'Caroline, or Change' Comes Up a Dollar Short

"Caroline, or Change"

Book and lyrics by Tony Kushner, music by Jeanine Tesori, directed by Paul Daigneault, music direction by Jose Delgado, choreography by Jackie Davis, set design by Eric Levenson, costume design by John R. Malinowski, sound design by Briand Parentea

Cast in order of appearance:
Jacqui Parker as Caroline Thibodeaux
A'Lisa D. Miles as The Washing Machine and The Moon
Emilie Battle, Nikki Stephenson, Anich D'Jae Wright as The Radio
Jacob Brandt as Noah Gellman
Brian Richard Robinson as The Dryer and The Bus
Sarah Corey as Rose Stopnick Gellman
Dorothy Santos as Grandma Gellman
Dick Santos as Grandpa Gellman
Michael Mendiola as Stuart Gellman
Merle Perkins as Dotty Moffett
Shavanna Calder as Emmie Thibodeaux
Breanna Bradlee as Jackie Thibodeaux
Dominic Gates as Joe Thibodeaux
Sean McGuirk as Mr. Stopnick

Performances: Extended through June 18
Box Office: 617-933-8600 or www.bostontheatrescene.com

The SpeakEasy Stage in Boston is closing out its 2005-2006 season with the eagerly anticipated Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori musical, "Caroline, or Change." Set in Louisiana in 1963 against the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement and President Kennedy's assassination, "Caroline" depicts the intersecting lives of two distinctly different families – one Black, one Jewish – trying to cope simultaneously with intense personal as well as social change.

Heralded as a groundbreaking – even revolutionary – work when it opened off-Broadway in 2003 and transferred to Broadway in 2004, "Caroline, or Change" has a completely sung through score that defies theatrical convention. Neither folk opera nor book musical, "Caroline" is more drama than show tune. In fact, it has the feel of a straight play, despite Tesori's blend of blues, Motown, and klezmer influences in her rich and varied score. Kushner's lyrics are what dominate, alternating between the narrative and poetic (and sometimes forced introspection). And therein lies the problem with this SpeakEasy production. The cast doesn't make this musical sing.

The show begins with promise as the Gellman's basement laundry room, where Black maid Caroline Thibodeaux spends lonely hours washing and ironing for her Jewish employers, comes to life with a singing washer, dryer, and radio in the persons of A'Lisa D. Miles, Brian Richard Robinson, and the trio Emilie Battle, Nikki Stephenson, and Anich D'Jae Wright. These anthropomorphized companions humorously challenge and give moral support to Caroline (Jacqui Parker), who answers back with her own musical protestations and dreams.

Caroline's life underground ("16 Feet Beneath the Sea") is soon contrasted against the lives of the Gellmans – Noah, a lonely eight-year-old who mourns the death of his mother; Stuart, his depressed and withdrawn father; and Rose, his well-meaning stepmother whose efforts to get close to Noah only push him further away. When Rose tries to teach Noah a lesson about the value of money by saying that Caroline can keep any change she finds in his pockets when doing laundry, she unwittingly sets off a chain of events that upsets the precarious balance of all their lives for good.

As Rose, Sarah Corey turns in a performance that ends up being the focal point in this inconsistent production. She is wonderfully sympathetic as the pained and pampered daughter of a New York socialist who is doing her best to adjust to provincial life as a new wife and mother in class-divided Louisiana. While her misguided attempts to provide Caroline with leftover meals and extra spending money for her four fatherless children appear solicitous, her intentions are sincere.

Jacqui Parker as Caroline, on the other hand, is a bit too sullen to elicit compassion. She has some nice tough/tender moments with Noah, and she shows fierce determination when it comes to providing, and setting standards for, her children. But her climactic song, "Lot's Wife," in which twenty years of quiet conformity finally erupt into passionate personal revolt, is a whimper instead of a roar. At the end Parker's Caroline seems defeated instead of liberated. The music in her soul never soars.

Shavanna Calder as Caroline's teenaged daughter Emmie has a bit more fire in her belly. A disciple of Dr. Martin Luther King, she wavers between respecting the mother who has devoted her life to her children and rebelling against the servitude she has chosen as her means of survival. Yet Calder, too, falters in her big solo, "I Hate the Bus." Her voice just isn't big enough to unleash the anger of an entire generation.

Solid if uninspired performances mark the supporting cast. Jacob Brandt is appealing as the lonely and at times impish Noah. Michael Mendiola is suitably detached as his grieving father Stuart. Merle Perkins is proud and persistent as Caroline's close friend Dotty, and Sean McGuirk is annoyingly pompous as Rose's proselytizing father Mr. Stopnick. As The Washing Machine and The Moon, A'lisa D. Miles lifts the show's spirit every chance she gets with her strong gospel interpretations, and Brian Richard Robinson contrasts his devilish sensuality as The Dryer with a penetrating sincerity as The Bus. Emilie Battle, Nikki Stephenson and Anich D'Jae Wright offer entertaining but dispensable Supremes-style interludes as The Radio.

To achieve the heights to which Tony Kushner's prosaic lyrics and Jeanine Tesori's non-melodic music aspire, "Caroline, or Change" needs to be sung with big voices powered by even bigger hearts. This Paul Daigneault directed and José Delgado conducted production at the SpeakEasy Stage simply doesn't meet that challenge. The score is never truly unleashed to let the words take flight.

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