I'm pleased to announce that I am back on the blogging scene. I have a few more posts yet in the works but I wanted to post this so any theatre-goers can get their tickets. Last weekend I saw Violet, a show on Broadway. Here's my review:
With a story about a young girl who
travels to see a preacher so he'll heal her, I was immediately on my guard for
cheesiness and stereotypical characters, which is such an easy bent in musical
theater anyway. Refreshingly though I was pleasantly surprised.
Early on I could tell the show was
not your typical one. It started
with the character of Flick, a black man in the South in the 60s. Clearly Flick has faced a lot but he
has learned to make the most of it. Yet, as he encourages Violet, she
tells him he can go to school and become an officer and he doesn't think he
can. I have experienced this many a time and see it as very human.
At the very moment someone is proclaiming hope over you they are disbelieving
that they can get past their own circumstances.
Perhaps he has a more realistic view
based in the times he lives in. However, in his story, he ultimately does
rise above his circumstances proving that anything is possible.
In a story about a girl with a scar,
there’s much talk about what you can do with what you're given. Subtle
songs that reveal that theme are a poker playing game that fit within the story
itself ("Luck of the Draw"). Thus, even Flick's story, that at
first seems to be a sub-plot tinged with the weight of racism, becomes
incredibly important to the story and connects well to the idea of beauty
(judging based on what we see).
The preacher and a random old woman
who walks around serve as a foil to Violet’s character and show us the true
ugliness of vanity. The old woman flaunts her body, the only thing she's
ever known to do. As the show progresses she staggers about in a drunken
stupor, her fancy dress falling off her. The image is both pathetic and
grotesque. It serves to remind that sex appeal is fleeting but a woman of
character is greatly to be prized.
Similarly, when the preacher is
revealed without the glitz and glamour of his music and lights, we see that he
is tired and angry--the lights and music mean nothing anymore. The
humanity is clear in the preacher when he both refuses to pray for her and
tells her to kneel and ask for inner beauty. It is human to speak both
truth and lies in one breath. At the same time he denied her joy he spoke
of the truth that has been subtlety spoken of the whole show of inner beauty.
Violet's humanity is shown in so many
ways throughout the show. We are aware of her shame and deep pain through
songs and flashbacks with her young self dealing with being made fun of.
She shows great character and personality by immediately telling off a
waiter who is being racist toward Flick (who she has not met yet).
Her strength is offset by real, human
weakness. Aware that Flick's
friend just wants to get in her pants, she tells him he's a little boy early
on. However, when she wants a man to hold her, she settles for sleeping
with him. I see her weakness as choosing validation instead of love.
Again, this is a very human weakness. When you've been told your whole
life you're ugly, you'll settle when someone tells you you're pretty even if
his intentions aren't pure.
This is not to say that her faults
make her who she is and that they actually make her a better person. The
thing that was actually the most attractive about her was her unyielding faith.
She genuinely believed that God had healed her. The writer does not
mock this faith. In fact, her encounter with the preacher man was not in
vain.
Her father and hers relationship is a
true testament of humanity and it's consequence. All she wanted was for
her father to look at her. She thought he didn't because he hated her now
that she was ugly. However, he actually didn't look at her because he
still felt guilty that he had done it. This moment of truth was revealed when
she sought The Lord and felt his presence.
The last song they sing is not a
rousing number about being who you are. I think it touches more on the
depth of pain, the humanity, and the ultimate story about real people helping
each other on the road to redemption. They sing: "If I show you my
darkness will you bring me to the light?"
Violet did not come out with a bullhorn and blare the
theme in show stopping numbers. Rather, it is proof that perhaps
testimony is more powerful than propaganda and that the truth is perhaps a bit
more nuanced and therefore deserves a more nuanced response. It was a story
composed of real people and real details that made the truth even more poignant
and allowed me to be even more hopeful for humanity.
