Dulé Hill (Photo: Marc J. Franklin)

 

Lights Out

By Julia Polinsky

Now at New York Theatre Workshop, Lights Out may seem on the surface to be just another bio-musical, this time about Nat "King Cole" (Dulé Hill in a superb performance) but it is much more than that. Go with an open mind, and you'll do well, because it's very, very good.

The audience seemed to be expecting a documentary-style jukebox musical about Cole's life. What they got: a fever-dream/wormhole in the space-time continuum. In that space, authors Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor explore a what-if of Black anger against 1950s racism, built around Cole, the whitest-seeming Black musician of his time.

Lights Out is set on the last night of Cole's live NBC tv variety show (cancelled for lack of national corporate sponsorship). It starts off as Cole and the producer plan on a "best last show," complete with lots of white face powder (Cole objects; he wants to look like himself for once) and Cole's self doubt while trying to hold his head high. What happens is somewhat different from the plan, taking place inside Cole's mind after he slams his fist against his dressing table, and the lights flash and dim and shift like a power surge.

From that light-flash moment, we watch as Cole's anger, frustration, and resentment boil over, egged on by a hyperactive, wildly entertaining  Sammy Davis, Jr. (a vibrant, ever-exciting Daniel J. Watts). What's he doing here? Unlike Peggy Lee or Betty Hutton (Ruby Lewis plays both), or Eartha Kitt (Krystal Joy Brown), Davis is not scheduled to appear on the show that night. Sammy shows up because he's Nat's id, his anti-self, all the feelings Cole won't let out. Plus, he's an awesome talent.

Daniel J. Watts, Dulé Hill (Photo: Marc J. Franklin)

Lights Out uses some of Cole's most famous songs as weapons, rather than shoehorning them into a flimsy plot point. "Smile, though your heart is breaking..." amplifies the conflict over white face powder on Cole's face. "Flash/bam/alakazam," and he's watching fireworks as a kid and gets beat up by white men. "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better" sung as a duet with the blond, white Betty Hutton - a white woman telling him flat out that she's better than him. The big tap battle between Davis and Cole (tap choreography from Jared Grimes) is done to "Me and My Shadow," weirdly acknowledging the power of the off-the-wall version of Davis, the annoying jester who pokes and prods and provokes Cole into raising his consciousness. "The Party's Over," he sings at the end of the show, and not only is it the end of the broadcast and the show, it's also implicitly the end of an era of complacency.

That's pretty uncomfortable. Glossing that discomfort over with super music (arrangements and orchestrations by John McDaniel), wonderful dancing, and a killer cast, most playing multiple roles, makes it slightly more palatable. The truth, however, is: what we have is Sammy  as the anti-Nat, the wicked jester ready to provoke Cole into admitting how angry he is. That can only happen inside Cole's mind, and so we watch as the songs come by, freighted with meaning, As cigarette after cigarette sends its dreamy-looking smoke all over the stage - Cole died of lung cancer at age 45. As the producer (Christopher Ryan Grant) and the Stage Manager (Elliott Mattox) pressure Cole to conform.

As well as co-authoring Lights Out, Patricia McGregor directs. She makes smart work of the fever-dream aspects, using an amazing amount of the space in New York Theatre Workshop's 199-seat theater, as well as Clint Ramos's excellent scenic design, Stacey Derosier's lighting, and costumes from Katie O'Neill. But it's Dulé Hill's eerily accurate Cole and Daniel J. Watts's frenetic Davis that take the show to its maximum. Brilliant performances, in a brilliant but difficult show.

Daniel J. Watts, Dulé Hill (Photo: Marc J. Franklin)

Lights Out: can you go just for the performances and those wonderful songs? Sure, but the show merits all your attention. Highly recommended; wouldn't have missed it.

Lights Out

At New York Theatre Workshop

79 E. 4^th Street

Running time: 90minutes, no intermission

https://www.nytw.org/show/lights-out-nat-king-cole/

Through June 29