Sunday, April 29, 2007
A+E, Theater, Reviews
A cut above
'Cuttin' Up' a sharp look at the black male experience
Eugene H. Russell IV and Keith Hamilton Cobb star in "Cuttin' Up" at the Alliance Theatre.
CREDIT: Greg Mooney
BY BERT OSBORNE
For this much, at the very least, we can be grateful: “Cuttin’ Up,” which closes the Alliance Theatre’s rather lackluster ’06-’07 season, is not a Broadway-bound musical version of the popular movie “Barbershop” (in the dubious tradition of such high-profile Alliance shows as 2004’s “The Color Purple, a Musical,” last winter’s “Sister Act, the Musical” or, yes, this fall’s musical “The Women of Brewster Place”). Moreover, because it is a story about a lively cross-section of black men who congregate at an inner-city barbershop, you might expect the play to be cut from the same cloth as one of those frightful Shelly Garrett- or Tyler Perry-type comedies—but in this respect, too, “Cuttin’ Up” is a substantial cut above.
Adapted by Charles Randolph-Wright from Craig Marberry’s oral-history book “Cuttin’ Up: Wit and Wisdom from Black Barber Shops,” the show is a richly detailed and warmly observed mosaic of the black male experience, as seen through the eyes (and memories) of three barbers: old-timer Howard (Helmar Augustus Cooper) is set in his ways; middle-aged Andre (Keith Hamilton Cobb) has lost his way; and youthful Rudy (Eugene Russell IV) is still finding his way.
For the purposes of associate artistic director Kent Gash’s Alliance production, the play’s setting has been moved to Atlanta—which is convenient for tossing in a few cutesy references to Shirley Franklin or whomever, but somehow works against the basic notion that what powers the show is its universality. (To be sure, one funny bit involves an out-of-town couple that makes a point of visiting a black barbershop in every new city. Who needs directions? They just head downtown and look for the nearest Martin Luther King Jr. St. or Ave. or Dr. or Blvd. In contrast, pithy would-be ad-libs about Don Imus or Sanjaya Malakar are clumsy and forced.)
“Cuttin’ Up” is unabashedly sentimental, and it’s more than a little obvious how every conceivable walk of life manages to come through that front door. But Gash’s depiction of the daily routines of the shop feels honest and real, and he beautifully navigates the many flashbacks and side scenes. Some of them are more humorous (celebrity encounters the men have heard about from generations of other barbers), some are more harrowing (a retelling of the Emmett Till tragedy). With Gash’s care, the mention of Hurricane Katrina or the introduction of a young soldier bound for Iraq never seem like heavy devices. A potentially manipulative flashback to 1980s San Francisco at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, played without words, is genuinely heartbreaking.
The show loses its focus straying into the characters' personal lives away from the shop. Howard’s uptight son is a fleeting distraction, while Andre’s ex-wife and mother issues are a much greater waste of time. Cobb, a handsome and muscular star of daytime soaps, is peculiarly ill-suited in the latter role, posing for it as much as portraying it. Oh, he looks sensational in all of his form-fitting shirts, but for a guy presumably beaten down by life, he doesn’t appear to have a scratch on him. (Let me put it this way: If he’s 45 then I’m, well, worse off than I ever imagined!)
Playing a steady stream of customers, family members and historical figures is an enterprising five-person ensemble (Duane Boutté, Carl Cofield, Donald Griffin, E. Roger Mitchell and Marva Hicks). Among Gash’s most stylish design touches: a mirror that periodically reflects live images from the past. The walls of Shaun Motley’s impressive set are lined with old photos—the sign of any good barber shop, Howard would say—and depending on which stories are being retold at any moment, Gash routinely illuminates various pictures to dramatic effect. In fact, the entire Alliance stage is framed by them. Essentially, the show is its own affectionate snapshot in time.
"CUTTIN' UP"
Alliance Theatre
404-733-5000
www.alliancetheatre.org
Through May 13