BWW Reviews: CAROLINE, OR CHANGE May Be Street Theatre Company's Best Yet

Compellingly dramatic and musically inspiring, Caroline, Or Change-the musical now onstage at Street Theatre Company through the end of the month-might very well be the most startling and thoroughly extraordinary production from the company in its rather brief existence in Nashville.

Certainly, in the few years that Cathy Street and her eponymous theater company have been presenting top-flight theatrical adventures for local audiences, the critical acclaim has come fast and furious. From affecting dramas like The Bad Seed to concert offerings like Chess, Ragtime and Tommy, or smaller-scaled musicals like Altar Boyz and The Last Five Years, Street Theatre Company since 2005 has continued to raise the bar for local theater and, without doubt, Caroline, Or Change represents the company as the apotheosis of creativity, ambition and imagination. Caroline, Or Change really is that good and you should not, under any circumstance, miss the opportunity to see for yourself what all the talk is about.

Directed with concentrated focus on storytelling, with remarkable attention to detail, by Peter Vann (who makes his STC debut with this offering), Caroline, Or Change features the music of Jeanine Tesori and a libretto by Tony Kushner that examines, dissects, illuminates the state of Southern affairs in late 1963, a time filled with equal parts hope and despair. Brought vividly to life by a stellar cast of actors who give performances of such brutal frankness, underpinned by honesty and ferocity of delivery, the production is at once awe-inspiring and almost shockingly in-your-face.

While the themes and situations considered by Caroline, Or Change continue to reverberate in our society as it lurches forward to a hoped-for post-racial period in American history, the musical's operatic intentions prove it to be so much more than you would initially expect. However, the story related in Kushner's libretto never seems heavy-handed or didactic, rather it is most effective because it tells a very personal story that reveals itself in a series of vignettes that are dramatically straightforward yet somehow manage to be told with a sense of whimsy and offbeat grace.

Set in Lake Charles, Louisiana, in November-December 1963-which includes the time during which President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas-the play focuses on the relationship between Caroline Thibodeaux, who works as the maid for a middle-class Jewish family, and Noah Gelman, the eight-year-old scion of the family. Caroline, taciturn and always frowning, and Noah, glum and introverted, are drawn together by both happenstance and the very nature of their personalities. The grey cloud that seems to hover above both characters brings them together to share hushed moments and brief conversations.

That is, of course, on the surface. As the plot evolves and we are drawn deeper into it, we learn that young Noah is mourning the death of his mother to cancer and his barely suppressed rage and diffidence to his father's remarriage to Rose, a woman who tries hard to bridge the gap between both Noah and Caroline with little, if any, success. Caroline is poor and downtrodden in the way that most domestics of the 1960s were in the South, their very existence dependent upon white employers and their social standing frozen by the years of black servitude in the region.

But change is afoot, and as the play goes on and the President is murdered by a madman in Dallas, events closer to home show that times indeed are changing, however slowly, for Caroline and her children and the people around them. As Rose strives to build a relationship with her stepson Noah, she struggles just as mightily to show Caroline that she wants to be her friend, yet her sometimes ham-handEd Manner betrays her own lack of understanding of the situation that exists in her very home.

Most of the play's action takes place in the basement of the Gelman home, the only one in the neighborhood that has such a room below ground. Actually, it's underwater, as Caroline explains, and it is in the dank and mildewy, hot and steamy workroom that she does the family laundry, dries the clothes and irons them, while managing to keep her white uniform spotless despite her hard work to create a sense of Southern gentility for the family. When Rose decides to teach Noah a lesson about the value of money-he's always leave jingle money in his pockets-she tells Caroline she can keep the loose change, that anything left in the family's pockets is her to keep.

Unable to give Caroline a raise in her meager salary, Rose sees the idea as a form of helping Caroline out. Caroline, who contends she does not need to take money from babies, is soon caught up in the charade, finally being able to give her own children the wherewithal to buy the things that all children need, the shiny objects to be found at the five and dime. Be forewarned: the scene in which Caroline gives each of her children a shiny quarter may like come upon you awares, packing an unexpectedly emotional wallop that you won't soon forget.

In the scenes which follow, your very human responses to the action unfolding onstage should come as no surprise. Kuchner's libretto is artfully crafted, his ability to capture the nuances of his characters is unparalleled and in Caroline, Or Change he creates people who seem to have sprung fully formed from the pages of the script. Multi-dimensional and sharply delineated, their stories meld together to create one that is far greater than the sum of its estimable parts.

