Captivating ‘Black Nativity’ over too soon

The only major disappointment about "Black Nativity" at the Cashman Theatre is that it's no longer playing. Sadly, Trinity Entertainment scheduled only one weekend of this gospel Christmas musical, and I wish word about this captivating show had been allowed to build.

The script's first act (based loosely on a Langston Hughes play) found nearly three-dozen cast members in traditional African costumes (expertly designed by Victoria Shaffer), re-enacting the birth of Christ in Bethlehem. The music alternated between reverent hymns and rousing, got-to-move spirituals.

Dawn Axam's choreography gave the show a sometimes frenetic feel that made it impossible not to be carried away by the uplift. And Axam knows as well how to slow down; the quiet numbers were rich in line patterns, images and effective interpretative movement. The singers and dancers -- a combination of amateurs and professionals -- came in all physical shapes and sizes, so that we felt we were watching not an artificially sleek chorus (though they were immaculately polished), but a swath of "ordinary" people. The parade of overwhelmingly gifted performers, handling a parade of ballads and belts, just wouldn't stop.

What was most amazing was director Robert Connor's ability to get us to believe in this story. We felt the physical agony of the pregnant Mary (Monica Horowitz) and the panic in Joseph (Stephan Reynolds) as he tried to find a way to make her comfortable. When a stage full of worshipers, flocked by three all-in-white angles (Marvinetta Clay, Andrea Connor and Aretha Harden) paid tribute to the new-born king, our eyes were focused on the serene look of Mary and Joseph holding their baby. They communicated the contentment of proud, new parents, and their ordeal was made startlingly human.

The second act took us to a modern black Vegas church, where Joseph gave testimony to his dark days of being homeless while trying to care for child and wife. He'd gotten himself a job, and the congregation -- dressed now in Sunday-best finery -- celebrated his blessings.

There was a problem with the second act, in that we lost any sense of dramatic structure. Connor's adaptation wanders, so that the show becomes a parade of too-similar rousers. A gospel musical has different demands than a simple evening of gospel music, and the show is hurt by the uneven approach.

But both acts were made memorable not just by the blow-your-socks off talent, and, most importantly, by the cast and director's commitment to the material. They communicated a personal relationship to these songs, and that's something many gifted performers never learn to do.

Now, when is this cast's CD coming out? I'm willing to pay full retail.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.