by Peter Thomas Ricci<\/p>\n
Nina Simone was one of the most brave, incisive, and daring musicians of the 20th century, and her genius has received a fine tribute in Northlight Theatre\u2019s production of \u201cNina Simone: Four Women.\u201d<\/p>\n
The play, which combines dramatic elements with some of Simone\u2019s most notable songs, is set in the aftermath of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, a terrorist attack by white supremacists that took the lives of four young African American girls. Taking place in the church itself (spectacularly staged by Christopher Rhoton), the play follows Simone (Sidney Charles) as she struggles to craft music in response to both the Civil Rights Movement and the brutal response it inspired from the nation\u2019s ruling elites.<\/p>\n
As Simone holes up in the church, she is joined by three other black women, all metaphorical embodiments of the characters from Simone\u2019s legendary song \u201cFour Women\u201d: Sarah (Deanna Reed-Foster), a working class domestic and mother; Sephronia (Ariel Richardson), a fiery activist and booster of the Civil Rights Movement; and Sweet Thing (Melanie Brezill), a prostitute. Through their interactions, playwright Christina Ham provides a fine showcase for not only Simone\u2019s musical genius, but also her uncompromising views on equality, revolution, and America (in short, Simone was a friend of Malcolm X\u2019s and had no love for Martin Luther King\u2019s nonviolent approach).<\/p>\n
And indeed, the musical talents on display are formidable. Charles \u2013 a remarkable singer in her own right \u2013 perfectly captures Simone\u2019s bellow and power without resorting to caricature. Brezill and Richardson bring wonderful emotion and clarity. And Reed-Foster (who I vividly remember from a sterling 2016 production of \u201cThe Colored Museum\u201d) is a marvel. All four women blaze through such songs as \u201cTo Be Young, Gifted and Black,\u201d \u201cSinnerman,\u201d \u201cBrown Baby,\u201d \u201cHis Eye on the Sparrow,\u201d and\u00a0 <\/span>of course, \u201cFour Women,\u201d the song Simone wrote in response to the bombings.<\/p>\n Lastly, \u201cNina Simone: Four Women\u201d is an excellent introduction to many of the ideologies and motivations behind both the Civil Rights Movement and, broadly, black politics in America. Although Ham\u2019s approach has its drawbacks \u2013 with the three supporting actresses being embodiments of different aspects of black culture, they sometimes operate more as symbols than as flesh and blood characters \u2013 she does do a marvelous job of balancing both the peaceful, nonviolent ideologies of Dr. King and the more uncompromising, nationalistic visions of Malcolm X. And in the end, such an education is essential for anyone hoping to understand the ceaselessly complex topics of race and capitalism in America, especially in the modern era of Trump, Black Lives Matter, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.<\/p>\n Highly Recommended<\/p>\n Playing through March 2 at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd, Skokie<\/p>\n Tickets can be purchased at northlight.org or by calling 847-673-6300<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Peter Thomas Ricci Nina Simone was one of the most brave, incisive, and daring musicians of the 20th century, and her genius has received a fine tribute in Northlight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,41,245,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music-news","category-features","category-musical-theatre","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/32695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beintheloopchicago.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}