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Synopsis Louisiana, 1963, in the immediate aftermath of the Kennedy assassination. Caroline, a black maid to a southern Jewish family, is struggling to keep afloat emotionally and economically, while the young son of her employer tries to make sense of the world following the death of his mother. A musical exploration of human relationships, love, loss and social transformation.
Tony Kushner’s semi autobiographical 2004 Broadway musical Caroline, or Change, with a score by Jeanine Tesori, received its UK premiere last night (19 October 2006 previews from 10 October) at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre (See News, 25 Aug 2006).
In small town Louisiana in 1963 in the immediate aftermath of the Kennedy assassination, Caroline Thibodeaux, a black maid to a southern Jewish family, is struggling to keep afloat both emotionally and economically, while Noah, the young son of her employer, tries to make sense of the world following the death of his mother. The small change Caroline finds in Noah’s pockets while doing the laundry makes a big difference to all concerned.
Overnight critics were captivated by Pinkins’ central performance as the title character – as well as the supporting roles, most notably young Perry Millward - and enjoyed the range of music and themes featured in the musical, which some declared the best of this year’s abundant crop of the genre, deserving the top prizes come awards season.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (5 stars) – “We are enjoying such a glut of musical theatre at the moment that you could be forgiven for asking, well, what other kind of theatre is there? It’s significant, therefore, that the musical piece that is the most original, beguiling, ambitious and surprising might well turn out to be Caroline, or Change…. The generosity of the musical is reflected not only in the score – an astonishing amalgamation of American styles including blues, Motown, spirituals and klezmer – but also in the scope of the social canvas…. The inanimate world of Caroline’s kitchen comes throbbingly alive, too, in the singing washing machine, the radio (a Supremes-style trio in gold lame sheath dresses and beehive hair-do’s) and Clive Rowe’s hilarious dryer, an exploding Little Richard. Rowe also sings the pivotal lament for the death of JFK, as a night bus. Overseen by the ever-changing Moon herself (a gloriously turbanned, bluesy soul mother, Angela M Caesar), Caroline comes to a series of self-examinations culminating in a huge number that has been rightly compared to ‘Rose’s Turn’ in Gypsy. Tonya Pinkins delivers this, as she delivers the rest of the show, with consummate artistry and a welling passion that tears the audience apart. This is a majestic performance, one of the greatest I have ever seen in the musical theatre.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (5 stars) – “A remarkable musical…. One of the musical's great virtues… is that its big ideas grow out of the small change of human experience…. Kushner's non-linear book focuses on a relationship while giving us a kaleidoscopic portrait of a community. And Tesori's brilliant score eclectically employs different idioms to illustrate character and social dynamics…. George C Wolfe's Lyttelton production, designed with floating elegance by Riccardo Hernandez, matches the poetic freedom of the narrative. Repeating her New York performance, Tonya Pinkins is also magnificent as Caroline: unsentimental, indestructible, large-voiced, and yet capable of demonstrating the pain of personal change. Perry Millward, one of three boys who plays Noah, catches exactly the character's complex, love-hate feelings for the maid…. But the real joy lies in finding a musical that combines compassion with social awareness.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (4 stars) – “As directed by George C Wolfe, this New York import is big, bold yet of human scale…. Trivial stuff? Yes, but Kushner builds the incident into an example of the tense, difficult relationship of well-meaning, but limited, whites and suspicious blacks in an America in a social flux that continues today…. I wondered how impressive the evening would be if Wolfe’s cast spoke lines that don’t exactly soar. But that’s a test almost every opera or sung-through musical would fail. As it is, Tesori’s score, which embraces Afro-American and Jewish music, rock and blues and gospel, does help to give the evening the size and significance it’s in danger of lacking. That’s nowhere more the case than at the denouement when Pinkins renounces the hate she thinks has made her evil, accepts people different from herself, and commits herself to a gritty survival. Conservative stuff? Not as the brilliant Pinkins belts it out. She’s uneducated, she’s been wronged — and she’s by far the bravest spirit on stage.”
