Review: Nikole Williams in Lynn Nottage's INTIMATE APPAREL at American Stage

"If art isn't entertainment, then what is it? Punishment?" --Pauline Kael

Poor Esther. It's 1905, and she's a 35-year-old black seamstress in a New York City boarding house who lives in utter loneliness; her only escape is sewing pretty things for other people. The various apparel she works on may be intimate, but ironically, she has not been intimate with anyone. There's not much hope for love or happiness out there for such a plain, nearing-middle-aged woman. She has deep feelings for an orthodox Jew who sells her material, but a relationship of any kind with him cannot become a possibility in the Turn of the Last Century. And then her life changes. She receives romantic letters from a Barbadian named George Armstrong, a laborer working in Panama--long distance love letters that she cannot personally read due to her illiteracy. Eventually Esther and George meet face to face, and her world soon turns upside down.

That's pretty much the plot of Lynn Nottage's award-winning INTIMATE APPAREL, American Stage's opening show in their "Season of Awakenings" and the first local play directed by their new artistic director, Stephanie Gularte. It's a show that more than relies on its main character and whatever actress is chosen to play her, an actress who must have talent, timing, stamina and the ability to ride an emotional roller coaster. Viola Davis won a Drama Desk award playing Esther over a decade ago, and thank goodness Nikole Williams, playing the part of Esther at American Stage, possesses those necessary, award-winning qualities as well.

Williams' Esther is an incredibly moving creation, a character that is stunningly memorable. We understand her so well, root for her, feel bad for her, and sit in awe of her inner strength. This is a performance I will not forget anytime soon. Her emotional moments in Act 2 (I won't give away what they are and why) are some of the finest acting scenes I have witnessed all year. There is a scene at the top of that act where she becomes intimate for the first time, and the audience holds its collective breath. We feel Esther's obvious discomfort and nervousness; in some ways, it becomes difficult to watch because it so real. And yet she is mesmerizing, and her change, her emergence from an emotional shell, and in some ways her surrender to reality, becomes wholly believable. The show itself has many flaws, but with Ms. Williams in every scene, it harbors one of the most astonishing, sympathetic performances you will likely see.

I wish the play itself matched Williams' greatness. Don't get me wrong; there are the usual great sets, great lighting, sound, and acting going on in INTIMATE APPAREL that we come to expect in American Stage shows. There just isn't a great show here; most of that problem comes down to one word: pacing.

INTIMATE APPAREL clocks in at roughly two hours and fifty minutes (from a script that's just 56 pages), and it's a long two hours and fifty minutes that would work much better at almost half that length. It's slow going, especially in Act 1. And this is coming from someone who loves longer shows (Long Day's Journey Into Night, August: Osage County, Angels in America, etc.). Unfortunately, INTIMATE APPAREL is butt-numbingly static and glacially paced. Only in Act 2 does it truly come alive, even though the audience seems to predict onstage events before they happen (never a good sign).

The question arises: What do you do when almost everything in a production is top of the line, with a lead performance that is easily one of the best of the past year, and yet the overall show doesn't work? Part of this can be pointed at the script. It just doesn't carry the heft necessary for a nearly three-hour show. There's a joy missing, a lack of verve; it's certainly art, but it's not a lot of fun to watch (hence the Pauline Kael quote that opened this review).

The performances are strong, but I question why some of the characters are even there. ZZ Moor makes for a lively Mayme, Esther's prostitute pal, and Daniel Capote is powerful and very real as Mr. Marks, the Jew that Esther's smitten with. Fredena J. Williams owns the stage in her brief moments as Mrs. Dickson, who runs the boarding house where Esther resides, while Katrina Stevenson does as much as she can with the part of Mrs. Van Buren, Esther's white patron. Eddie Ray Jackson, as a very muscular George, is quite commanding onstage, but his accent seems inconsistent at times.

Each scene is introduced with a slide featuring various apparel ("Wedding Corset-White Satin with Pink Roses," "Gentlemen's Suit," etc.); it's a clever conception, but it also wears out its welcome, except with the powerful slide that ends Act 1. (The use of slides to open the scenes reminds me of PT Anderson's 1999 Magnolia, which introduced its various segments with weather reports.)

Steve Mitchell's scenic design, featuring four separate areas of action, is gorgeous, and Jonathan Williams' lighting works extremely well. Saidah Ben Judah's striking costumes truly evoke the time period.

Although the production is fine technically, it does feature the single worst fake piano playing I have ever seen in a professional show. The audience cannot suspend its disbelief enough when we know that the music and the finger motions of the actress don't match up. Perhaps the piano could be turned or angled so the performer's hands could remain hidden. But as it stands, it comes across as a mistake, marring the fine acting taking place in the scene.

Director Gularte is a welcome addition to our area. Despite the pacing of her show, she's obviously a fine director, with the true eye of an artist and the ability to bring out such real, heartfelt performances in her cast (especially Ms. Williams). Even with the show's flaws, it makes us look forward to the rest of American Stage's "Season of Awakenings."

INTIMATE APPAREL runs at American Stage through October 11, 2015. For tickets, please call (727) 823-PLAY (7529).

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