Amber Iman (Photo: Joan Marcus)

GODDESS

By Carol Rocamora

There's divinity at work  - literally - in a show now playing at the Public Theatre. It's appropriately called Goddess- and it will transport you to a vibrant culture with its heavenly music, supernatural characters, and inspiring message.

Most of the scene is set in Mombasa, Kenya, largely at Moto Moto, a free-spirited, underground nightclub. A very old city (founded in 900 AD), Mombasa is rich in mythology and spirituality. The club is the home of Nadira (a charismatic Amber Iman), who reigns supreme with her beautiful, mesmerizing voice.

But Nadira is no ordinary nightclub singer. Indeed, she is Marimba, the East African goddess. According to mythology, she was once imprisoned in heaven by her controlling mother, who had proclaimed her daughter Goddess of War. But Marimba rejected that dreadful identity and chose to descend to earth instead. "I never learned to love in heaven," she tells us, "I could learn to love as a human.in music."

So she adopts the persona of Nadira, entertaining the clients of Moto Moto with a vibrant blend of jazz and Afrobeat (music composed by Michael Thurber). "This is my temple," she declares, as she performs one sensational number after another, along with a supporting cast of exuberant singers and dancers in constant motion (superb choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie).

Austin Scott, Nick Rashad Burroughs ,and the Ensemble (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Nadira's story is narrated by a "Griotrio" of otherworldly singers (Melessie Clark, Teshomech Olenja, and Awa Sal Secka). (Note: a "griot" is a West African musician/storyteller). As it happens, Nadira does find the love she seeks - in Omari (Austin Scott), a young politician who is running for Governor. But Omari has "parent problems," too. His conservative father Hassan, the current Governor (J. Paul Nicholas), and mother Siti (Ayana George Jackson) have his life planned. They've betrothed him at birth to Cheche (an earnest Destinee Rea) and expect him to continue his father's legacy. They are alarmed by Omari's liberal ideas. Moreover, they discover that Omari has visited Moto Moto and met Nadira, who has encouraged him to pursue his love of music. "You are an instrument of the gods," Nadira tells him, inspiring him to follow his own path, hitherto defined by his father. Consequently, Hassan threatens to shut the club down.

The world of Moto Moto is inhabited by numerous flamboyant and colorful characters, including Rashida (a hilarious Arica Jackson), the nightclub manager, and Ahmed (an energetic Nick Rashad Burroughs), the club's emcee. There's also Balozi (Reggie D. White), a shaman and a conduit to the spiritual world.

The power of this musical is augmented by the elaborate production values, featuring a spectacular set (designed by Arnulfo Maldonado) teeming with singers, dancers, and huge, frightening masks (designed by Julian Crouch), representing Nadira's supernatural mother who still pursues her, along with other demonic spirits. At the show's closing moment, when Nadira appears in her goddess attire (elaborate costumes by Dede Ayite), the cumulative impact is overwhelming.

Amber Iman and the Ensemble (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Ultimately, we have director/author Saheem Ali, to thank for this energizing, exuberant new work that provides us with such rich entertainment and at the same time enlightens us with an immersion into another culture and its music - just as he did with the amazing Buena Vista Social Club now on Broadway, which he also directed. In that show, it was the Cuban culture; in Goddess, it's the ancient culture of East Africa and its values, into which Saheem Ali himself was born.

Goddess is a show about the power of music to unite us and elate us. "What is human? What is divine"?  asks Nadira at the top of the show.  Saleem Ali and his musical suggest that we have both within us.

Goddess

At the Public Theatre

425 Lafayette Street

Tickets: https://publictheater.org/productions/season/2425/goddess/

Running time: 2:20, one intermission

Through June 15