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (3 stars) – “Caroline, or Change attempts to reflect the turbulent spirit of America in 1963 when the civil rights campaign led to violent protests against segregation in Alabama and Martin Luther King marched on Washington. Kushner concentrates his attention on the travails of Caroline…. Tonya Pinkins plays the woman beautifully, in a performance that catches her character's taciturn stoicism and understated humanity…. Caroline, or Change turns out… to be a quaintly charming musical, beautifully acted. Its political nuances ripple all too gently in the background, the conflicts minor key. George C Wolfe's powerfully acted production needs greater momentum, though Riccardo Hernandez's mobile sets allow swift scenic transformations. Unfortunately, Kushner's almost non-stop lyrics, whose words too often become submerged by the ten-strong orchestra, are embarrassingly inept, banal and rambling. The musical exerts its strong hold, largely because of the charismatic Tonya Pinkins.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph - Spencer appreciated “the surging emotion and astonishing originality of Caroline, or Change.… when the awards for best musical are announced, it will be a disgrace if this amazing piece of music theatre doesn’t seize the glittering prizes…. Kushner’s great achievement is to make the political personal in a work that combines great dramatic intensity with wild flights of fantasy and music of thrilling variety and strength…. Somehow the daring mixture of whimsy, passion and radical politics succeeds triumphantly…. The best numbers raise the hairs on the back of the neck. Tonya Pinkins is simply sensational in the title role… and she rips into her big numbers with the artistry of Aretha Franklin and the raw power of Janis Joplin. Perry Millward captures all the grief and confusion of the young Noah and the supporting roles are all superbly played.”
** DON’T MISS our Whatsonstage.com Outing to CAROLINE, OR CHANGE on Thursday 16 November 2006 – top-price ticket & FREE drink at our post-show cast reception, all for £24.50! - click here for more details! **
We are enjoying such a glut of musical theatre at the moment that you could be forgiven for asking, well, what other kind of theatre is there?
It's significant, therefore, that the musical piece that is the most original, beguiling, ambitious and surprising might well turn out to be Caroline, or Change at the National Theatre, a new production by George C Wolfe of the musical by Tony Kushner (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music) that he first directed at the Public Theater in New York three years ago. The show moved on to Broadway, but closed after only 38 performances, despite several laudatory notices among a general critical disappointment.
The setting is small town Louisiana at the end of 1963, either side of the assassination of President Kennedy on 22 November. The year had begun with George Wallace in Alabama proclaiming “segregation forever”. In August, Martin Luther King galvanised the civil rights movement with his “I have a dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.
Coming from the other end of the spectrum, Kushner re-imagines his own childhood in this wider context of political change. Caroline Thibodeaux is the black maid in a starchy white dress in the basement kitchen of a comfortable Jewish household; little Noah Gellman is drawn to Caroline as a friend/servant/surrogate mother in the wake of his own mother’s death and his unhappiness with the pushy new stepmother, Rose, he has acquired from New York’s Upper West Side. His father has retreated into his music on the clarinet.
Rose allows Caroline to keep the change Noah habitually leaves in his laundry. Caroline’s mixed feelings about this escalate into a dramatic crisis when the change becomes a £20 bill. Caroline has three children of her own, and we meet them, too, coping with their mother’s dilemma. The generosity of the musical is reflected not only in the score – an astonishing amalgamation of American styles including blues, Motown, spirituals and klezmer – but also in the scope of the social canvas, which stretches in the second act to include a Chanukah dinner.
Even there, though, the show does not give up: Caroline’s daughter Emmie (stunningly well played by Pippa Bennett-Warner) is a cipher of hope and high spirits. The inanimate world of Caroline’s kitchen comes throbbingly alive, too, in the singing washing machine, the radio (a Supremes-style trio in gold lame sheath dresses and beehive hair-do’s) and Clive Rowe’s hilarious dryer, an exploding Little Richard. Rowe also sings the pivotal lament for the death of JFK, as a night bus.
Overseen by the ever-changing Moon herself (a gloriously turbanned, bluesy soul mother, Angela M Caesar), Caroline comes to a series of self-examinations culminating in a huge number that has been rightly compared to “Rose’s Turn” in Gypsy. Tonya Pinkins delivers this, as she delivers the rest of the show, with consummate artistry and a welling passion that tears the audience apart. This is a majestic performance, one of the greatest I have ever seen in the musical theatre.
