Feb. 3 Syracuse Stage: Caroline, or Change
‘Caroline, or Change’ a richly rewarding study in language, character and form
Syracuse Stage's production of the Tony-nominated Broadway musical reprises Greta Oglesby’s acclaimed Guthrie Theater performances in the title role
By David Feldman
I really dislike the current fad of giving standing ovations for almost anything that limps or snuffles across a stage. Save the grand gestures for the grand performances, I say—which is why I had no hesitation about rising with the full house on opening night at Syracuse Stage to applaud the current production of Caroline, or Change. I may have even let loose a “hurrah” or two of my own.
Just about everything you want in a satisfying stage production is here: A strong book and powerful lyrics (Tony Kushner); Tony-nominated music ranging from blues to klezmer, gospel to classical, Motown to folk (Jeanine Tesori); an outstanding 10-piece orchestra under the deft direction of Christopher Drobny; a standout cast superbly directed by Marcela Lorca (who also did the choreography).
Caroline, or Change comes to Syracuse Stage with a substantial resume. It opened at New York’s Public Theatre in 2003, moved to Broadway for 136 performances and also played at the National Theatre in London. It’s been much produced in the U.S., including The Guthrie with the superb Greta Oglesby as Caroline (she revives the part here). It was nominated for six Tony Awards, and the London production won the Olivier Award for best new musical.
The “change” of the title refers to two interwoven plot-theme threads.
First, the action takes place in 1963 against the background of the assassination of JFK, the early years of the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights struggle, especially as all these affect the title character, a black maid working in a Jewish household in Louisiana in 1963. Caroline is from the old school of southern maids—and change doesn’t come easily to her. But it butts up against her with the news of the period coming from her radio (she can’t afford a television on her $30 a week), and in the form of both another maid (probably the only black person Caroline has ever known who goes to college) and Caroline’s teenage daughter, who is swept up in the anti-segregationist fervor of the day.
And then there’s the jingle-it-in-your-pocket kind of change. Caroline keeps finding some in the pants she’s preparing to wash in her hot and uncomfortable laundry down in the basement. Pants and change belong to eight year-old Noah, who lives in the house with his father and stepmother. Caroline faithfully puts the change in the bleach cup in the laundry until the day Rose, the stepmother, alters the rules. She tells Noah that change left where it shouldn’t be by a boy who has to learn the value of money will now go to Caroline.
Nobody in the household has adjusted to the death of Noah’s mother or to the father’s marriage to Rose—especially Noah, who sees Rose’s interference as coming between him and Caroline, the only person in the house he can connect with. Piper Goodeve is spot-on as Rose, a Manhattan expatriate who can’t find her emotional place in the home or in the South of the period (“I miss the Upper West Side”) and can’t connect to the emotionally distant Stuart Gellman, who hasn’t stopped grieving for his first wife. Caroline takes the new rule as an insult. She is determined not to keep the money. However she’s tempted. She has money problems of her own—her pay isn’t enough to buy the television set her three kids keep bugging her about, or even to give them a little change to buy a treat every so often.
The two changes—pocket change and social change—collide after Caroline finally decides to take the money that used to be put into the bleach cup. Matters intensify when Noah leaves a $20 dollar bill in his pants. It’s a Hanukkah present from Rose’s father (played to a perfect turn as a fire breathing, diminutive, ex-Depression-era radical by Larry Block). And the dramatic confrontation over that $20 dollar bill (a fairly substantial sum in 1963) between the young boy and Caroline leads to a confrontation that degenerates into racist and anti-Semitic remarks. And that leads to what I first thought was a smudgy denouement. Plot threads don’t come together, or they do in what seems to be underwritten resolutions.
But Kushner is ever the experimenter in language, character and form. We find ourselves in the middle of… something… a dream sequence? …a bit of magic realism? …where Caroline and Noah reconcile their conflict across space, or perhaps imaginations. The problems that exist between them (and between cultures) can’t be easily resolved within a pat conclusion. Kushner wants character to trump plot by focusing on two powerful, musical monologues. And it works.
One monologue belongs to Caroline—a long, anguished lament about how the world has changed around her and has tried to change her, but she cannot change. Oglesby is stunning here. It’s one of the few times in a long enough life of reviewing theater that I ever jotted down in my notes: “show stopper!”
The other is an epilogue when Caroline’s daughter, Emmie (the winning Stephanie Umoh), lets us know that the torch has indeed been passed to another generation—and she is ready to take it up and run with it into the future. “For change come fast,” she says, “or change come slow, but everything changes.”
Plot structure isn’t the only non-traditional aspect of Caroline. Some of the songs are performed by a three-singer chorus: Radio 1 (Caitlainne Rose Gurreri), Radio 2 (Christina Acosta Robinson) and Radio 3 (Gabrielle Porter). This radio of three women who bring the important news of the day to Caroline are part of the musical’s non-standard cast—including a Dryer and a Bus (both by Doug Eskew, whose expressive body, thousand-watt smile and effortlessly deep and booming voice command your attention whenever he’s onstage); a character named Washing Machine (the delightfully flouncing Danielle K. Thomas); and a very radiant moon played by Emily Jenda.
Fourth-grade Cortland resident Séamus Gailor delivers a polished performance as the neurotic, forceful and independent young Noah. He manages to be cute without being cutesy-poo, drawing our attention to his character and not to his own personality—not an easy trick for a young performer. Hurrah!
Caroline, or Change is an enormously interesting stage piece. It plays with form, deftly placing music, character and theme at the play's center of gravity rather than going for any knock-down climactic moment, and it never loses our interest.
Some people, myself included, found it hard to hear the lyrics on opening night. But that quibble aside, Hurrah one more time!
DETAILS BOX:
What: Caroline, or Change performed by Syracuse Stage
Where: Archbold Theatre, 820 E. Genesee St., Syracuse NY
When: Through Feb. 26
Length: Two hours and 30 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission
Tickets: Adults, $28-$50; 40 and under, $28; 18 and under $18; senior discounts for all performances but Friday and Saturday evenings. Rush tickets day of performance only: $20-25 general public; $18 with valid student ID, subject to availability. Call 315-443-3275, or www.SyracuseStage.org
Family Guide: Recommended for audiences of all ages
Posted by David Abrams at 2/10/2012 10:14 PM 
Categories: Syracuse Stage, David Feldman, Theater
Tags: Marcela Lorca Christopher Drobny Jeanine Tesori Greta Oglesby Larry Block Piper Goodeve Christina Acosta Robinson Caitlainne Rose Gurreri Stephanie Umoh Doug Eskew Gabrielle Porter Seamus Gailor Danielle K Thomas Emily Jenda
Categories: Syracuse Stage, David Feldman, Theater
Tags: Marcela Lorca Christopher Drobny Jeanine Tesori Greta Oglesby Larry Block Piper Goodeve Christina Acosta Robinson Caitlainne Rose Gurreri Stephanie Umoh Doug Eskew Gabrielle Porter Seamus Gailor Danielle K Thomas Emily Jenda
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