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| THE LIFE - (l-r) Miriam King, Jessie Alagna, Nadeen Holloway, Jeanne Lynn Gray, Teandra Morris |
June 18, 2004
By Dale M. King
STAFF WRITER
“The Life” is a musical that takes a walk on the very, very wild side.
It has to. It’s a gritty, sometimes brutal depiction of street prostitution in New York City circa 1980. But this is not the world of Heidi Fleiss. And it’s not Ruby Keller’s 42nd Street. It’s a hard play that marries hard drama, comedy and music. Fortunately, it’s a marriage that works.
“The Life” is playing through July 11 at the Atlantis Playhouse. The Cy Coleman-Ira Gasman collaborative is awesomely entertaining, though occasionally unsettling.
An exceptional cast – and a wonderful keyboard player - Phil Hinton – keeps the show right in the groove.
It’s actually more than a story about ‘the life’ of street hookers on the mean streets of New York before urban renewal, police crackdowns and AIDS put a damper on much of the sex-for-hire trade. There’s a plot—even a love story—tucked in among the unsavory characters who walk the alleys and dirty streets of the Big Apple.
The play opens with the company performing “Check it Out,” a finger-in-your-face entrance number that makes you think “The Life” is just another version of “Chicago.”
Coleman and Gasman have peppered the show with tough songs, uplifting tunes and explanatory songs. The lyrics are well-crafted and creative, but often fallback on clichés. Fleetwood, an up-and-coming pimp, sings about getting “A Piece of the Action,” while Memphis, the toughest pimp on the block, warns one of the girls that “It’s My Way-or the Highway.”
One of the best tunes is Sonja’s rendition of “I’m Getting Too Old for the Oldest Profession,” a song that needs no explanation.
This is a true ensemble work. Everyone in the cast pitches in to make the show work. They’re energetic, with great voices and obvious talents.
But “The Life” is definitely an adult show. The language is not for kiddie’s ears. And the subject on stage means there’s a lot of ‘sexual suggestion.’
The show really focuses on the life of Queen (Jeanne Lynn Gray), a hooker who has fallen in love with her pimp, Fleetwood (Ben Bagby).
When Fleetwood realizes that he can’t really love a woman that he’s…well, “using,” he drops her for a fresh-faced, milk-and-honey brunette who’s newly arrived from Duluth, Minn. An apparent innocent, Mary (Elizabeth King) is not all what she seems. That sets the whole street afire with anger, resentment and fear and the denizens factionalize.
Gray is superb as Queen—for many reasons. She’s tough, but vulnerable; thick-skinned, but with a warm heart.
Elizabeth King is perfectly cast as the apple pie kid from Minnesota whose innocent demeanor hides a sordid interior. It’s not surprising she has played Eliza Doolittle in “My Fair Lady.” But in “My Life [sic],” she doesn’t do a little, she does a lot!
Nadeen Holloway is a definite show-stealer as Sonja, the seasoned prostitute who accepts her own fate, but doesn’t want her ‘sisters’ to end up like her. She’s got a voice that could stand up to Aretha Franklin, and a talent that easily slides from comedy to tragedy.
Bagby, who literally comes to South Florida from Broadway, is terrific as Fleetwood, who has one of the most pivotal roles in the show. He is good at making his character hate able, but there’s a flicker of redemption when his come-uppance arrives.
Carl Barber-Steele is a fearsome presence as Memphis, the most powerful pimp in the hood. He’s one character who pulls no punches—literally—when he pushes his theatrical weight around.
Dean Swann is Jojo, the show’s narrator, who proves himself to be a no-account, backstabbing lout. And those are his good points. I swear I saw him in the Barry Manilow Revue at the Atlantis earlier this year—which is something of a departure from his role in “The Life.”
Alex Danyluk—who is much younger than he appears in the play—is the affable barkeep Lacy, whose character seems to come from the “don’t ask, don’t tell” school.
“The Life” runs through July 11 at the Atlantis Playhouse, in the plaza at the corner of Atlantis Playhouse, in the plaza at the corner of Lantana Road and Congress Avenue (near Rosalita’s) in Atlantis. Tickets are $26.50 and $29. Call (561) 304-3212.
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