Perry Millward is pretty amazing, too, as young Noah, one of three boys sharing the role, and the hand-picked cast also includes Anna Francolini as the new stepmother, and a superbly entertaining trio of grandparents: Ian Lavender (that “stupid boy” from Dad’s Army!), Valda Aviks, cosy as an apple strudel, and Hilton McRae. Magical design by Riccardo Hernandez, bathed in the crepuscular lighting of Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer, reinforces an unforgettable evening.
I enjoyed it the first time around, more for the parts that the whole, but felt one viewing just hadn't done it justice. Second time round, sitting further away, the parts all seemed to join up and provide a more rewarding 'big picture'. Whatever you think, it's original and inventive and staged and performed with impeccable craftsmanship. - 86.138.26.181)
02 Jan 07
This is a real mess of a show. The main character, Caroline, is a maid to a well off jewish family. She is also very poor, as can be seen by her sons and daughters. Now, this play is supposed to "address big questions about race and human rights". It states them, yes, but doesn't go any further. The main part of the play is when the step-mother of the son in the family clearly states that any money he leaves in his trousers (Or "pants" as the Americans call them) can be kept by the maid, Caroline. That's it. The "highlight" of the play. Riveting, isn't it? This becomes a "crisis" when she picks up a $20 note and that makes the boy, Noah start chanting "Kill All Negros". Ooh, touchy. As you can probably guess by now, the "big questions" addressed by this play are trivial in comparison to racial abuse in the world now. This is not helped by the fact that everything is sung, making this more of an opera with modern music rather than a musical, which is what I get the impression from many popular reviews of this play. In its defence, the music is good, and that did help me to add another star and not write it off as a pile of junk. Just let me make this clear, THIS IS NOT A MUSICAL. West Side Story is a musical, The Producers is a musical but this isn't. Anyone expecting to find a musical here will be disappointed.
- 81.137.202.21)
26 Dec 06
Simply, utterly brilliant. Knocks the socks of everything in the west end at the moment. I honestly cannot find any fault. Tonya is fantastic. I wept during her breakdown number at the end. This must be transfered! I need to see it again! - 88.96.1.229)
22 Dec 06
The worst piece of theatre I have ever seen. It had potential, but frankly, needs a complete re-write of the plot and the music. The depiction of poverty seemed to me to be from the viewpoint of someone who has never experienced deprivation and cannot imagine what a life like that really entails. From complaining that she had insufficient money to pay the rent or to provide decent food, Caroline gives the money from Noah's washing to her children to buy sweets. Later, her child needs dental treatment because of this. She also rejects the offer of leftover food (that she has presumably cooked herself) to supplement her children's diet - was this supposed to represent pride or prejudice in reverse? It was not made clear.
The Washing Machine, Dryer and Moon characters represented a wasted opportunity to flesh out the hopes and aspirations of an oppressed and trapped woman serving time in a dead-end job. Instead these characters served no real purpose other than to drone on about change coming slow or fast. In the end, change did not come at all. The maid went back to her demeaning job and the idea of change in the future was left to her daughter who merely witnessed (not even participated in!) the desecration of a Civil War memorial.
To me it seemed as if the writer gathered together every stereotypical image possible (including that of 'rich Jew') and cobbled together this tiresome show. The best I can say about the music is that it reflected the failure of the piece as a whole. Whenever the music felt like it was going somewhere, it was drowned out by multiple competing voices or else it changed into something much less promising.
Jason Robert Brown's 'Parade' also tackles the theme of prejudice, but in a powerful and thought-provoking way. The reviewers (and indeed, The National Theatre) who are praising this feeble attempt at a 'serious musical' should see Parade and weep. I found it extremely disappointing that another opportunity to examine serious content within a musical setting was squandered so spectacularly. I applauded, but only because the actors tried their best to inject some meaning into a confused piece of dross. Don't waste your money! - 86.137.185.39)
21 Dec 06
The worst piece of theatre I have ever seen. It had potential, but frankly, needs a complete re-write of the plot and the music. The depiction of poverty seemed to me to be from the viewpoint of someone who has never experienced deprivation and cannot imagine what a life like that really means. From complaining that she had no money to pay neither the rent nor decent food, Caroline gives the money from Noah's washing to her children to buy sweets. She also rejects the offer of leftover food (that she has presumably cooked herself) to supplement her children's diet.
