Category Archives: Docudrama

Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole

Docudrama, Off-Broadway, Play May 20, 2025 Leave a comment

In November of 1956, singer/pianist Nat “King” Cole became the first Black man to host a variety show on network television.  Though he eventually had multiple Billboard hits including Mona Lisa, L-O-V-E, and Nature Boy, he never secured a National sponsor for this groundbreaking program.  Major markets, especially those in the South, pressured advertisers to drop their support of the broadcast.  Despite an array of popular guest stars with household names, beaten down by the color barrier, NBC and Cole agreed to terminate the venture the following year after 53 episodes.

Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole, written by Colman Domingo and Patricia McGregor, uses the final taping of the Nat “King” Cole Show to explore not only this chapter in the life of the beloved crooner, but the systematic erasure of Black voices.  It’s an intriguing pick for a central character.  Though Cole participated in civil rights marches and avoided segregated venues, he felt his public role was one of an entertainer.  He sang ballads, not protest songs, even after a cross had been burned on the lawn of his home in a wealthy white Los Angeles neighborhood.  

The play is set in a television studio (scenic design by Clint Ramos) complete with an applause sign, clever lighting (Stacey Derosier), and a live “Nelson Riddle” band on the stage.  This enables the easy integration of music, live-feed camera work and audience reaction.  However, it quickly becomes obvious that this is not a recreation of one night.  Shortly before airtime someone (someTHING) causes the ghost light to flicker and briefly go out, allowing the spirit of Sammy Davis Jr. to explode onto the scene.  In an effort to inspire Cole to go out on a combative note, The Rat Packer takes him through a phantom version of events.  Classic song lyrics are incorporated into the spoken dialogue along with a mix of historical fact as seen through the lens of modern times and Cole’s personal reflection as imagined by Domingo and McGregor.

Dulé Hill in NYTW’s LIGHTS OUT; photo by Marc J. Franklin

Dulé Hill gives soothing voice and gravitas to Cole, a part he cultivated at the Peoples’ Light in Malvern, PA and further developed at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles.  Daniel J. Watts, also reprising his role, grabs Davis by the lapels, practically ricocheting off the walls with intensity.  He is high octane gasoline to Hill’s humming battery pack.  Playwright McGregor directs, bouncing the two very different friends off one another, culminating in a dynamic dance number (choreography by Edgar Godineaux with tap by Jared Grimes). Though the plot line is choppy and likely to challenge those unfamiliar with the named celebrities and cultural touchstones, the songbook alone (arrangements and orchestrations by John McDaniel) makes for highly satisfying entertainment.  

Hill and Watts positively dazzle in the leads, capturing key qualities of their characters and steering clear of imitation.  The action is kicked off by Elliott Mattox’s convivial Stage Manager.  Cole’s white producer is portrayed in myriad forms by Christopher Ryan Grant.  Krystal Joy Brown makes an early impression as a purring Eartha Kitt, later embodying an enchanting daughter Natalie Cole. Also displaying range is another vet of the previous run, Ruby Lewis, who depicts both spunky Betty Hutton and sultry Peggy Lee.  Matriarch Perlina Coles, who first introduced Cole to the piano, is played with soulful sincerity by Kenita Miller with Mekhi Richardson performing as young Nat (and a younger Billy Preston) the afternoon I attended.  Adding a comedic touch is Kathy Fitzgerald as make-up artist Candy.  She is also featured in the highly creative live commercials that run throughout the program.   

You feel the ripples of connection move through different sectors of the audience depending on whether it is Cole performing his rendition of The Christmas Song, Lift Every Voice and Sing vocalized by mother Perlina, or young Natalie joining him for a duet of Unforgettable (something she created in the studio long after his death).  When you layer in the profound racism, disgraceful accepted stereotypes, and aggressions micro and macro, the entire experience becomes a social study as well as a piece of engaging theater.

Likely to fill you with a bubbling combination of elation and frustration, Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole provides a worthwhile conclusion to a bold season at New York Theatre Workshop.  Performances continue through June 29 on the main stage at 79 East 4th Street.  Runtime is 90 minutes without intermission.  The actors smoke heavily, making me grateful to remain a mask-wearer.  Tickets start at $49 and are available at https://www.nytw.org/show/lights-out-nat-king-cole/.

