EMAV REVIEW: Choir Boy ***** Irresistible

A Rousing Meditation

By Paul Atreides

Author, playwright Theatre critic at EatMoreArtVegas.com

paul-atreides.com

Let’s start out by making the observation that it’s heartening to once again see opening nights so well attended. Vegas Theatre Company (VTC) opened Choir Boy, by Tarell Alvin McCraney, the Oscar-winning co-writer of Moonlight (based on his play) to an SRO crowd. Choir Boy is a play-with-music and centers on the themes of race, coming-of-age, and coping with the conundrum of religious beliefs regarding homosexuality. It’s a meditation of sorts with rousing music and spirituals and heart-pumping dance.

Directed by China Hudson, it becomes a celebration of life as much as it is about any of the above ideations. It’s beautiful and moving and funny. Hudson has assembled and deftly lead a very skilled cast. The voices are angelic; the dance is energetic as things transition from place to place within the elite Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys with perfect in-sync, step-blocked choreography by Jason Nious; all presented on a sparse set which brings the various places throughout the school proper to life, including a shower billowing with steam.

Everything centers around Pharrus Jonathan Young (Daniel Bryan), a boy gifted with intelligence and vocal chops as he waits his turn as choir leader. Bryan manages to slip in and out of RuPaul-style snap with ease, bringing a sense of three-dimensional realness to the character.

Dominc Graber-Pritchard, Michael Hines, Julius Funches II, and Samuel Stewart make up the ensemble of talented guys pushing and bullying as young men do in situations where they are faced with life transition. And sing their hearts out. The standout among them is Jordan Karst as Anthony Justin “AJ” James, the school jock who tries his best to help Pharrus find an even keel. Karst moves through the play with quiet determination, always on point. But things are not always what they seem.

As the tension between the students mounts, Mr. Pendleton, a retired professor played by Gary Lunn, is brought in to teach them a bit of critical and creative thinking and attempt to build bridges of camaraderie. Lunn brings appropriate bluster and belly laughs as a bumbling old white man at this all-Black school…until he explodes with indignation at the way the young men treat and speak to each other.

Playing the Headmaster is Yomi Orru, who manages transitions through understanding and exasperation with aplomb. The seriousness is embedded with joviality and kindness as he removes Pharrus as choir lead.

The script could be meatier, particularly the final scene. The whole ends with a whimper as main bully Bobby Marrow (Graber-Pritchard) stands alone center stage to sing the school song. It wasn’t until the cast came out and lined up for bows that anyone realized the play had ended. However, director Hudson rescues that flaw with a curtain call that brought the audience to their collective feet.

Queue up for tickets and get in step or risk missing this. Tickets are bound to go fast.

What: Choir Boy

When: 7:30 p.m. May 26, 27, 29, June 3, 5, 9, 10

2 p.m. May 27, June 3, 10

5 p.m. May 26, June 4, 11

Where: 1025 S. 1st St., Suite 110

Tickets: $20 - $40

www.theatre.vegas

Grade: ***** Irresistible

Producer: Vegas Theatre Company; Artistic Director: Daz Weller; Director: China Hudson; Musical Director: Justin Ash, Robert West; Set Design: Whitney Lehn Meltz; Lighting Design: Sydney May; Sound Design: John Howard; Costume Design: Candice Wynants; Stage Manager: Zachary Krause

Community Arts Advocates presents The Light Within

The Summerlin Library Art Gallery, located at 1771 Inner Circle Dr., is hosting the Community Arts Advocates of Nevada (CAA) Inaugural Juried Art Exhibition. The theme, “The Light Within,” focuses on the needs of the LBGTQ+ community and will be on display through July 18.

“We felt that a collection of artworks that raised awareness of the need to discuss suicide prevention in the LBGTQ+ teen community was much needed and quite timely,” says CAA founder Jacie Urquidi-Maynard.

Las Vegas’s top artists created works for the exhibition using various mediums including oil and acrylic paintings, sculptures, photography and more, all supporting the awareness of preventing teen suicide within the LGBTQ+ community.

“I cannot stress enough the importance of making help available to those who need it. Raising awareness through art is a logical course of action,” CAA co-founder and artist Lisa Dittrich said.

