Lakewood Playhouse brings the iconic choreopoem to this region for the first time in over 40 years
More than most anything else, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf seems to be a fundamentally theatrical experience. Since it premiered on Broadway in 1976, there have been several attempts at translating this seminal work to the screen, including for PBS in 1982, and a big screen version directed by Tyler Perry (shortened to For Colored Girls) in 2010, both with fairly tepid receptions.
For Colored Girls…, now being staged at Lakewood Playhouse, is a show that mainly consists of poetic monologues being delivered by seven emphatically engaged performers, interspersed with wildly physical musical numbers (playwright Ntozake Shange referred to it as a “choreopoem”), and any distance placed between them and the audience will do a disservice to the material. It’s a show that demands that you be as present as possible — a show of giddy highs and devastating lows, and that emotional turbulence gets deadened when separated from live theater.
It’s a wonder, then, that this is the first time For Colored Girls has been staged in this region for more than 40 years. With Lakewood Playhouse mounting a production of this show, after all this time, it seems like they’ve gone about it in the right way: this show, centered on the stories of Black women, has been produced with an all-Black cast, and mostly Black and female crew.
The cast: Whitney Crawford, Kristina Dustan, Nyah Hart, La Chelle Heard, Lindsey T. H. Jackson, Canae Machelle, and Courtnee Ramos. Rather than playing traditional characters, each performer is credited by the color they wear (Lady in Red, Lady in Purple, etc.), and they swirl in and out of the spotlight, each one getting her own time to shine before blending back into the chorus.
If the musical numbers provide the connective tissue in For Colored Girls, then the monologues are the visceral meat, and they run the gamut of emotions. There’s the delightful Lady in Yellow, telling the story of losing her virginity on graduation night — an unambiguously joyful event in a play where most things aren’t quite that simple. Then there’s the Lady in Brown, who tells of her childhood love for Haitian revolutionary Toussaint L’Ouverture, and her dreams of joining him in Haiti.
But the primal scream of Shange’s poetry comes in monologues that lay bare the everyday horrors faced by women — the Lady in Blue enduring an abortion in secret; the Lady in Blue, the Lady in Red, and the Lady in Purple talking about how your rapist is much less likely to be a stranger than someone you know; and the terrible story of Beau Willie Brown, the abusive Iraq War veteran, which may prove impossible to forget.
Director Michelle N. Matlock and choreographer DéShawn Morton have taken a lot of care to bring For Colored Girls to the stage, ensuring that it feels as immediate as it can, separated from its origins in the ‘70s. The few things that don’t translate as readily to 2025 (a cautionary tale about HIV being the creakiest time capsule) are thankfully surrounded by material that remains as vital as it always has been, and the performers are more than up to meeting the emotional peaks and valleys.
For Colored Girls is an “important” show, which can sometimes sound to people like a homework assignment, but it’s also fun, challenging, and frequently dazzling. Best to catch it before it leaves again for two more generations.
Photos by Lakewood Playhouse.
WHAT:
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow is Enuf
WHEN:
7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday through June 8
WHERE:
Lakewood Playhouse, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd SW, Lakewood
COST:
$25-$30
“Pay What You Can” Sunday, June 1
LEARN MORE:
lakewoodplayhouse.org
(253) 588-0042