Alabama.  The first act climaxes with that turbulent concert while Cole sings "Let There Be Love" over a montage of racist catcalls and video screens showing the horrifying brutality perpetrated on the black community.  In this one number, we see race relations in a much more vivid, pungent way than David Mamet's Race currently running at TheaterWorks.

The second act picks up in that same powerful vein, but then heads back into the television show format with the action broken up by commercials, news segments and moments of dialogue.  This, of course, becomes a drag.  Fortunately, the musical selections are more organically selected for the narrative and therefore pack more of an emotional punch.  The heartbreaking "Precious Lord" and "Nature Boy" become more poignant.  "Pretend" and "I Wish You Love" become fitting elegies for his television program as the network suits have forced a fake patina on the man who did a great deal to close the gap between black audiences and white audiences.  In the end, Taylor's script only half-succeeds in its attempt to be a hard-hitting play and is not half-bad as a musical.  In other words, I Wish You Love is neither unforgettable nor unforgivable. 

At the center of the production is Dennis W. Spears in the role of Nat King Cole.  He doesn't so much look the part, although Matthew  LeFebvre's costumes and Pam Pryor's hair and makeup are spot-on.  He approximates Cole's vocal stylings without becoming a mimic.  His voice comfortably floats in the upper register, while rarely dipping into Cole's smooth tobacco-enhanced lower register.  There is musicality in his performance, but Spears rarely hits you in the heart.  With the songs at his disposal, that is a shame.  Some of this can be attributed to the fact that he is performing to canned music which allows precious little flexibility for a vocalist.  He is much more effective as an actor and when the songs are fitting for the story arc, his musical performances become reflexively more emotional.  

As the other members of the Nat King Cole Trio, Kevin D. West and Eric Berryman give fine, funny performances.  West's tart take on Oliver Moore shows a man who has seen it all and lived to tell.  Eric Berryman does a lovely job as a guitarist filled with youthful hope and naivete.  Stuck in the absolutely thankless and underwritten role of the TV network patsy/anchorman, Michael Tezla does his best with what he has been given:  the white man who has to bring the bad news.  Again.  And again.  The cast is rounded out by Adam Ehret playing the small part of a studio grip.  Lou Bellamy, director and founder of the Penumbra Theatre, effectively stages the piece while being unable to surmount the challenges in the script and bio-tuner format.

Hartford Stage's summer offerings are usually beset with underwhelming sets, so it is a treat to see C. Lance Brockman's fabulous riff on Cole's television studio.  TV monitors dangle from the ceiling showing vintage Brylcreem and Dial commercials over a rotating baby grand piano and polished floors.  The lighting design by Don Darnutzer clearly delineates the transitions from being on-camera and behind the scenes, while Martin Gwinup's sound design artfully takes us from mic-less dialogue to amplified vocal performances during the songs.  Gwinup is also responsible for the colorful period artwork that serves as a backdrop for Cole's television performances, as well as the powerful Civil Rights video montages projected on the big screen that dominates the downstage wall.

Photo courtesy of Hartford Stage/Penumbra Theatre.

 

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