Witness – Live Stream

Docudrama, Live Stream January 17, 2022 Leave a comment

Streaming multi-media production Witness arrives on our screens at a time when anti-semitism is on the rise in our country.  Incorporating material from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and employing live actors in a virtual space, the docudrama uses the journey of the MS St. Louis to explore the history of persecution of the Jews.  In May of 1939, the cruise ship filled with Jews escaping the Nazis was on its way to Havana.  According to museum records, of the 937 onboard, only 18 were granted visas.  The rest were turned away from both Cuba and the United States and sent back to Western Europe.  Conceived and directed by Igor Golyak, the work threads together the lives of those ill-fated passengers with stories of more recent Russian Jewish immigrants like Golyak himself as well as contemporary headline-making hate crimes.

Audience members are requested to arrive at the site ten minutes early dressed in period costume with drink in hand.  “Joining” the crowd on the ship is easy and a quick sound check ensures that you will get the full audio experience (or take a moment to reload the page.)  Dialogue is spoken in multiple languages and subtitled in English.

The first act uses as a framework the talent show that was an actual shipboard activity.  Against a beautifully rendered virtual environment created by Daniel Cormino, the production pulls us into the main room of the ship for a performance which blends vaudevillian entertainment with experiences of the real passengers.  Director Golyak allows the camera to wander as our eyes might.  Two women cleverly “figure skate” using their fingers in sand while recounting the Kristallnacht.  A man builds a house of cards while vividly describing the displacement of families.  After each one, the audience is asked to award one to four stars.  Throughout, the Emcee (Gene Ravvin) — seemingly the only character who knows he is in a green screen studio — uses slapstick humor to keep the energy flowing.  And Lady Liberty (Darya Denisova) selects the lottery numbers which summon the next participant to the stage.  It is an uneasy blend that is quite effective at times, particularly when the ghostly shipboard audience is in view. 

Gene Ravvin in Witness; Photo provided by The Arlekin Players

An audio-only second act crafted by Viktor Semenov is the most impactful, with members of the cast reading correspondence from the museum archive.  Audience members are encouraged to wear high quality headphones in order to experience the pull of the Binaural audio, designed to create a sense of 3D sound.  Studies have shown that people believe what they see over what they hear.  Deprived of visuals we have no option but to focus on the words of the people involved.

Staged primarily in the hallway of the ship, Act III takes place in the present.  The conversation is dominated by Leah (Lauren Elias) who is incensed about the growing calls for Jews to assimilate.  As someone who can’t be bothered to distinguish between a woman of Puerto Rican decent, a Somali immigrant, a first generation Palestinian American, and the first Black woman to represent Massachusetts in the House— the state in which all the characters reside — and who also discusses the current political backdrop while leaving out our historically significant Jewish Second Husband, she is a flawed spokesperson for her viewpoint.  A counterposition that the Oslo Accords were a lost opportunity is dispatched in a few sentences delivered by Joseph (Nathan Malin) without sufficient context to enlighten anyone who isn’t familiar with that 1993 event.  The most emotionally charged outlook is expressed by the Emcee who is trying to reconcile the view he has of himself as a true American with the ways in which he and his family are perceived by others.

An artful entry into the developing world of online theater, Witness hints at the future of the form.  It has important information to share, though the jarring shifts in tone of Nana Grinstein’s script result in a lack of cohesion.  It’s technically ambitious and unsurprisingly I encountered video glitches and broken links.  Those did not mar a generally involving experience.  What is truly disappointing is to be invited to join a conversation and find instead that one is attending a lecture, even if it is a well researched and reasoned one.  

Presented by Zero Gravity (zero-G) Virtual Theater Lab and Boston’s Arlekin Players Theatre, performances are scheduled through next weekend, January 21-23. Though played out in real time, the web-based show can be accessed from anywhere with a good internet connection.  Tickets are $25.  Running time is approximately 90 minutes with an additional 30 minute talk-back.  Visit https://www.zerogravity.art for more details.