Now is the time of year for music, regardless of the adjectival prefix of choice, and the Black Rep is the first local company out of the musical starting blocks with "Black Nativity," in which the story is secondary to the music, and the music is splendid. It opens tonight, to run through Dec. 27. I saw it at a preview last weekend, when Leslie Johnson was ill and did not perform.
The show is a mixture of classical, folk, religious, contemporary and traditional music and, as usual, there were many wonderful voices on display. Ron Himes directed simply but effectively, Diane White-Clayton, a Washington U. student who worked on the show when the company produced it 20 years ago at St. Louis Community College-Forest Park, handled the musical direction with skill.
Langston Hughes is credited with the book, but his work seems more collection and arrangement than anything else. Music credits are a different story. George Friedrich Handel composed some, White-Clayton composed and wrote lyrics for others. And there are psalms, spirituals, African and American folk songs, the hymns of Thomas A. Dorsey.
The first half is set in Africa, among Reggie Ray's rich and colorful costumes, and the story, such as it is, reflects the Nativity. Two couples portray Joseph and Mary, with Herman Gordon and Janessa Morgan the singers, Iyun Harrison and Heather Beal the dancers. All are fine, with Gordon's rich voice standing out in solos of "No Room at the Inn" and "What Will You Bring the King?" and in a duet with Mesha Brown, "Special Gift." Brown also covered the numbers that Johnson will be singing. We're more contemporary after intermission when we leave the African village and move into a church, with Kevin Bailey as the active minister, singing, dancing and leading call-and-response rhythms in a bright red robe.
A trio of youngsters, Dominique Milam and sisters Alexis and Tyler White, stand out as singers and as personalities in several numbers and Nakischa Joseph led a rousing first-act finale with "Clap Praise," melding White-Clayton's music and lyrics from Psalm 47 into a rhythmic, delightful routine with the entire ensemble working together beautifully. Other standouts were Jennifer Kelley with "I'll Tell It Wherever I Go" and Chuck Flowers, Joel King and Brian Owens in "Late-Night Shepherds' Blues."
And as good as the soloists are, they take a back seat to the rousing voices of the ensemble, which joins in most of the songs to take them far over the top, drawing delightful, enthusiastic, hand-waving responses. It's a fine evening of entertainment.
"Black Nativity" by the St. Louis Black Repertory Company at the Grandel Theatre through Dec. 27.
–Joe