BWW Previews: TUTS Underground Presents the Sweet SWEET POTATO QUEENS

In late March (I'm bringing you up to the minute news), TUTS Underground staged the first ever reading of SWEET POTATO QUEENS. The musical chronicles the phoenix-like rise of the Sweet Potato Queens. That's all you need (and get) to know.

The piece put me in the mind of stories and movies like the DIVINE SECRETS OF THE YA-YA SISTERHOOD or SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS. Basically, anything with sister in it. That is no insult. Sandra Bullock in YA-YA is as good as Sandra in GRAVITY. I dare you to say otherwise.

The musical, based on the best-selling books of Jill Conner Browne, was a tricky project from the start. It's difficult to transform the written page to a musical - even if the page has music written on it. Melissa Manchester, who wrote the music for SWEET POTATO QUEENS, took her inspiration from paragraphs and quotes. As she was reading a newspaper article on Browne, words began to spring from the page, the print danced about, and Manchester heard music. After what Sharon Vaughn, responsible for the lyrics, jokingly called Manchester's "psychotic experience," Manchester knew she had a musical.

According to Vaughn, she and Manchester, "wrote together for the first time in Nashville a long time ago, and we just instantly became sisters." Manchester was actually interested in creating a full sisterhood for the creative team of SWEET POTATO QUEENS, and wanted a female writer for the book. But when the first book writer, a woman, didn't pan out, she found her prince was right in front of her. Rupert Holmes, who had been mentoring the project, told Manchester with confidence, "I know how to tell this story." After approval from the original Sweet Potato Queen Jill Conner Browne, he was on board.

Interestingly enough, as I walked into Zilkha Hall, I had no idea who Browne was outside of a short bio. In my mind, she seemed like a stereotypical self-help guru giving her own version of opium to the masses through best-selling novels.

But my bah-humbug began to wear off as I looked into the audience. Everyone was happy. They were laughing and talking. Ready to have a good time. A few sweet potato acolytes were there dressed in green and tiaras. I realized that, because of those best-selling novels, these women found a way to feel good about themselves through fashion. And they were not beholden to Cosmo, Vogue, or god-forbid, Maxim. Browne's vision inspired this vision of loveliness.

The nail in the coffin of my skepticism was my first sighting of the Sweet Potato Queen herself. She was donned in what was clearly Sweet Potato Queen regalia - hot pink sequins, cat eye glasses with rhinestone embellishments, and (showed to us during a beautiful and kind speech after the show ended) a beautiful salt and pepper ponytail fake hair weave.

It wasn't that Browne wasn't charming (she is), it was that I had no idea who the hell she was. The picture provided in the program was from the early days of her court. Later Browne said of the spectacular getup, ".. I have not been on the inside of it in fourteen years. The current outfit is so much bigger, so that it makes my parts appear so tiny in comparison." With no knowledge of who she was, Browne stood out from the crowd. Yet, she seemed just like many of us in the crowd. She was that wise aunt who told you how life really was when your mother wouldn't. Once the reading was over, and I knew who she was, it was clear she was a smart, ambitious lady who shared her insight with the world through jokes and wit. No drugs involved. Well, if there were, I'm sure they were cooler than opium.

The reading itself was fantastic. The performers were out of this world. The piano playing was top-notch. And the piece itself, was just like a sweet potato pie. It was spicy from the nutmeg, cinnamon, and allspice, sweet from the sweet potatoes and cooked in the oven by the Tony-winning Holmes, Grammy-winning Manchester, and Oscar nominee and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee Vaughn.

The music ranged from Old Motown to Gospel. Manchester said when she attended a Sweet Potato Queen Saint Patrick's Day parade, the queens, "were doing a slow grind to Motown [music]... this widened my musical landscape." The lyrics were silly and funny, then moving. The story was lighthearted and inspirational.

But, delicious as it smelled, the pie was not ready yet. This reading was just the cooks taking it out of the oven, showing it to the audience and asking what it needs. The feedback will hopefully help the piece cook to perfection and, with any luck (pretty please with sugar on top), add some sugar on top (in the form of Cool Whip).

For the moment, the sugar on top is Browne. She ended the talk back with these, well, inspiring words:

"Life is hard on a good day, I don't care who you are. And the dressing up funny and acting stupid, like we admittedly do, makes it possible to step outside yourself for just a little while and feel like somebody else... that doesn't have a worthless ex-husband, or a child in therapy, or breast cancer or whatever you're dealing with. That just makes you just a little bit stronger spiritually to go back and tug that load. In my experience the load will be there. No one will come and get it while you're gone playing."

As the audience laughed, she continued, "Choice is the most important word in our language. If you ain't loving your life, change it. It's too long to spend it doing anything that doesn't make your heart sing. Dreams are very important [but] as dreams they are completely worthless. It is infinitely better to live your dreams than it is to just dream them."

She provided as an example, "The first time that I ever rode in the back of that pick-up truck in 1982... I did say out loud, 'Somebody will pay me to do this' and here we are. As far as I know, I am the world's only full-time, professional Sweet Potato Queen."

I bow to the queen.

The SWEET POTATO QUEENS reading is part of the TUTS Underground initiative to bring new works to the stage. And we need readers like you to contribute with your money and your mind. For more information about TUTS Underground, please visit http://www.tutsunderground.com/.

The reading took place in Zilkha Hall, March 21-22, 2015. Visit the TUTS Facebook page to view photos from the performance.

For more information on Jill Conner Browne, visit http://www.sweetpotatoqueens.com/.

Photo courtesy of TUTS Underground

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