The Washing Machine, Dryer and Moon characters were a wasted opportunity to flesh out the hopes and aspirations of an oppressed and trapped woman serving time in a dead-end job. Instead these characters served no real purpose other than to drone on about change coming slow or fast. In the end, change did not come at all. The maid went back to her demeaning job and the idea of change in the future was left to her daughter who saw (not even participated in!) the desecration of a Civil War memorial.
To me it seemed as if the writer gathered together every stereotypical image (including that of 'rich Jew') and cobbled together this tiresome show. I applauded, but only because the actors tried their best to inject some meaning into a confused piece of dross. Don't waste your money! - 86.137.185.39)
21 Dec 06
The worst piece of theatre I have ever seen. It had potential, but frankly, needs a complete re-write of the plot and the music. The depiction of poverty seemed to me to be from the viewpoint of someone who has never experienced deprivation and cannot imagine what a life like that really means. From complaining that she had no money to pay neither the rent nor decent food, Caroline gives the money from Noah's washing to her children to buy sweets. She also rejects the offer of leftover food (that she has presumably cooked herself) to supplement her children's diet.
The Washing Machine, Dryer and Moon characters were a wasted opportunity to flesh out the hopes and aspirations of an oppressed and trapped woman serving time in a dead-end job. Instead these characters served no real purpose other than to drone on about change coming slow or fast. In the end, change did not come at all. The maid went back to her demeaning job and the idea of change in the future was left to her daughter who saw (not even participated in!) the desecration of a Civil War memorial.
To me it seemed as if the writer gathered together every stereotypical image (including that of 'rich Jew') and cobbled together this tiresome show. I applauded, but only because the actors tried their best to inject some meaning into a confused piece of dross. Don't waste your money! - 86.137.185.39)
21 Dec 06
This has received almost unanimous rave reviews from the critics and has already picked up one prize for "Best Musical". That should not be a major surprise as it is very reminiscent of a Stephen Sondheim piece and Sondheim is famously more highly regarded by critics than audiences. Caroline, or Change even includes a character made up to look like Sondheim!
During the first half I wondered what on earth the fuss was about and I noticed that quite a few people left at the interval. However, the second act is a vast improvement as the show finally tackles issues of family relationships against the rising struggle for civil rights. There are also far better songs and I was particularly impressed with Pippa Bennett-Walker as Caroline's elder daughter. Unfortunately Tonya Perkins' voice was showing signs of wear or possibly a virus but she did manage to "nail" her final redemptive anthem. I'm not convinced that this show fits well with the National's repertoire and it is certainly not the most entertaining musical of the year, but it bravely tries to find a new way to deal with important issues. - 194.176.105.37)
21 Dec 06
this is a seriously beautiful show. i love the pathetic allegations by people who didn't like it that people give standing ovations to demonstrate their 'liberal credentials'. what crap! people stand because they are deeply moved by the wonderful performances, stirring music and profound story. - 86.146.15.0)
10 Dec 06
The central conceit of this, in which a poor, proud laundry maid is allowed to keep any change that the little boy of the house leaves in his pockets, is like something from a great American short story: it's a tiny, tiny kernal from which grows a rich look at race, class and (funnily enough) optimism. The score is big, smart, jazzy, with enough glimmers of beauty. Lyrically it's varied, wry, playful - and, SO rare for a new musical I could hear the majority of the words. As well as the fab adult cast it features kids who not only fail to irritate but actually provide brilliantly realised performances. I got those excellent £10 front row seats yesterday. This blows the socks off everything i've seen this autumn. - 86.144.198.166)
05 Dec 06
I was v. disappointed with this show. By being sung through it begs comparison with opera (or Andrew L-W). The music for the "dialogue" is dreary, yet the songs fail to lift the show musically to a more intense level. The performers are all very talented but put their talents to a piece of inferior quality. The seething pot of change for black people of the period (detailed in the programme notes) are scarcely felt onstage, and the "excuse" of it being set in a backwater is a tame one. I also wondered what caused several audience members to stand up and ovate at the curtain calls to do so. I feel they were compelled to demonstrate their liberal credentials rather than the fact that they had been uplifted by the show itself. I approve thoroughly of Nick Hytner putting on musicals at the NT and indeed it is the place for works not deemed "commercial" by West End standards. But this one is not deserving of the Lyttleton stage. - 80.195.2.57)
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