The creative pairing that brings Sue Monk Kidd’s beloved novel The Secret Life of Bees to the stage as a musical is one that could make any theatergoer salivate: Lynn Nottage, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner whose plays include Sweat, Ruined and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark wrote the libretto to accompany a score by Spring Awakening composer Duncan Sheik, with Susan Birkenhead (Jelly’s Last Jam, Triumph of Love) as lyricist, and Sam Gold directing the production.
This is not the first time Kidd’s book has inspired a high-profile adaptation; a 2008 film starred Queen Latifah, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, Sophie Okonedo and a young Dakota Fanning, with a soundtrack featuring contemporary tunes by the likes of Keys, Raphael Saadiq and India.Arie alongside old-school classics recorded by the Supremes, the Impressions and Irma Thomas.
The music Sheik has crafted to help propel this story—set in South Carolina in 1964, following a white teenager and her black caregiver as both flee oppressive circumstances to embark on what becomes an intensely spiritual journey—is in the same spirit; as such, it represents something of a stretch for an artist who began his career in indie rock, and has since written music for the theater that is soulful without delving deeply into African-American influences.
[Read Jesse Oxfeld’s ★★★ review here.]
Bees, in contrast, is steeped in these traditions, delivering a smorgasbord of styles and textures as the plot thickens under Gold’s markedly tender guidance. 14-year-old Lily, who has been abused by her father since her mother died in a tragic accident, and her traveling partner Rosaleen, beaten and pursued by racist thugs opposing her newfound right to vote, find shelter at a mystical haven occupied by sisters August, June and May. The refugees are led there by an image of a black Virgin Mary found among a few items left by Lily’s mom; the image appears on the bottles of prized honey that August—brought to noble, vivacious life by LaChanze—culls from the swarms of bees that pop up as glimmers of crackling light in Mimi Lien’s spacious, candle-lit set.
“The Black Madonna of Breznichar,” as August will formally introduce her, or Mary, as she is more commonly called, is much more than a marketing gimmick. She’s a matriarch and protector who looms before the audience as a statue, so that the sisters and other women may pray and dance around her, and sing in voices so uniformly glorious that citing them individually might take too long—though other songs offer Saycon Sengbloh’s Rosaleen and Anastacia McCleskey’s May with particularly strong showcases.
As additional characters and dilemmas are introduced, Sheik’s musical approach, including orchestrations written with John Clancy, and Chris Walker’s choreography shift to accommodate them. “Tek A Hol A My Soul,” performed before the statue, nods to spirituals and their roots, with staging that incorporates African dance.. Two songs later, we’re introduced to Zachary, the black teenager who helps August and her trainee Lily tend to the bees, and Brett Gray, the fresh-faced performer cast in the role, delivers “Fifty-Five Fairlane,” a shot of James Brown-fired funk that puts Gray’s loose limbs to playful work.
There are also nods to bluegrass and bossa nova, and, more predictably, a string of defiant strong-woman numbers that could have been R&B singles for a couple of women who starred in the film adaptation of Bees. The most beguiling and haunting songs, though, emphasize Sheik’s gift for channeling his folk-pop-bred instincts into theatrical ballads with shimmering melodies—among them “Frogs and Fireflies,” the tune that connects Elizabeth Teether’s delicate but blossoming Lily to the sisters’ home.
The source of that connection is Lily’s mom, whose death is assumed by the teenager to be her fault. “I’m the freak/The joke/The other,” Teether sings early on, her tremulous voice shaking more than usual, in “The Girl Who Killed Her Mother.” Another motherless girl might come to mind, from another favorite American novel, one that was more dramatically reimagined for the stage just recently; To Kill A Mockingbird’s Scout was more fortunate in her paternity, but she also had a black caretaker, and saw the horrors of racism unfold up close.
Lily is older, of course, and if Nottage and Birkenhead offer no radical revisions or revelations in setting her personal journey towards courage and self-acceptance against the struggles of a race that has been oppressed for centuries, their Bees is also very much a story about women, and the deep-seated challenges this group continues to face. The bee-keeping sisters are all spinsters, notably, though June, played by a spry, wily Eisa Davis, has a sweetly relentless suitor. Lily and Zachary are clearly drawn to each other, but their attraction threatens the latter’s safety in a racist community.
“Please tell me why everybody I love gets hurt?” Lily despairs at one point, addressing Black Mary. She gets no answers, from the statue or in the musical. The Secret Life of Bees does end on an uplifting note, though, both literally and figuratively, suggesting that its various heroines will forge on regardless—because the love is worth it.
The Secret Life of Bees opened June 13, 2019, at the Linda Gross Theater and runs through July 21. Tickets and information: atlantictheater.org
