Just the name "Ladysmith Black Mambazo" on the marquee would be enough to sell out the run, but Steppenwolf playgoers usually expect a play with their music, so Eric Simonson frames his dazzling vocal score in a Hollywood fairy tale of career-crossed lovers struggling to conduct a long-distance romance (Chicago USA and Johannesburg RSA—is that long-distance enough for you?) with a side trip into mythic underworld realms where they undergo quasi-Orpheus and Eurydice riddles at the behest of a Plutonian wizard lamenting his own broken heart . . . Well, that was how the story spooled out—sort of—on the second of the two press openings for Lindiwe, but evidence of hasty rewrites following the first points toward more textual changes before this ambitious project proceeds farther on its journey. The a cappella chorale harmonies of the internationally celebrated Mambazos, their all-male vocals augmented by the sweetly soaring treble of the title heroine, are always a delight, and there's no denying the global appeal of a scenario encompassing both African Zulu ballads and American blues standards like "Caledonia" and "Sweet Home Chicago" making for plenty to sit back and enjoy until the script finds its own voice.
