Composer: Stephen Flaherty; Book and lyrics: Lynn Ahrens At: Bailiwick Chicago Theater at Richard Christiansen Theater, 2433 N. Lincoln Ave. Tickets: 773-871-3000 or www.bailiwickchicago.com; $40 Runs through: April 5
The Bailiwick Chicago collective of artists have proven to be especially prescient by producing Dessa Rose.
This 2005 off-Broadway musical by composer Stephen Flaherty and lyricist Lynn Ahrens focuses on the title runaway slave and an abandoned white Southern woman in the Deep South circa 1847. Though not the Chicago-area premiere of the show ( Highland Park's defunct Apple Tree Theatre produced it in 2005 ), Bailiwick Chicago's Dessa Rose arrives hot on the heels of the Best Picture Academy Award-win by the film 12 Years a Slave. It also bowed in the same week that Flaherty and Ahrens' latest musical, Rocky ( based upon the 1976 film ), opened on Broadway.
So with its weighty subject matter and the great track record of the show's writers behind other acclaimed musicals like Ragtime, Once on This Island and Lucky Stiff, Dessa Rose unfortunately comes off as a secondtier work.
The problem is largely with Flaherty and Ahrens' adaptation of Sherley Anne Williams' novel as their source material. There are some jolting shifts in the show's episodic structure, and Flaherty and Ahrens don't succeed at making what is compelling on the page into an easily unfolding drama on stage ( the final dramatic confrontation and resolution are also let downs ).
Yet director Lili-Anne Brown and her hardworking cast do make the most of what elements are good in the show. Brown's decision to have the ensemble begin and end Dessa Rose in modern dress for the number "We Are Descended" is a wonderful framing device to remind audiences that we're still very connected to the stain of slavery in America.
There are also some great central performances in Dessa Rose to be treasured. Sydney Charles in the title role wrenches all the emotion out her Act I closer "Twelve Children," in which Dessa Rose tells her newborn the sad history of 11 siblings in her family. Charles also plays off well opposite Harmony France's strong take on Ruth, who blossoms with daring once she abandons her color prejudices and starts to work with the many runaway slaves who find a refuge at her remote plantation.
Watching Charles' Dessa Rose and France's Ruth make the journey from initially seething distrust to sharing respect for each other is fulfilling as they bravely challenge societal constraints.
Jayson "JC" Brooks is great in the supporting role of the runaway slave Nathan who cooks up a daring get-rich scheme to help his friends gain freedom, while David Schlumpf has fun playing the dual roles of Ruth's ne'er-do-well gambler husband the obsessive author Adam Nehemiah.
So take in Dessa Rose for its solid performances and its cultural timeliness. Just be aware that it's a less-than-best work by writers who have done better in the past.