The St. Louis Black Repertory Company opened its 2010-11 season last night the same way it ended its 2009-10 season last June, with a cheerful, mostly enjoyable production of “The Me Nobody Knows,” which runs tonight and tomorrow at the Edison Theatre, then performs next Friday-Sunday at Mary Institute-Country Day School.
With more stage space at Edison than in its usual Grandel Theatre home, Heather Beal opened her choreography a little wider and it became more effective. Most of the cast was back from the earlier production and despite the different space, everything ran quite smoothly; Ron Himes, the company’s founder and producing director, directed stylishly, and musical director Charles Creath’s trio, which included William Ranier on bass and Keith Fowler on drums, was smooth as silk.
The musical, originally on Broadway in 1971 for more than 300 performances, was developed by composer Gary William Friedman and lyricist Will Holt, the latter a familiar performer at the Crystal Palace when it was both east and west of Grand Boulevard. The book of the show was adapted from a book of essays by New York public school children in Harlem by Robert H. Livingston and Herb Schapiro.
There are protest songs and memory songs, and a great deal of fine singing, led by Chauncy Thomas (Clorox), a dynamic, commanding presence. Alexis White (Melba) and Sharisa Whatley (Nell) were outstanding singers, and Peter Winfrey (Donald) scored with “I Love What the Girls Got.” John Reed II (Carlos) delivered powerfully in “The Tree,” while Tyler White (Lillie Mae) and Demetrius Sylvester (Benjamin) got the action started in “Flying Milk and Runaway Plates,” an ode to the school lunch hour. Others in the cast, all adding to the vocal strength and dance skills that brightened the evening, are: Jessica Davie, Tre’von Griffith, Delaney Haynes, Dominique Milam, Abigail Oldham, Alessandra Silva, Diamond Skinner and Cecil Washington.
The Me Nobody Knows, today and tomorrow at the Edison Theatre, Oct. 1-3 at Mary Institute Country Day School
—Joe