Black Nativity at Intiman
No matter what Dane Cook's myspace page says, the Reverend Dr. Samuel McKinney, narrator of the gospel musical Black Nativity, is the only person you'll see on a Seattle stage this month who went to school with Martin Luther King, Jr. Our favorite part of this consistently entertaining show was watching 80-year-old McKinney--who also once met Langston Hughes, its author--tap his toes, silently sing along, and break into a smile during the solos by the Total Experience Gospel Choir.
Choir leader Pat Wright seemed especially to brighten his face, and ours too. Her voice lacks the bombast and range of other performers, but her impeccable tone and phrasing is gorgeous. Her short (and uncredited in the program) rendition of The First Noel is reason enough--if you can afford the pricey tix--to schlep down to the Center one night this week and spend a couple of hours with her, McKinney and the choir.
The show is kind of a Tony and Tina's Wedding-esque reenactment of a church service, complete with comic byplay between Wright and McKinney, a too-talkative choir member, and even that church service standby, announcements.
The audience is the congregation, lucky enough to hear some terrific gospel singing, tap dancing (more next year, please, the audience loved it) and even a sort of 80-90s popular dance medley that included the moonwalk, the running man, and the robot.
The pacing is quick--there's dancing, singing, narration, instrumentals, solos, all in quick order, and never too drawn out that you get bored. They even do a djembe/African dance heavy version of The Little Drummer Boy that's the only performance of that song that's not made us want to fall asleep.
The show's closer is the gospel ballad "Alabaster Box," and Josephine Howell's emotive performance made us, secular agnostic that we are, very jealous. She's not just singing, she's praising, and we wish we could feel a song so deeply. On a stage where we've seen so much emotion acted out (and acted out well), real emotion was extremely compelling.
Black Nativity
Intiman Theather
Runs through Dec. 27th
Tickets are $42 ($30 for students and seniors, $15 for kids).
206-269-1900
Image is a detail of a photo by Chris Bennion