The Clark County Library District’s Summerlin Library is a premiere venue to display artwork. “The Light Within” exhibition is in support of The Trevor Project and Gender Justice with an intention to help raise awareness of the needs within the LBGTQ+ teen community of Southern Nevada through art.

The Artist Reception will be held on Sunday, June 4 from 1 to 3 p.m. There will be a talk at the reception that will include Gender Justice Nevada representative Sy Bernabi will be discussing the organization. Also speaking will be Brian Paco Alvarez, Former City of Las Vegas Arts Commissioner and Ph.D. candidate in History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The exhibition judge is Susan Schwartz, a Los Angeles-based lawyer and independent curator who also specializes in art law and criminal defense.

The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public

Community Arts Advocates of Nevada supports creative individuals by connecting artists with various organizations, businesses, and patrons who share their passion. The goal of CAA of NV is to provide a connection through networking, exhibition opportunities, and available studio spaces while utilizing a mixture of venues to raise awareness of the Cultural Arts among the members of our community. For more info, visit caaofnv.com.

The Trevor Project is the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ young people.

Gender Justice mission is to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning young people.

EMAV REVIEW: The Lost Virginity Tour *** Satisfying

Baking up the past

By Paul Atreides

Author, playwright Theatre critic at EatMoreArtVegas.com

paul-atreides.com

Writing is a very solitary profession. Whether creating fiction, or non-fiction, for stage or screen, it’s a long and often lonely process. It requires feedback from other creatives in the same field, and damn near constant tweaking to make the piece sizzle, to resonate.

The Las Vegas Little Theatre (LVLT) holds an annual New Works Competition and provides playwrights an opportunity to do all of the above; to have their work read and possibly produced. Winning offers the chance to see what works, what doesn’t, and what interpretation a complete stranger might bring to the script.

The 2023 winner, The Lost Virginity Tour, written by Cricket Daniel and directed by David Ament, is now playing in the Fischer Black Box. The conceit of the play is that one’s past may very well inform their future if they dare to look over a shoulder. Here, that set-up takes too long to establish as four members of the Happy Trails Senior Resort Community Baking Club decide to take a road trip to the locations where they each lost their virginity.

The script has some snappy dialogue but could also use cutting and tightening. For instance, a flashback phone call Kitty (Barbara King) has with her mother (provided in voice-over). The call isn’t necessary to the character, or to the plot. What transpired has already been made clear through previous dialogue. King brings it all across perfectly clearly, not only in delivery but with body language.

It's not all fun and games. Viola (Rhonda Goldstein) is a big and brash Jersey girl–think Marisa Tomei in My Cousin Vinny. Viola has been hiding from the truth for years that she didn’t give up her virginity willingly. While the cliché of it makes it easy to fit into the plot, something about it doesn’t ring true. Either the script needs a better transition, or Goldstein didn’t deliver it.

The most fun comes from Teresa Fullerton as Rita. The character comes across as the most thought-out and consistent which is what brings believability. The story of her first time is honest and hilarious and Fullerton’s timing is spot on. The dialogue crackles and has a real snap.

The last stop on the tour belongs to Elaine (Sherri Brewer) at a mountain cabin. Brewer brings the humor but also manages to deliver some touching moments as she realizes she gave up on that first love. Yet it feels contrived in order to provide the expected happy ending. There was one place in that final scene that would have provided the perfect and, moreover, funny “Blackout” end. Daniel might want to revisit that and cut the unnecessary ones that don’t deliver.

The production values are fairly solid but details matter. The use of a cookie tin for the Time Capsule fits the idea of the Baking Club but being all bright and shiny after 30+ years of being buried under a rock kills the suspension of disbelief.

Despite the flaws, I urge you to support the program and the playwright. But, the subject matter is enough to sell tickets and the remaining performances are very close to being sold out.

What: The Lost Virginity Tour

When: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 2 p.m. Sundays through May 28

2 p.m. Saturday, May 27

Where: Las Vegas Little Theatre-Mainstage, 3920 Schiff Drive

Tickets: $20 (702-362-7996; www.lvlt.org)

Grade: *** Satisfying

Producer: Las Vegas Little Theatre; Director: David Ament; Set Design: Chris Davies; Lighting Design: David “Lep” Morey; Stage Manager: Belle Rivas