| NEW YORK BEACON NEWS |
The Playwright Tavern & Restaurant is a cozy, brick lined spot in Midtown. Its second floor,
overlooks 8th Avenue and has been changed to accommodate the charming one-act play,
"Cooking The Books: A Recipe For Murder".
Opening June 20th, producer/director Jacqueline Hankins has a combined conventional
drama with film and pre-recorded hip-hop rhythms. The result is a fast-moving, broadly
funny musical with the unlikely subject of white-collar fraud.
The musical begins with a short film introducing us to the employees of Harold Johnson
Associates. The next scene shows a guard taking a prisoner down a stairway.
When the prisoner's neck is slit, the camera moves in for a close-up of his face, the lights
come up, and the performance shifts to live drama.
Four of the employees of Harold Johnson Associates - we've already met them on film,
come racing on stage. "We have to cook the books", they all sing with gusto. At least it
seems that way until it's clear that one woman isn't opening her mouth. She's the firm's
lawyer, Abigail Morris (Anna Hill). Finally, she responds: "It's against the law!"
With humor and energy, the play quickly moves through ten scenes - most acted-out- but
some are film sequences. Music mixes with hip-hop rhythms. Grand gestures accompany
dialogue like, "There's only one way out! Rat them out!"
There's the obligatory cat fight and the ripping off of another woman's wig. There's a
murder (I won't spoil the fun by naming the victim), some convictions, and a surprise ending.
Unlike most drama with African American casts, "Cooking The Books" doesn't deal with any
racial themes. Instead, with humor and high jinks, it examines a small group of successful
Blacks and their drastic response to getting nabbed by the law!
In addition to Anna Hill, who has arguably the strongest singing voice, the cast includes
Angel Martinez, Stephen Robinson, Erika Staples, Loretta Poole, Mykeko E. Bryant.
Writer/director Jacqueline Hankins has kept for herself one of the most melodramatic roles
as Kenya, the wife of Harold Johnson.
The performance I attended was a preview. There were some awkward moments of silence
where it wasn't clear whether dialogue had been forgotten, a musical beat had been missed,
or we were experiencing a deliberate pause.
Other times, the words on the soundtrack were muffled and hard to understand. (This
especially unfortunate when plot details were being wrapped up.) And why is Kenya singing
about sand and sun while perched in a leafy tree more likely to be in Central Park than
Bermuda? Hopefully, by the time "Cooking" officially opens, the kinks will have been
worked out.
But on balance, "Cooking The Books" stands out in a crowded field of off-Broadway
productions by being dinner theatre, well, more accurately, "brunch theatre" since the
performances are only weekends in the afternoon. It's a fun, unique and inexpensive way to
spend a summer afternoon.
overlooks 8th Avenue and has been changed to accommodate the charming one-act play,
"Cooking The Books: A Recipe For Murder".
Opening June 20th, producer/director Jacqueline Hankins has a combined conventional
drama with film and pre-recorded hip-hop rhythms. The result is a fast-moving, broadly
funny musical with the unlikely subject of white-collar fraud.
The musical begins with a short film introducing us to the employees of Harold Johnson
Associates. The next scene shows a guard taking a prisoner down a stairway.
When the prisoner's neck is slit, the camera moves in for a close-up of his face, the lights
come up, and the performance shifts to live drama.
Four of the employees of Harold Johnson Associates - we've already met them on film,
come racing on stage. "We have to cook the books", they all sing with gusto. At least it
seems that way until it's clear that one woman isn't opening her mouth. She's the firm's
lawyer, Abigail Morris (Anna Hill). Finally, she responds: "It's against the law!"
With humor and energy, the play quickly moves through ten scenes - most acted-out- but
some are film sequences. Music mixes with hip-hop rhythms. Grand gestures accompany
dialogue like, "There's only one way out! Rat them out!"
There's the obligatory cat fight and the ripping off of another woman's wig. There's a
murder (I won't spoil the fun by naming the victim), some convictions, and a surprise ending.
Unlike most drama with African American casts, "Cooking The Books" doesn't deal with any
racial themes. Instead, with humor and high jinks, it examines a small group of successful
Blacks and their drastic response to getting nabbed by the law!
In addition to Anna Hill, who has arguably the strongest singing voice, the cast includes
Angel Martinez, Stephen Robinson, Erika Staples, Loretta Poole, Mykeko E. Bryant.
Writer/director Jacqueline Hankins has kept for herself one of the most melodramatic roles
as Kenya, the wife of Harold Johnson.
The performance I attended was a preview. There were some awkward moments of silence
where it wasn't clear whether dialogue had been forgotten, a musical beat had been missed,
or we were experiencing a deliberate pause.
Other times, the words on the soundtrack were muffled and hard to understand. (This
especially unfortunate when plot details were being wrapped up.) And why is Kenya singing
about sand and sun while perched in a leafy tree more likely to be in Central Park than
Bermuda? Hopefully, by the time "Cooking" officially opens, the kinks will have been
worked out.
But on balance, "Cooking The Books" stands out in a crowded field of off-Broadway
productions by being dinner theatre, well, more accurately, "brunch theatre" since the
performances are only weekends in the afternoon. It's a fun, unique and inexpensive way to
spend a summer afternoon.
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| 'Some very delightful cooking' by Ernece B. Kelly |
