There’s
nothing in Sassy Mamas by Celeste
Bedford Walker that you haven’t seen in a variety of cable sitcoms. What we
have are three African-American women friends of a certain age, living in the
same luxury Washington D.C. apartment building, who find themselves on their
own, relationship-wise. Instead of taking up scrapbooking, they decide they would like to
explore the delights of younger black men--and we ain’t talking about their
ability to shovel the driveway.
With
that premise the jokes almost write themselves, and playwright Bedford doesn’t
get in the way, keeping the dialog crisp, the punch line set-ups clear and the
laughs plentiful. Even though there’s nothing really new here, sometimes it’s
cozy to settle back into some familiar comedic territory and roll around in it
for a while.
Happily,
director Tony Sias has assembled nearly the perfect cast for this show. To be
clear, that doesn’t mean these six folks are the best actors around. But it
does mean that the three women (Kimberly Sias, Jeanne Madison and Rebecca
Morris) and the three guys (Michael Head, Cameron Woods and Bryon Tobin) are
ideally matched with each other.
The
ladies are beautiful but they also credibly look their age—one is a recent
widow, one a divorcee, and one a career woman (the President’’s National
Security Advisor, no less). And the gentlemen are three interesting and quite
different versions of the type known as seriously hot.
If
you don’t have six people like that, this show isn’t getting off the ground.
But beyond that, each of the performers is talented enough to bring out the
humor of the script without losing track of their characters.
In
short, it is a tight and enjoyable ride, augmented by a classy scenic design
and drop-dead gorgeous costumes, all of which is designed by Inda Blatch-Geib.
So
if you want to explore the land where cougars (er, “black panthers”) prowl, Sassy Mamas is just the ticket.
Sassy
Mamas
Through
March 4 at Karamu House, 2355 East 89 St., 216-795-7070, karamuhouse.org.
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