Tesori's music, which runs the gamut from the neo-traditional showtune to gospel-tinged spiritual, interpolates the sounds of rhythm and blues, Klezmer, classical and folk music into the score, creating a sound that is perhaps heretofore unheard of in the confines of what we think of as musical theater. Coupled with Kushner's libretto-written with dramatic flourish, to be certain, but amazingly taut and economical in its storytelling-Tesori's music ensures that the play transcends what one might think of as "musical theater." Almost completely sung-through, it's more like opera and, in years to come, it will likely become the purview of opera companies looking for new and contemporary forms of expression.

Vann's direction of Caroline, Or Change is exquisitely crafted, with each scene fairly bristling with intensity and the evocation of deeper feelings and emotions. Perhaps most to his credit, however, is his superb casting abilities. In short, it's hard to imagine a more perfect cast for this challenging work of art.

Brooke Leigh Davis takes on the title role with an amazing zeal: Her Caroline is steadfastly set in her ways, yet Davis is able to convey the conflicting emotions that do battle in her character's heart and soul. She commands the stage with tremendous power, yet she ever so effortlessly and graciously moves from one scene to the next with ease. Her soaring vocals are gorgeous, but it is her acting performance that will stun you.

Paired with Davis as Noah is young Dalton Tilghman, who has already gained glowing notices at STC thanks to his performances in Ragtime and Tommy. As good as he was in those earlier performances, his portrayal of Noah is revelatory: He is a fine actor with a beautiful voice. Completely engaged and present in every moment onstage, Tilghman's casting is key to the show's success.

Janette Bruce, as good a musical theater actress as you'll find anywhere, shows off her tremendous range and versatility, creating a portrait of Rose that is period perfect and multi-dimensional. Her stage presence is palpable and her forthright portrayal speaks volumes of her confidence onstage. As her husband, the dour and mournful Stuart Gelman, Mike Baum again displays his chameleon-like ability to assume his roles and although his character is almost written almost as a cipher, Baum shines.

In the role of Emmie (the one in which Anika Noni Rose claimed the Tony Award), Piper Jones-a recent graduate of the Belmont University Music Theatre program-is given the opportunity to show off her glorious voice while playing a character close to her age. As Caroline's teenaged daughter, she is given moments both serious and lighthearted to play and she does so with alacrity, and her scenes with Zavior Phillips and Carrington Charles Pitts as her younger brothers bear the very genuine feeling of sibling affection and rivalry.

DaJuana Hammonds is ideally cast as Caroline's confidante and fellow maid Dottie, her effervescent personality countered by flashes of fiery passion that give her character deeper resonance. Hammonds and Davis interact with each other with such genuine warmth that it lends greater significance to their scenes together.

Kushner's script creatively uses actors to represent various domestic appliances. Chessani "CeCe" Scott, Charletta Jordan and LaToya Gardner are "Radio," a Motown-sounding trio who serve as a Greek chorus in moving the plot along its way, while Naeaidria Callihan is the scene-stealing "washing machine" whose beautiful sounds and undulating movement perfectly captures the tone of the appliance. Just as amazingly, Shawn Lewis plays the electric dryer with panache and becomes the bus on which the domestics must ride with great charm. Benee Wisdom plays the "Moon" as it waxes and wanes, reflecting the constantly changing times in which the play is set.

Completing the cast are John Silvestro and Diane J. Zandstra, as Stuart's parents, and L.T. Kirk as Rose's father.

Vann's direction is given solid support by Stephanie Walker's choreography which helps to bring a sense of lightness and beauty to the proceedings. Rollie Mains' exceptional music direction is quite obviously the lynchpin upon which the show's success or failure is built and Tesori's score is beautifully rendered by the seven-piece ensemble (Avery Bright, Amy Cooper, Luke Easterling, Nick Palmer, Alan Puglisi and Lindsey Smith-Trostle) under his able direction.

Aaron Beck's cleverly designed set provides the ideal setting for the play's action, while Steven Steele's evocative lighting design may be his best yet for an STC production. Credit is also due sound designer JJ Street for his fine efforts on this stellar production.

In a season full of compelling theater, Caroline, Or Change is a magnificent offering. Seeing it during a month of new theater in Nashville that also includes Tennessee Repertory Theatre's Clybourne Park and SistaStyle Productions' rendering of native Memphian Katori Hall's The MountainTop, gives audiences the opportunity to examine their own hearts and the continued presence of racial inequities in our lives. These are some amazing days in Nashville theatre...allow yourself to be transformed and transported.

• Caroline, Or Change. Book and lyrics by Tony Kushner. Music by Jeanine Tesori. Directed by Peter Vann. Musical direction by Rollie Mains. Choreography by Stephanie Walker. Presented by Street Theatre Company, 1933 Elm Hill Pike, Nashville. Through September 30. For details, go to www.StreetTheatreCompany.org. For reservations, call (615) 554-7414.

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