Word: whoopi
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...that magically transplants an African plain, where Nettie has gone as a missionary, behind a Georgia bush; Celie looks up from her hymnal and--wham!--a bulldozer crashes through the chancel of Nettie's church thousands of miles away. None of this bravura, though, has liberated the attractive cast. Whoopi Goldberg suffers knowingly as Celie; Danny Glover, as "Mr.," looks vainly for a note to strike besides befuddled menace; Margaret Avery inhabits Shug without illuminating her. Everyone seems reluctant to let loose here, taking a cue from their too reverent boss. Perhaps The Color Purple demanded a cannier, more daring...
...women, and the demonstrable unfairness of life. Alas, Ma Rainey natters toward its climax like Ibsen gone funky, but it illuminates the talents of worldly-wise actors; one, Charles S. Dutton, spumes anger as the odd man out, striding, not shuffling, to his doom. A one-woman show? Catch Whoopi Goldberg, six monologues written and performed by a rag-doll actress with a bonkers stage name. Some of the skits are predictably poignant, and two just peter out. But the evening serves as an embossed calling card for stardom, presented by a scarifyingly gifted comic artist whose radiant smile even...
Before or after seeing Whoopi, the cobra is advised to trek uptown to 104th Street for the season's joyfullest noise. Mama I Want to Sing is a "story in concert," in which a disc jockey narrator spins out the tale of a young girl who dreams of becoming a pop singer. Her father is a Harlem minister, her mother a traditionalist who believes the only good music is God's music. This becomingly naive plot--a black Jazz Singer or a prequel to Dreamgirls--is sturdy enough to support a dozen or so knockout gospel singers, with a spirit...
...like a cool shower after the heat of the marathon." That is how Comedian-Actress Whoopi Goldberg, 34, describes her Cinderella-like transformation from obscure performance artist to star of her own one-woman Broadway show. Like the drug addicts, Valley Girls, cripples and others she portrays, Goldberg is no stranger to life's vicissitudes. "I am my show," she explains. "The characters I play on the stage have been on a long trek of self-discovery." A native New Yorker, she performed in small theaters on both coasts before being Great-White-Wayed by Mike Nichols, who oversaw...