Grand Rapids theatre lovers will need to be prepared to check everything they think they know about musicals when our local Civic Theatre presents “Caroline or Change.”
On the surface it all seems approachable as the story opens up on a home in Lake Charles, Louisiana and is jam-packed with a veritable “greatest hits”of musical styles that winds seamlessly throughout touching on the blues, spirituals, early Motown, classical, folk, and Jewish klezmer music.
It all seems quite normal until you realize that in addition to the fine cast of locals tackling this work includes a few actors who are tapped to play the role of Caroline’s basement appliances, which includes a radio, washer and dryer. It creates a major nod to theatre’s earliest days with this unconventional assemble of electronics becoming a Greek Chorus.
Caroline is a maid who works in the basement of a Jewish family during the 1960s, and the production explores the themes of labor, civil rights, youth, and American society’s transformation during a time of upheaval.
The surrealistic blurring of so many lines of Caroline’s story, which covers the period of time right before, after and during the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, is what makes this play truly heartfelt because Caroline’s struggles are often our own.
Part of the reason “Caroline or Change” is able to traverse the pivotal topics of the American Civil Rights Movement is directly attributed to the incredibly combination of co-creators Jeanine Tesoro and Tony Kushner, who are able to bring the best of their pasts to such a cast of characters in this multi-layered comedy/tragedy.
Kushner, a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, is especially adept at taking audiences on such fantastically theatrical rides, as evident by his episodic two-part play “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes." He is also well-known for his work on other sensitive topics, like war in “Homebody/Kabul” and Nazi Germany in “A Bright Room Called Day.” He also worked as a screenwriter for “Munich.”
“Caroline or Change” represents part of a growing trend in Grand Rapids in which audiences are demanding more and more of our local organizations to bring contemporary theatrical works to the stage as they become available. It makes the experiences of our arts so diverse and wonderful to behold.
Admission: $18 - 35
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