Right around the time that Cold War Choir Practice premiered last summer at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks festival, the U.S. had just attacked Iranian nuclear facilities. Now the play is premiering Off-Broadway at the MCC Theater, and we’re once again engaged in a full-blown war, excuse me, military operation, in the same country.
Um, maybe we should think twice about any future productions?
Not that this new comedy with music by Ro Reddick, who just won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, really has that kind of power. But it is a fun, antic, and ingenious show that well deserves this remounting, especially in an increasingly dangerous era when cold war fears almost seem quaint.
[Read David Finkle’s ★★☆☆☆ review here.]
Set in 1987 in Syracuse, New York, the show revolves around ten-year-old Meek (Alana Raquel Bowers, adorably playing a child without overdoing it), who lives with her father Smooch (Will Cobbs) and grandmother Puddin (Lizan Mitchell, stealing the show) above the roller rink her dad owns. She’s so fearful of the prospect of nuclear war that her Christmas wish list is comprised of a Pound Puppy stuffed animal, a Speak & Spell toy, and a nuclear radiation detector for the fallout shelter she hopes to build in their basement. Plus, her favorite candy is Atomic Fireballs. She’s also a member of the children’s Seedlings of Peace Choir which sings such politically relevant, catchy ditties (composed by Reddick) as “Milkshake for Peace,” “Lay Down Your Arms,” and “The Farmer and the Businessman.”
In one of the play’s cleverest conceits, the Choir is represented by three adult performers (Grace McLean, Suzzy Roche, and Nina Ross, all terrific) clad in varying shades of red to represent the Russians, the Christmas holiday period in which the show is set, and perhaps their devilish natures.
The complicated storyline is set in motion with the arrival of Meek’s Uncle Clay (Andy Lucien) and his wife Virgie (Crystal Finn, hilarious). Clay is now a deputy national security advisor preparing for the upcoming meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev to negotiate a nuclear arms treaty, while the clearly shell-shocked Virgie has just escaped the clutches of a mysterious cult organization. Tensions flare between Smooch, a former Black Panther who’s struggling financially, and the far more successful Clay, whose embrace of Republican politics rankles him.
Meanwhile, Meek has established a pen pal relationship with a Soviet child who has gifted her the Speak & Spell she’s been craving. Unfortunately, the toy is actually a key element of a Soviet espionage plot to procure the classified documents in her uncle’s briefcase. And her Aunt Virgie may be involved in yet another scheme involving them as well.
It’s all a bit much, honestly, with the playwright not fully successful in getting all of her fantastical, Boris & Natasha-style plot elements across. But thanks in large part to the inventive direction by Knud Adams (English), the witty, farcical play proves consistently amusing even while making serious points about such things as 80’s-era Cold War politics and divisions within the Black community.
The amusing production elements are also first-rate, with Afsoon Pajoufar’s period-defining set, Brenda Abbandandolo’s playful costumes, and Baye & Asa’s movement direction (love the way the performers mime roller skating) adding greatly to the fun.
