{"id":7148,"date":"2018-03-26T07:09:53","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T11:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7148"},"modified":"2018-04-02T08:12:49","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T12:12:49","slug":"on-stage-crowns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7148","title":{"rendered":"On Stage: Crowns"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Crowns\"

photo: \u00a9 T Charles Erickson Photography<\/p><\/div>\n

Fifteen years ago, McCarter Theatre<\/a> premiered Regina Taylor<\/a>\u2019s original Crowns<\/em>, which has become one of the country\u2019s most-produced musicals. Currently on stage at McCarter until April 1 is an entirely new version of Crowns<\/em>, again written and directed by Regina Taylor.<\/p>\n

Although, as McCarter artistic director Emily Mann says, Crowns<\/em> is \u201ca joyful, brilliant expression of the past and present lives of African-American women,\u201d the emotional subtext of the story is universal, and the production offers a rousing, end-of-winter uplift. If you recall the original Crowns,<\/em> you\u2019ll remember the title refers to the extravagant hats worn by African-American women, especially to church, and you\u2019ll appreciate Caite Hevner\u2019s set design that imaginatively incorporates hats by the dozen.<\/p>\n

Much more than a tale about headgear, Crowns<\/em> remains a story about attitude and about asserting individuality when society wants you to be invisible. The hats are a touchstone for memory too, enabling their wearers to reconnect with past experiences, good and bad, with failures and triumphs. Taylor has said that \u201chats reveal and they conceal,\u201d and in her play, they do both.<\/p>\n

Taylor has brought the play into the present by combining the hip-hop of a 17-year-old Chicago girl, Yolanda (played by Gabrielle Beckford), with the gospel of her South Carolina grandmother, Mother Shaw (Shari Addison). Yolanda is sent to stay with her grandmother after her brother is murdered in a drug deal gone bad. However, she\u2019s impervious to the support and love offered by her granny and the women of the community, the Hat Queens. \u201cTalk about it,\u201d they sing, but Yolanda won\u2019t, can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Loosely structured around the elements of a church service, the women cast members (Rebecca E. Covington, Latice Crawford, Stephanie Pope, and Danielle K. Thomas) are lively story-tellers and singers, and Crawford brings down the house with her rendition of \u201cHis Eye is on the Sparrow.\u201d Any of them could teach a master class in movement. The one male cast-member (Lawrence Clayton) plays multiple roles, donning different personalities as easily as his different hats.<\/p>\n

Providing the propulsive energy for the almost non-stop music, much of it original for this production, are Jaret Landon on keyboards and trumpet and David Pleasant<\/a> on percussion. Alas, on opening night, the \u201caccompaniment\u201d sometimes overpowered the singers. The production makes fine use of projections, which transform the single set from Chicago\u2019s streets, to Mother Shaw\u2019s church, to a South Carolina high school, and much more. Parts of Yolanda\u2019s raps are projected in chalk letters too.<\/p>\n

McCarter Theatre is easily reached from New York by car or train (New Jersey Transit to the Princeton Junction station, then the shuttle train into Princeton. The shuttle ends a short walk from the theater and the university\u2019s new arts district, as well as two new restaurants.<\/p>\n

For tickets, call the box office at 609-258-2787 or visit the ticket office online<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fifteen years ago, McCarter Theatre premiered Regina Taylor\u2019s original Crowns, which has become one of the country\u2019s most-produced musicals. Currently on stage at McCarter until April 1 is an entirely new version of Crowns, again written and directed by Regina … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[207,104,147],"tags":[1281,864,329,1282],"class_list":["post-7148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-music","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-african-american","tag-coming-of-age","tag-mccarter-theatre","tag-musical"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1Ri","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7150,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7148\/revisions\/7150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}