| The Preacher’s Wife in Atlanta | |
| Posted by: lowwriter 11:33 pm EDT 06/05/24 | |
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| This afternoon I saw my first show at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, a new musical with an all-Black cast, The Preacher’s Wife with music and lyrics by Tituss Burgess and a book by Azie Dungey. The show is based on the films The Preacher’s Wife and The Bishop’s Wife as well as the novel The Bishop’s Wife by Robert Nathan. In this version of the story, the musical foregrounds the character of Julia Biggs, giving her much more prominence than just being married to a preacher. I thought this revision of her character worked very well. This is a very entertaining, crowd pleasing musical with several exciting numbers and a beautiful ballad for Julia at the end of act one. The four principal roles are well cast with Donald Webber Jr. as Dudley the angel, Loretta Devine as Julia’s mother Marguerite (Devine was in the original Broadway production of Dreamgirls), Akron Lanier Watson as Henry Biggs and Ashley Jenkins standing in for Amber Wiley as Julia. Though I was looking forward to seeing Amber Wiley on stage, I thought Ashley Jenkins made a lovely and touching Julia and I enjoyed her singing very much today. I could see this musical doing well on Broadway. I do think it needs some more work on the choreography (kind of generic) and set design (bland). The book could be sharper and needs tightening. Some of the lyrics need work as well. I also had trouble hearing some of the lyrics which has to do with the sound design. Still, I was extremely pleased to sample a new musical in its initial production. @alliancetheatre @preacherswifemusical @instatituss @aziedungey @lodivadevine @donaldwebber @akronwatson @ashleywjenki |
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