Review: PURLIE VICTORIOUS at Main Street Theater

PURLIE VICTORIOUS:  A NON-CONFEDERATE ROMP THROUGH THE COTTON PATCH is a play from Ossie Davis that ran on Broadway back in 1961. Ossie then helped develop the work into a movie adaptation from 1963 called GONE ARE THE DAYS! as well as a musical that debuted in 1970 named simply PURLIE. In the story of this stage version, we have Purlie Victorious returning to Georgia with the intent to buy and reopen his family’s church, called Big Bethel. The only issue is to get the money he is going to have to con Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee into releasing money that rightfully belongs to his late cousin. He’s brought in a girl named  Lutiebelle to pretend to be her and suspects the man will never notice the difference. The show then ventures into farce and physical comedy territory as everyone plays their part with hilarious misfires and misunderstandings. It’s a really fun comedy, but it made me realize some really sobering things about America as well.   

Main Street Theater is celebrating fifty years of operating, and this is the season opener for their half-century celebration. Errol Anthony Wilks is at the helm as director, and he headed up the world premiere of STAGOLEE AND THE FUNERAL OF A DANGEROUS WORD last April. This time, Errol is aiming more for comedy and farce, and it is a nice departure, but the satire cuts just as deeply as the previously mentioned work. It’s a script that knows how to make fun of race relations in a humorous but still pointed way. And he has also brought in a stacked-deck cast of some of the best talent in Houston to bring this to life. The original 1961 script linguistically is a challenge, because it uses old Southern Jim Crow era speak that adds a layer to the acting of having to get their message across clearly. They all acquit themselves well, and you do get an idea of how this show was such a Broadway hit for its revival there in 2023. Thankfully, Main Street Theater has added the intermission back in to allow for a break between acts. 

TiMOthy ERiC [sic] plays Purlie, and he easily captures the character’s charismatic preacher tone. He goes for broke and masters the art of farce by really believing in what he wants to the extreme degree. This is a man who knows how to deliver a fiery sermon and how to con arrogant plantation owners. He is the perfect Purlie; he’s funny and charismatic in equal doses. Opposite him is Krystal Uchem, who plays Lutibelle, and she is a total joy when the character has to walk in heels higher than she is used to, or try to sound very educated like the woman she is impersonating. She has a wonderful chemistry with TiMOthy, and delivers a crack comic performance to complement his. Wykesha King is one of my favorite actors in Houston, and she brings her natural warmth and radiance to Missy, Purlie’s sister, who is doubtful that his actions will work. Kendrick “KayB” Brown plays Gitlow, who has become a deputy for Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee, but Kendrick avoids just making him a one-note Uncle Tom, and zings out his own jokes skillfully. Domenico Leona is a sweet, easy-to-love to love presence as the Cap’n’s much more liberal-minded son, who is cared for by Idella, also endearingly played by Andrea Boronell-Hunter. The Ol’ Cap’n is played by the tall and imposing Sean Patrick Judge, who plays him as over-the-top silly more than threatening. If his moustache were long enough, he’d twirl it. And rounding out the cast is Jim Salners as the clueless sheriff who is equally as hilariously ineffective as the Cap’n.      

The technical aspects here are as accomplished as the acting. James V. Thomas’s set has a woody charm that feels perfect for this narrative. Macy Lyne’s costumes evoke a plantation in the 50s, and they are period correct. Edgar Guajardo’s lighting does wonders in evoking the mood of each scene, and the sound design from Jon Harvey does its job as well. As always, Rodney Walsworth fleshes out the world with his set dressing and props, right down to the huge, menacing whip for a plantation owner. 

PURLIE VICTORIOUS:  A NON-CONFEDERATE ROMP THROUGH THE COTTON PATCH is certainly a curiosity, a satire of Jim Crow life written during the throes of the equal rights movement of the early sixties. I feel like it should seem more creaky, more antiquated, and backwards. Unfortunately for us, it is not. It’s a comedy, but its sense of race relations could easily transpose to modern day in far too many ways. I wonder if Ossie Davis would find it curious that we still see some bite in his satire? Did he hope his play would date itself in time and be almost unrecognizable? The wisdom of starting off the Main Street Theater’s fiftieth season with this show that is almost sixty-five years old sends the message that we still need this play and this institution to remind us that time marches on, but the messages stay the same. As funny as this show is, and PURLIE VICTORIOUS truly is charming and silly, it still packs a wallop. It left me with a winsome smile that maybe the days aren’t gone. 

PURLIE VICTORIOUS:  A NON-CONFEDERATE ROMP THROUGH THE COTTON PATCH plays through October 12th at the Main Street Theater’s Rice Village location. The show runs approximately two hours and has a 15-minute intermission. There are plenty of restaurants within walking distance of the building, but plan to take some time to navigate the parking. There is free street parking, but also “pay for parking” lots.