Review: THE AMERICAN FIVE at Ford's Theatre

Early in my arts management training, I read former Kennedy Center President Michael Kaiser’s book, The Cycle. This arts manifesto is a practical guide on creating and sustaining the arts, and I do recommend it for anyone seeking a career in the field. But I digress. What stuck out to me the most from the book is that it is centered on a pretty basic principle: art should be good. Sure, Kaiser colors this a bit more with adjectives like “bold” and “interesting” and other descriptors that all essentially say, “if you build it, they will come.” In short, arts organizations have to give the audience a reason to show up.

Kaiser gives a few examples from his career where this principle played out to a T and with much success. The connection to Ford’s is that the historic theatre has chosen to open its 2025-2026 season with an audacious choice - an original play having its world premiere at the DC institution. 

THE AMERICAN FIVE by Chess Jakobs is a product of the Ford’s Theatre Legacy Commission program, which means the piece was developed at Ford’s before securing this lucrative opening spot on the calendar this year. Mr. Kaiser, eat your heart out. Not only is this a bold selection for Ford’s, but it is also a piece the theatre had a hand in cultivating and crafting - a crucial need in the industry right now. This particular viewer hopes to see more programs like this in the future, but let’s get back to the show. 

THE AMERICAN FIVE takes a fictionalized look at Martin Luther King Jr. and his 4 closest confidants in the months and even years leading up to the famed March on Washington on August 28, 1963. The story starts by taking us back in time on a sort of “Wizard of Oz” style journey for Martin as he collects these close associates along his path to becoming a civil rights leader. Playwright Chess Jakobs introduces us to these companions throughout the first act, and the setting ranges from a wintry, romantic night during his courtship with Coretta Scott (and later King) to meeting Stanley Levison, a Jewish lawyer from New York showing up in Montgomery to join the fight for racial equality.

This small but mighty circle goes through the gamut together. They navigate the trials and tribulations of Dr. King’s ups and downs in the 1950s and 1960s, including his over 20 arrests in a five-year period. The group dynamic also has its ups and downs. A known target of the FBI and the federal government, being an associate of Martin Luther King’s in those days was a dangerous endeavor. Still, the group perseveres despite conspiracies, infidelities, and the constant threat of violence. 

Though the piece imagines what these relationships were like, there isn’t much originality in King’s story playing out here. One would be hard pressed to find an audience member who wasn’t at least somewhat familiar with Dr. King’s story, and so the historical events dramatized in the story aren’t exactly a shock nor does it add any real new information to what we already know. The major events of Dr. King’s life should be well known by now, and yet Jakobs still tries to leverage these moments into the piece’s action as if it were new. Ultimately, it causes the action to be a bit flat. 

Despite this, there is still enough meat on the proverbial bone here. According to the playwright’s bio in the show program, Jakobs “is a Black, Jewish, and Queer American.” I must say I was quite impressed that Jakobs seamlessly integrates each of these identities into the play. Obviously, through the Kings, we confront the Black experience. With Bayard Rustin (played by Stephen Conrad Moore), we interact with queerness in the mid-20th century, an identity simply not spoken about and illegal in many parts of the country. With Stanley David Levison (played by Aaron Bliden), we interact with Jewish identity and the implications of moving through the American South during the same time period. 

As discussed in the piece, there’s an intersection between the Jewish and Black experience, but what really resonates is that both identities had a place within the Civil Rights Movement. Though Stanley is white presenting, he wrestles with how other white people see him. Is he Jewish or is he white, and can one be both? That’s a great paradoxical question tackled in the piece, and it’s done quite skillfully by Jakobs. 

This is where the play shines, and the takeaway here is that whatever shortcomings there are in the dramatization of historical events are made up for in the way Jakobs executes the interpersonal dynamics between the characters. Jakobs challenges our assumptions about identities and probes deeper into what historical events “belong” to whom. That’s what’s interesting and bold about this piece. 

Jakobs handles most of the characters well in his original work, but there certainly is a challenge with the character Clarence B. Jones (played by Yao Dogbe). Serving as personal counsel for Dr. King for many years, and the credited author of the “I Have a Dream” speech, Clarence B. Jones’s contributions to the Civil Rights Movement are unquestionably outsized. However, the character is the most static of the five, and Dogbe struggles to raise his performance to the level of the others as a result. This only bears mentioning because Dogbe is an exceptional talent with incredible range, as DC audiences know. It feels like a misstep in a piece that otherwise paints rich, developed characters that get ample time to shine. The latter is especially true with an Act II scene between Boddie’s King and Conrad Moore’s Rustin that’s deeply intimate and arguably the most honest moment of the piece. 

Luckily, DC audiences get a second chance at seeing Ro Boddie as Martin Luther King Jr. here, as Round House Theatre patrons will remember his recent turn in Katori Hall’s THE MOUNTAINTOP. His co-star in that piece, Renea S. Brown, is back again playing opposite Boddie’s Dr. King, but this time as his wife, Coretta Scott King. Audiences were blessed to see these two tackle their respective roles at Round House, and they should be delighted again here at Ford’s Theatre. Boddie has had ample practice as Dr. King and gives a dynamic performance as the legendary reverend. Brown matches Boddie pound for pound, and much like Coretta, is arguably the real muscle behind the operation. 

With Stanley Levison, we have a character that is perhaps the most dynamically written and has arguably the most interesting arc. It certainly helps that Aaron Bliden handles the role exceptionally well, as he inhabits the nebbish but deeply principled lawyer with skill. As Bayard Rustin, Stephen Conrad Moore brings a sincerity and honesty to the role, which is no surprise to those who had the privilege of seeing his stunning turn in Studio Theatre’s DOWNSTATE. Rustin was a homosexual and was so often forced into the shadows of the Civil Rights Movement because of his identity. Conrad Moore has a quiet strength on stage that invokes that spirit well, and he shines in the pieces’ more intimate moments. 

This talented company of actors is led by the decorated playwright and director, Aaron Posner. He does a fine job leading this ensemble-driven piece and gets the most out of Jakobs’ script. His canvas for the action all occurs on a set designed by Andrew R. Cohen, who uses a series of fractured panel-like screens to project the various settings of the play from Los Angeles to a Birmingham jail cell. The script calls for diverse locales across the country, and these projections allow for that flexibility.

THE AMERICAN FIVE is an exciting start to a season at Ford’s filled with classics and new, audacious work. Though it doesn’t necessarily add new information to the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., it does ask its audience to consider the many identities of American citizens that saw (and continue to see) resonance in King’s struggle. The play weaves a thruline between Black, Queer, and Jewish experiences, and the examination of these intersections is perhaps more interesting than the historical events the play attempts to leverage (or at least how they are dramatized here). The play is far from perfect, but audiences will be able to see past and enjoy the deeper message. Ford’s Theatre takes a big swing here, and it should be given kudos for not only staging new work but also giving resources to the crucial developmental phases as well. 

The creative team for THE AMERICAN FIVE includes the following: Aaron Poser (Director), Andrew R. Cohen (Scenic Designer), Cody Von Ruden (Costume Designer), Max Doolittle (Lighting Designer), Kathy Ruvuna (Sound Designer), Mona Kasra (Projection Designer), Danna Rosedahl (Hair & Makeup Designer), Rachel Hirshorn-Johnston (Dialects and Voice Director), Brandon Prendergast (Production Stage Manager) and Julia Singer (Assistant Stage Manager).