Review: “The Secret Life of Bees” and the Summer of Black Theater
The summer began with Kenny Leon’s all-black “Much Ado About Nothing” Shakespeare in the Park, and then we had Michael R. Jackson’s musing on being black, gay, and fat, “A Strange Loop,” an encore production of Pulitzer-prize winning “Fairview,” and now a musical adaptation of the beloved Sue Monk Kidd novel, “The Secret Life of Bees.” This new musical at Atlantic Theater, with a book by Lynn Nottage, music by Duncan Sheik, and lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, takes quite a few liberties in its plotting, but focuses the story on blackness. Together, these three brilliant productions make theatergoers realize that it is time for theater to tell more black stories.
“The Secret Life of Bees” primarily concerns Lily (Elizabeth Teeter), a white girl with an abusive father (Manoel Feleciano), who decides to run away with her black maid Rosaleen (Saycon Sengbloh) after both are attacked by violent men: Lily, by her father and Rosaleen by angry white men who don’t want her to register vote. The story is set in 1964 and radio announcements provide important historical context about the Civil Rights Acts, registration rallies, and acts of white supremacist violence. The pair run away to Tiburon, South Carolina, to the pink house of the beekeeping Boatwright sisters, May (Anastacia McCleskey), June (Eisa Davis), and August (LaChanze). Here they…