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Peer Reviews SING
HALLELUJAH! DOES JUST THAT Entire contents are copyright © 2007, Craig Nolan Highley. All rights reserved.
Having run screaming from a strict church-going upbringing, I was a little reticent about going into Derby Dinner Playhouse's latest production when I saw that it was called Sing Hallelujah! I assumed I was in for an evening of church revival and gospel music and having my soul saved. So I did what I always do when confronted with such an unpleasant prospect: I called up my equally church-jaded Aunt Michaeleen, and the two of us decided to enjoy the buffet and (braced by a couple of cocktails) settle down to get preached at. I have never been more happily surprised to be wrong! Writer-director Jim Hesselman and co-writer Bob Payne have done a clever job of crafting a story around fifteen traditional gospel songs and hymns (Amazing Grace, Onward Christian Soldiers, etc). A fresh-faced young Reverend Higgins, fresh out of seminary school, gets his first parish at Shady Creek Baptist Church in North Carolina. The congregation is filled with the expected group of country bumpkins and judgmental church ladies whose fire-and-brimstone style of worship doesn't fit well with Higgins' more restrained approach. Ultimately, he's given a challenge: bring three lost souls back to the church, or he's fired. x
x Even though the plot is as shallow as the gene pool of the characters in it, the jokes fly fast and funny, and the cast is more than up to the challenge. The songs are performed with gusto, especially those sung by the quartet of Bill Hanna, Dustin Cunningham, Cary Wiger and Paul Kerr in the second act. As Reverend Higgins, Lem Jackson plays the straight man in the proceedings quite well. He is a likeable and charismatic actor, although his Sideshow Bob hairstyle did seem a little incongruous and his voice wasn't quite up to the demands of his solos. J.R. Stuart is absolutely hilarious in the play's showiest role, the language-mangling Deacon Jonas Spaulding. As a pair of steadfast and stern busybodies, Rita Thomas and Debra Babich steal every scene they're in. And just about everybody else in the cast gets their own moment to shine as well. I could go into some minor quibbles, like the oddly structured storyline (two of the central characters don't even appear until the second-to-last scene, for example), but why bother? The point of the production is to give the characters opportunities to sing gospel, and on that level the show works brilliantly. And judging from the reactions of the several church groups in the audience, its target audience will not be complaining. Even Aunt Michaeleen started singing along! SING HALLELUJAH! August 21 - September 30, 2007 Starring Lem Jackson, Rita Thomas, Debra Babich, J. R. Stuart, Tina Jo Wallace, Janet Essenpreis, Michelle Johnson, Matt Wallace, John Payonk, Cary Wiger, Bill Hanna, Paul Kerr, and Dustin Cunningham
Posted August 24, 2007
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