Theater Review: TheDuncanSheik composed the score and two-time Pulitzer winner Lynn Nottage (LynnBrooklyn) adapted the book for AtlanticTheater's new musical, 'The Secret Life of Bees'
got its off-Broadway start, has put together a superbly cast production. The first-rate ensemble, dominated by women of color and including such mighty talents as LaChanze, Eisa Davis and Saycon Sengbloh, sings the score with transporting spirit.
Gold opens in presentational style, with the ensemble entering and standing in formation as they sing "River of Melting Sun," an ode to summer skies whose words also evoke honey, the precious gift of nature referred to here as "the ambrosia of the Gods." Only gradually do the black and white performers separate along racial lines.
Galvanized by T-Ray's violence and her fears for Rosaleen, Lily breaks her out of hospital and persuades the housekeeper to travel with her to a town called Tiburon, S.C. That destination is printed on a honey jar label depicting a Black Madonna, one of the few clues Lily has about her mother's whereabouts between the time she left them and her death.
There's mystery also in the natural world around the Boatwrights, evoked by August as she helps Lily overcome her fear of bees and assist with the hive boxes, teaching her that "Every living creature responds to love." LaChanze's uplifting delivery of the title song is accompanied by simple, beautiful stagecraft as the cast move around them holding tiny bee puppets dancing on wires.
There's nothing else quite as jarring as that number, but the second-act songs are uneven, occasionally adopting discordant sounds that don't quite fit the scene. One example is "Marry Me," Neil's earnest final plea to change stubborn June's mind, incongruously coupled with light cocktail-jazzy orchestration. It's also a questionable choice to hand so much of the musical's emotional climax over to secondary characters.
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