Sweet Mama Stringbean: Still Waters Run Deep

Ethel Waters was a fascinating woman, and her biography could have made for an interesting evening in the theatre.  Unfortunately, Beth Turner's spotty book for Sweet Mama Stringbean is confusing and muddied.  Not much is really required for a jukebox musical (or, as my friend quipped this was, a "juke-joint musical") other than a coherent throughline to string the songs together, and this play barely provides that.  

In the late 1950s, an aging and overweight Ethel Waters (played by the exquisite Sandra Reaves-Phillips) is losing track of her life and is berated by her younger self (Marishka Shanice Phillips, Ms. Reaves-Phillips' real-life daughter) to try to find some meaning.  Her life is laid before her in a series of music-heavy flashbacks, until she realizes she needs to go to the mental ward and make peace with her mother (Cjay Hardy Philip), who she felt never loved her (as she was the child of rape), and who never approved of her career; this leads her to a religious epiphany and she goes on tour with Billy Graham. The script is heavy-handed and frequently incomprehensible- characters come and go through Waters' life without any real depth.  Her bisexuality and hard drinking are both ignored in favor of a mostly generic "local girl makes good then finds Jesus" story.

The good news is that the cast is incredible and delivers the music divinely, and that more than makes up for the weaknesses of the book.  Sandra Reaves-Phillips is a potent powerhouse of a performer; she twinkles and shimmers knowingly with every note she sings. 
Marishka Shanice Phillips is likewise talented, and gorgeous to boot (she looks eerily similar to Audra McDonald, but with a brassy alto in place of Ms. McDonald's soprano).  When the two sing together, putting a Natalie Cole "Unforgettable"-style spin on some of Ms. Waters' hits ("Am I Blue" and "Stormy Weather"), it's electric. 
Cjay Hardy Phillip plays all the women in Ethel's life with an amazing protean grace.  Whether she's the mother, the best friend, the other woman, or a bitchy Josephine Baker (a comic highlight of the evening), Ms. Phillip is astounding.  A moving penultimate scene with Ethel and her mother in an extended sprechstimme over the ominous ostinato of "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" is the emotional climax of the evening.
The two gentlemen in the cast are given less to do, but do it divinely.  The adorable Darryl Jovan Williams plays piano excellently for some of the songs (others are pre-recorded), as well as playing a plethora of characters from an unscrupulous vaudevillian to a Harlem drag queen. 
Gary E. Vincent is a more forbidding presence as a preacher and as Ethel's philandering man (paging Dr. Freud).  He also is the dance-man of the troupe, and delivers some truly spectacular hoofing. 

Scenes from Ethel's life and movies (courtesy of Crystal Scenic Light and Sound and Anthony Davidson) are often projected on the walls to augment the story, with varying degrees of effectiveness. 

When we arrived, the ushers asked us to sit close to the front- completely understandable, since the show is so presentational I'm sure the actors like to connect with the audience, but a lot of the scenes make use of the entire theatre space, which then involved a lot of head-turning.  Direction by Elizabeth Van Dyke is otherwise lovely.  Musical direction by Gregg Payne is excellent, as is the choreography by Mickey Davidson, which makes great use of the limited space available.

There is an intermission listed in the program, but there was none in the show, which was a little confusing (especially when Young Ethel berated Older Ethel for being so fat she took the intermission out of her shows because it was so hard to leave the stage- intentional?).  One number also seemed to have been cut.

Some of the audience members were especially rude, talking loudly during the show, but the ensemble managed to carry on regardless.

The music is wonderful, and the cast is incredible; the show is certainly worth the trip.  With a heavily rewritten book, I could see easily see this having a successful run off-Broadway.  Really, can you ever get enough of "His Eye is on the Sparrow"?

Sweet Mama Stringbean
Woodie King Jr.'s New Federal Theatre
At Henry Street Settlement's Abrons Arts Center / Recital Hall
466 Grand Street (between Pitt and Willet Sts.)
Wednesdays – Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m.
Tickets $20, at 212-279-4200 or at www.ticketcentral.org.

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