Theater Review
Doff your hats to a well-cast, cozy 'Crowns'

By Misha Berson
Seattle Times theater critic

CHRIS BENNION Felicia V. Loud, right, plays Yolanda, a street-tough Brooklyn kid sent to South Carolina to live with her grandmother (Cynthia Jones, left, as Mother Shaw) in Intiman Theatre's production of "Crowns."

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The fashion parade in "Crowns," Intiman Theatre's first production of the 2004 season, begins before the performance does.

This is an entertainment for and about hat-lovers. And it's a chance to show off those chapeaus gathering dust in your closet.

On opening night, I spotted many broad-brimmed straw hats in the crowd (some adorned with silky flowers), a few fedoras, turbans and cloches and a big, imposing sailboat of a topper of the same bright African-print cloth as the wearer's dress.

It may be hard to imagine a play that focuses as intently on the wearing and meaning of hats as Regina Taylor's "Crowns" does. But then, "Crowns" (which Taylor loosely based on the photo book, "Crowns: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats," by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry) is not really a play.

It is a fond, sentimental, Black-sisterhood-is-powerful pastiche of anecdotes and gospel songs, strung together like so many beads in a "Sunday go to meeting" necklace.

Theater review "Crowns," by Regina Taylor. Tuesday-Sunday through May 28 at Intiman Theatre, Seattle Center. ($27-$46/$10 under age 26; 206-269-1900 or www.intiman.org.)

The show is a slighter diversion than expected, and predictable in its sympathies.

But in Intiman's well-cast and decorous production, directed with care by Jacqueline Moscou, the event exudes a feel-good coziness. And much of the warmth radiates from the cast's seven vibrant actor-singers, six of them women.

Wearing silky slips at first (for a heavy-handed historical prelude), then flattering church dresses, and donning an array of picturesque hats supplied by the Madison Valley milliner Henrietta Price, these forceful ladies barely have characters to play.

Five appear as Deep South "church women," female representatives of an ancestral African-American culture that feels totally alien to young Yolanda (Felicia V. Loud), a street-tough Brooklyn kid sent to live with her South Carolina grandmother, Mother Shaw (Cynthia Jones), after a violent family tragedy.

Over a single, archetypal Sunday, Mother Shaw and her friends "initiate" Yolanda into their ranks by telling personal stories about hats as instruments of dignity, self-definition, sanctity and feminine allure.

The tale-tellers are droll and ingratiating. And when they sing, together and solo, such gospel tunes as "Wade In the Water" and "When I Rise," they can thrill you.

Most impressive is Gretha Boston, a Tony Award winner whose musky, capacious alto resonates magnificently in an a capella version of "His Eye Is On the Sparrow."

There are also stories of "hattitude," and good singing from versatile Jones, elegant Deidrie N. Henry, hearty Shaunyce Omar, and Josephine Howell, a humorous and robust raconteur.

Loud, a Seattle rock singer of note, gets little chance to solo. But she aces Yolanda's slouchy, glowering manner, and the gradual thawing of her grief. And she adds a welcome streak of iconoclasm to a show that openly extols a life of churchgoing and old-school femininity.

"Crowns" also profits from Carey Wong's imposing set of tall hat display cases, Patrinell Wright's vocal arrangements and Donald Byrd's graceful choreography — which extends to the way the women wave their fans in church.

Though this is a matriarchal tribute, to be sure, there are three able men on hand: musicians Bill Sims Jr. and Mark Sampson, and the splendid Doug Eskew. Playing a sanctifying preacher, and various husbands and fathers, Eskew is a model male figure — and one equipped with a riveting tenor singing voice that could blow the hat right off your head.

Misha Berson: mberson@seattletimes.com

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

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