“Tony, Tony, Tony” is not a snippet of dialogue you would have heard in the first iteration of Syncing Ink, at the Flea Theater in 2017. But hip-hop is all about improv and seizing the moment, so it’s perfectly à propos in this blackbox revival at the Apollo’s Victoria Theatre.
The entire six-member cast has reconvened, including Kara Young, who has since garnered a trio of Tony nominations (including one for the recent Purlie Victorious). Admirers keen for another sighting will find Young captivating as ever, but also fully subsumed in the group work of bringing NSangou Nijkam’s intense yet playful script back to vibrant life.
The author stars once again as Gordon, an awkward goofball high-school senior who dreams of becoming a superstar MC. One impediment: The words and rhymes don’t exactly flow. He’s the standout loser in a poetry class led by the compulsively alliterating Mr. Wright a.k.a. “Baba” (Adesola Osakalumi, who doubles as choreographer for the interstitial dance segments): “My lovely liberated lightning bugs” is how Baba kicks off a primer in the basics of haiku.
Gordon repeatedly fails to rise his classmates’ challenge, “Can he kick it!?” He most assuredly cannot, especially when bullied by the group’s acknowledged alpha rapper, Jamal (Nuri Hazzard), who could quell any opponent just using his mean dagger eyes. Jamal is still busy trying to dominate and demean his ex, Sweet Tea (Young in full feisty mode), even as he sets his sights on the class glamour girl, Mona Lisa (McKenzie Frye).
Fast-forward (it’s a fairly lengthy show, at roughly three absorbing hours), and – with some role switches – the gang reconvenes at Mecca University, “the premiere historically Black college.” Here the old guard, represented by doddering Professor Brown (Hazzard, doing a 180) is at loggerheads with firebrand Baba Black (Osakalumi, transformed). Baba derides Brown for “sounding like a fake ass English muffin.” He contemns the very trappings of traditional literature in “Fuck White Paper,” a rousing protest rap during which Baba’s “divine complement” Sista Sidestep (Frye) gets to pin the audience with a self-styled revolutionary’s killer angry glare.
Jason Ardizzone-West’s in-the-round set, with risers, lends itself to a communal, almost stoop-like feel. Sit on on one of the benches up front, and at some point you may very well find an actor rapping at you – or draped over you. Very actively overseeing the inner circle (imaginatively lit by Alan C. Edwards and Max Doolittle) is DJ Kyleel “Proda” Rolle, who helped to initiate this revival with a fresh score. There’s plenty going on onstage, but you may find yourself checking his niche, just to take in the joy he’s experiencing in giving this clever, incisive work new life.
Syncing Ink opened May 19, 2024 at The Apollo’s Victoria Theater and closed May 19. Information: syncingink.com
