J. Harrison Ghee, Bryson Battle (Photo: Marc J. Franklin)

 

Saturday Church

 

By Julia Polinsky

 

Take me to church. Please.

 

Saturday Church, now playing at New York Theatre Workshop, opens with the magnificent, ebullient, Tony-winning, can-do-no-wrong J. Harrison Ghee as Black Jesus, asking, "Can I show y'all what collective love looks like? What collective joy looks like? What collective healing looks like?"  As directed by Whitney White and based on the 2017 indie film, the freewheeling, life-affirming energy of Saturday Church makes it easy to remember that theater, at its best, is worship. From the gospel choir in Act 1 to the super-duper Ball ending, Saturday Church takes us all to church.

 

Veyonce Deleon, B Noel Thomas, Joaquina Kalukango, Kareem Marsh,  Damani Van Rensalier (Photo: Marc J. Franklin)

 

In between, there's a somewhat cliché story of Ulysses (Bryson Battle), a very young not-yet-out gay Black man (early teen? late teen? hard to tell) who doesn't fit in his home church, but wants to sing in the choir. Wants to raise his beautiful voice in praise. Grieving the death of his father, Ulysses wants to be part of The Spiritual Thing, the community that church fosters. But his aunt Rose, the choir director (Tony-winner Joaquina Kalukango), tells him he's too flamboyant, and Pastor Lewis (also Ghee) also insists he tame his natural personality in order to fit in.

He can't be anything other than what he is, so he embarks on an odyssey to make his life better. Before that happens, despair gets layered on top of his grief, until a lucky meet-cute on the subway shows him a way to be fully himself. He encounters Raymond (Jackson Kanawha Perry), a homeless gay around Ulysses's age, who tells him about the LGBTQIA+ Saturday Church, where the "only requirement is don't be boring."  "It's a place where people like us can be ourselves," he says. Poor Ulysses responds, "I'm not." but Raymond interrupts him: "Oh, you don't know yet?"

The rest of the show is utterly predictable, but it's so excitingly danced (choreography by Darrell Grand Moultrie), so musically vibrant (music supervision, arrangements, orchestrations from Jason Michael Webb and Luke Solomon), so visually delicious (scenic design from David Zinn, lighting by Adam Honoré), that it doesn't matter that the book is a little uneven. The second act drags, as so many second acts do, even those in shows based on films, as this one is (book/lyrics writer Damon Cardasis made the original movie; James Ijames co-wrote the book and additional lyrics). Music by Sia, with additions from DJ/producer Honey Dijon,  doesn't always advance the plot, but who cares? The songs may be shoehorned into the show, but they energize as much as they entertain.

 

Anania, B Noel Thomas, Caleb Quezon (Photo: Marc J. Franklin)

 

Ulysses finds a home, of course. The Saturday Church "members" help him to find out who he really is and so much of what that implies. That doesn't help in his straight life, and family conflict leads him to run away, to yet more despair and even danger. He finds his way back to Saturday Church, to acceptance, solace, love, and the love, healing, and a dose of straight talk from Black Jesus. Is Black Jesus "real" or Ulysses's imagination? Doesn't matter. The offer of salvation is real, as is the love.

 

There are subplots about the church leader, Ebony (B Noel Thomas) who is working out her own grief issues; Ulysses' widowed mom, Amara (Kristolyn Lloyd), overworked and overstressed; and Aunt Rose, hyper-responsible and intolerant, until she realizes how much harm she's doing. All these subplots weave together until you can't pull the threads apart. By the end, Ulysses's chosen family and his born-family actually (and scarcely credibly) unite in song, dance, and killer shoes (Qween Jean's costumes are epic, as is wig and hair design from Dharius Thomas.)

 

Go see Saturday Church. You'll be taken to Saturday Church, a better, kinder, more vibrant place than you can imagine.

 

Saturday Church

At New York Theatre Workshop

150 E 4^th St

Through October 19