This heartfelt play tells a love story with the assistance of jazz classics by Miles Davis, John Coltrane and Sarah Vaughn
The subtitle "A Jazz Romance" appended to Stephanie Berry's new play, "Sarah Sings a Love Story," resonates in various ways throughout this lovely play with music.
In one regard, it speaks to the romance of Elaine (Marva Hicks) and Russell (Curtiss Cook), a couple whose love develops and blooms to the persistent soundtrack of jazz. In another, it speaks to the couple's constant adoration for Sarah Vaughn (Tamar Davis), the legendary vocalist whose music is a powerful touchstone for their relationship. But the subtitle also underscores the heartfelt treatment Berry's play gives to jazz itself. This is a play offered in loving adoration to jazz, a dedication that shines through tenderly.
At the core of "Sarah Sings a Love Story" -- now playing at the Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick -- is a simple love story: Elaine and Russell meet in college; spend much of their courtship at New York jazz clubs watching performances by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and especially "The Divine One," Sarah Vaughn; marry; have children; and persevere through some relationship struggles. But simple is not to say simplistic. Berry succeeds in showing that the love between these two is deep, warm, and complex.
Ultimately, though, the play is less interested in the action of its plot than it is in the syncopation of love and jazz that runs throughout the show. Backed by a three-piece orchestra under the musical direction of Nat Adderley Jr., frequent performances of jazz standards punctuate the play, sometimes interspersed with the action of the plot like a musical, but more frequently performed aria-style. It's as if the Crossroads Theater transforms into the Blue Note or Birdland and we are all Sarah Vaughn's audience.
Davis shines and occasionally stuns in her task of giving voice to Sarah Vaughn. Her vocals are versatile and rich, velvety like the real Vaughn and seemingly drawn from a river of life experiences like her predecessor. A Grammy-nominated veteran of Broadway and "The Voice," Davis's wonderful performance makes this show a visceral experience rather than some sort of recreated memory.
Hicks and Cook sing well themselves, but their greatest contribution here is giving life to the love between Elaine and Russell. Cook gives us a Russell who struggles to reconcile demands of masculinity, pride, and selfhood in a midcentury America particularly oppressive to black men. Hicks's Elaine bears a lifetime of worry on her shoulders and in her voice. But in each other and through jazz, the two find strength and fulfillment.
A heartwarming play that does not give in to sentimentality, "Sarah Sings a Love Story" becomes all the more touching when we find that Berry -- who is familiar to Crossroads's audiences from recent appearances in "Autumn" and "Repairing a Nation" and who won an Obie for the solo show she penned called "The Shaneequa Chronicles: The Making of a Black Woman" -- based her play on the 60-plus-year marriage of her brother and sister-in-law.
And this tribute to longevity comes in part as a bittersweet send off to its own performance space -- the play marks the final performance before Crossroads's current building is demolished and replaced with new, state-of-the-art digs. Progress is promising, but of course the past never fades without at least a tinge of regret. Sarah Vaughn's music was all about the union of love and sorrow, and Berry's play captures that jazz spirit skillfully.
Sarah Sings a Love Song
Crossroads Theatre Company
7 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick
Tickets: $25-$55 available online at www. www.crossroadstheatrecompany.org. Through March 26
Patrick Maley may be reached at patrickjmaley@gmail.com. Find him on Twitter @PatrickJMaley. Find NJ.com/Entertainment on Facebook.