Review Roundup: LIGHTS OUT: NAT 'KING' COLE at People's Light Theatre

The world premiere of LIGHTS OUT: NAT "KING" COLE runs through December 3 at People's Light Theatre. When his groundbreaking NBC variety show failed to attract a national sponsor, Nat "King" Cole famously declared that "Madison Avenue is afraid of the dark." In this theatrical exploration into the soul of an American icon, Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor imagine Nat as he faces his final Christmastime broadcast, and weighs the advice of his friend Sammy Davis Jr. to "go out with a bang."

The cast stars Dulé Hill as Nat Cole, Daniel J. Watts as Sammy, Jo Twiss as Candy, Marc D. Donovan as Producer, Owen Pelesh as Stage Manager, Gisela Adisa as Eartha/Natalie, Rachael Duddy as Betty/Peggy, Zonya Love as Perlina, and Dayshawn Jacobs as Billy/Young Nat.

LIGHTS OUT is directed by Patricia McGregor, with assistant director Dennis Darline, music supervision, arrangement, and orchestrations by John McDaniel, music direction by Ryan Slatko, set design by Clint Ramos, costume design by Katherine O'Neill, lighting design by Alan C. Edwards, and sound design by Alex Hawthorne.

Let's see what the critics had to say!

John Timpane, The Inquirer: Dulé Hill, he of The West Wing and Psych, stars as Cole, smooth exterior and magnificent voice. Daniel J. Watts plays happy destroyer Sammy Davis Jr., part Nicholas Brothers, part Groucho Marx, and (what?) part Marty Feldman. It's an all-star affair, by turns profound, ambitious, wide-ranging, and dreamlike... My goodness, so much talent onstage, such visionary writing, flickering between 1950s authenticity and an Anynow telescoping back and forth. Lights Out starts the People's Light season with the stuff of stars. Unforgettable.

Deb Miller, DC Metro Theatre Arts: The world-premiere work, written by Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor (who also directs), is a highly inventive theatrical vision that combines well-researched historical facts about the man and his era with a selection of his most popular hits, in an absurdist/existentialist fantasy that explores what the star might have been thinking, feeling, and stifling at the time of his final Christmastime show before a live audience, beneath his ever-cool surface... Dulé Hill leads a stellar cast in the titular role, capturing a full range of conflicting emotions, delivering pitch-perfect renditions of his character's famous jazz-infused pop songs and sophisticated style, and smoking and coughing from the omnipresent cigarettes that would ultimately claim his life.

Mark Cofta, Broad Street Review: He sings with Eartha Kitt and his teen daughter Natalie (both portrayed fabulously by Gisela Adisa), and duets with 11-year-old Billy Preston (Dayshawn Jacobs). The jarring juxtaposition of Cole's hits and famous guests with the racist treatment he endured makes a vital point, but Lights Out doesn't marry the two parts well... Lights Out shows there's a long journey from fascinating subject to coherent play.

Photo: Mark Garvin

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