Dance on, Play On!

There's a character in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, or What You Will, named Duke Orsino. You know who else is named Duke? Duke Ellington. Play On!, currently playing at Signature Theatre, conceived by Sheldon Epps, with a book by Cheryl L. West and music by Duke Ellington, is loosely based on Twelfth Night. It's Harlem in the 1920s and Viola (Jalisa Williams) wants to be a songwriter. Her uncle Jester (Wesley J. Barnes) scoffs at the idea of a woman being a songwriter, so she decides to approach the famous Duke at Vy-man, and quickly falls for him.

Duke, meanwhile, is in love with Lady Liv (Awa Sal Secka), a performer at the Cotton Club, who puts her staff (orchestra conductor Sweets [Derrick D. Truby, Jr.], dresser Miss Mary [Kanysha Williams], and club manager Rev [Chuckie Benson]) through the ringer. Duke sends Vy(man) to bring a song to Liv, who takes a fancy to the young man. Hijinks ensue.

As soon as Barnes and the ensemble came on stage at the top of the show wearing tap shoes, I was in. You can't go wrong with Duke Ellington music, of course, and the dancing in this is incredible; Barnes is fantastic. "Take the 'A' Train" is a masterpiece; the combination of the song and the choreography is excellent. I just wish there were more tapping! 

This really is a loose adaptation; I expected it to hew a bit closer to Shakespeare, but the play is really just an inspiration for this. There's no twin brother, various characters are combined, some beats echo the Shakespeare, but it's honestly best to put it out of your mind. (Like, I spent a large chunk of the first act wondering when Vy's twin brother would show up. Spoiler: He doesn't.) 

Unfortunately, a lot of the plot didn't particularly work for me. Vy is our main character, but I couldn't really tell why she fell for Duke. Lady Liv is awful to most of the people around her, but I think we're supposed to forgive her for that after a monologue about how everyone only sees her as a performer not a person. Except that we've seen how she treats the people who work for her, and I can't forgive it that easily. Duke doesn't really have a personality other than "in love with Lady Liv"; they have a history, but we never learn anything about it. We actually don't get any backstory for pretty much any characters.

Wesley J. Barnes as Jester and Derrick D. Truby Jr. as Sweets. Photo by Christopher Mueller.

The supporting characters are a lot more fun. Sweets, Mary, Jester, and Rev are all wonderful. Sweets and Mary have a falling-out that's unconvincingly patched up, but I honestly didn't care because their relationship at least had some depth. I'm intrigued by Rev--I want his full backstory!--but we again aren't given much info. All we know about Jester is that he's with one woman and cheats on her, but his tap dancing is so good that I don't even care. Sweets and Jester's "Rocks in my Bed" (pictured) is super fun.

It's all a bit frothy. There are glimpses of deeper stories and storytelling, but there's no there there. It's a show you'll watch and enjoy, but stopping to think about makes the problems with the book all pop up. But honestly, the dancing, choreography, singing, and music are all enough to make it worth the ticket.