Fifteen minutes into Black Ensemble's revue, audience members might find themselves asking three questions: 1 What are songs written by Bob Dylan, Glen Frey and Sammy Fain doing in the score of a show billed as a tribute to Etta James? 2) Why does the playbill list five singers (excluding understudies) in the title role? 3) Who's that sassy chick with the fluttery hands and chirpy voice mincing around in mint-green chiffon and gold pumps?
The answers: 1) James sang many different kinds of music over her 54-year career, 2) she reinvented herself so many times that after she died, more than one ghost claims to represent her as she appeared in life, and 3) she's longtime BET choreographer Rueben D. Echoles, playing a character dubbed "Ms. Real" (as in "keeping it") who first comes off as a nanny to the squabbling divas, then proceeds to dispense reconciliatory homilies like a therapy-group leader before revealing the secret of her identity and attire.
It's not much of a plot, but a tribute, as the five Ettas remind us, is not the same thing as a biography. The goal of this expanded version of the original 2005 production of At Last is to present a portrait of the multifaceted talent whose place in the pantheon of American music is undisputed. Since 26 songs are needed to even make a start on accomplishing this task, we need some sort of structure to avoid the trap that so often reduces revues to merely a string of vocals with no context to lend them meaning.
There's no danger of visual fatigue with a line-up as physically, sartorially and aurally diverse as the one assembled by Jackie Taylor for this revival, however, ranging from Alanna Taylor's flirtatious "Dance With Me, Henry" and Melanie McCullough's sweaty "Just a Little Bit" to Candace C. Edwards' gentle "Sunday Kind of Love" and Yahdina U-Deen's assertive "Trust Yourself." Anchoring the swift stylistic shifts are Arzula Maxine Gardner's deep-contralto renditions of anthems like "Blues Is My Business."
There are also dueling-diva medleys—further boosting the title count—along with counterpoint-harmony chorales and full-cast dance numbers. Adrian Byrd, Daniel Phillips and Mark. J.P. Hood make brief appearances as assorted men figuring in our heroine's destiny, and even Robert Reddrick's band gets into the act before we're done. All said, though, the night belongs to the unflappable Ms. Real, who gets the best lines and the most elegant wardrobe.
