From left: Angel (Alfie Fuller) and Guy (John-Andrew Morrison) in the Keen Company’s production of Pearl Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky.
Blues for an Alabama Sky, by Pearl Michelle Cleage, has been around for 25 years, but only now has the Keen Company given it a New York debut. Still, Cleage’s work, about black artists struggling in 1930, during the Harlem Renaissance, is as relevant today as it was a quarter-century ago. Poverty, discrimination, abortion rights, violence, and the everyday hustle to make it are still real issues in 2020.
Cleage’s play about thwarted dreams begins with Guy Jacobs (John-Andrew Morrison), an emerging fashion designer and a local hit in the New York City club scene, particularly at the Cotton Club, where he makes costumes for performers. He dreams of going to France and designing for Josephine Baker. He’s also gay.
Guy with his neighbor Delia (Jasmin Johnson).
His friend Angel Allen (Alfie Fuller) is a singer at the Cotton Club who has just been discharged for drunkenly telling off an Italian mobster during her set and creating a spectacle at the club. Distraught by her firing, Guy has quit. On their way home, they meet a well-mannered stranger named Leland (Khiry Walker) who helps him bring Angel home.
The following morning Angel realizes the consequences of her drunken behavior and wants to get her job back. Guy reassures her that he’ll take care of her as he always as, and that she can stay at his place. She tells him, “I can’t stay here. You know last time we tried that we stopped speaking to each other for a month.”
Meanwhile, their neighbor Delia (a delightful Jasmin Johnson) has stopped to check on Angel. Delia is working with the community to open a women’s clinic in Harlem, but there is opposition by the neighborhood to an establishment that encourages birth control. She begins working with Sam (Sheldon Woodley), a Harlem doctor and a close friend of Angel and Guy.
Guy has sent Josephine Baker five outfits and is anxiously waiting her response, but Angel views his hope as a pipe dream. She has been dating Leland, whom she calls “Alabama,” and has accepted his offer of marriage. She has become pregnant, and a legal union with him will provide stability.
Guy then learns that Josephine Baker loves his designs and wants Guy to work with her. She sends money for his ticket, and a new life in France beckons. But when he does, the news changes everything. She tells him that she’s pregnant and, rather than have the baby, she will go to France with him:
Leland (Khiry Walker, left) courts Angel. Photographs by Carol Rosegg.
Guy: What about the baby? What about Leland?
Angel: I can get rid of it! I’m not that far along! I’ll tell him I had a miscarriage.
Guy: So you’re going to tell him you miscarried his baby and oh, by the way, the wedding is off because you’re sailing for France next Friday?
Angel: I thought you were the one who could forgive me everything.
Guy: Sometimes you wear me out, Miss Angel. Sometimes you just wear me out.
Angel persuades Sam to perform an abortion. She tells him, “This is my chance to live free, Doc, and I’m taking it.” When Leland hears of her “miscarriage,” he is devastated. She then tells him she needs to get away and will go to France with Guy, sparking a confrontation. I’m going away. From you., she tells Leland. “From Harlem. From all those crying colored ghosts who won’t shut up and let me live my life!”
Under the direction of LA Williams, the cast does a phenomenal job. Morrison is vibrant, funny, and elegant as Guy. Fuller captures Angel’s layers of complexity, by turns soft and cold.
The set design by You-Shin Chen beautifully evokes the time period. The stage is divided in two rooms, one side for Guy’s apartment, and the other for Delia’s. The costumes by Asa Bennally are sophisticated and classy. Helping to set the tone are original music and sound design by Lindsay Jones.
Although Blues for an Alabama Sky was written 25 years ago, many of the themes carry over easily to the present day. Poverty, discrimination, abortion rights, violence and the everyday hustle to make it are all very real issues in 2020. Cleage’s writing is succinct, enticing and still holds true. This is an overall dynamic and enthralling performance.
The Keen Company production of Blues for an Alabama Sky runs through March 16 at Theatre Row (410 West 42nd St.). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. For tickets, call (212) 239-6200 or visit keencompany.org.
