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New York Times
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
‘The Gospel at Colonus' Review: Singing Hallelujah on the Hudson
Back at the start of this century, Tom Stoppard raised some eyebrows with the copious program notes theatergoers received at his brainy Broadway play 'The Invention of Love.' The Times review advised reading them, as context for understanding the performance, 'before the curtain goes up.' Audience members traipsing onto Little Island in Manhattan for the handsome revival of Lee Breuer and Bob Telson's 'The Gospel at Colonus' don't get anything of the kind, but it would have been a help. An aurally sumptuous quasi-Passion play that sings hallelujah to the heavens in the island's open-air amphitheater, the show retells an ancient Greek drama through the prism of a Black Pentecostal church service. 'Welcome, brothers and sisters,' the Preacher (Stephanie Berry) says at the beginning, with the Hudson River glinting as a backdrop in lieu of an upstage wall. 'I take as my text this evening the Book of Oedipus.' It is a clever line. But while a pastor might be able to presume a congregation's familiarity with a book of the Bible, it is riskier to count on a crowd knowing Sophocles' drama 'Oedipus at Colonus.' Breuer, the great downtown experimentalist who died in 2021, was all about risk. Still, let's recap, shall we? In 'Oedipus at Colonus,' Oedipus is old, infamous and exiled from Thebes, where he once was king. His life has been a litany of scandals, which you might recall from another of Sophocles' Theban tragedies, 'Oedipus Rex': Abandoned as an infant, he did not know his parents, so when he later killed his father in a fight, he didn't realize who it was, and when he married his mother and had children with her, he likewise had no idea. After learning the truth, he gouged his eyes out. Now, in his wanderings, his beloved daughter Antigone is his indispensable guide. Upon their arrival at Colonus, Theseus, the king of Athens, takes pity and offers them sanctuary. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
The Surprising Presence in ‘The Gospel at Colonus'
Little Island's revival of 'The Gospel at Colonus' brings together a powerhouse ensemble of Black artists to tell a story of shame, exile and grace. At its center: the gospel singer and pastor Kim Burrell, who came under fire nine years ago after a sermon surfaced online in which she condemned homosexuality. Now, in her traditional theatrical debut, Burrell joins a production that asks whether redemption is possible. 'The Gospel at Colonus,' directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury, is a joyous fusion of Greek tragedy and gospel music. This is the show's first New York production not led by its writers, the composer Bob Telson and Lee Breuer, a founder of the experimental theater group Mabou Mines. The musical, first produced at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1983 and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1985, uses the melodic language of a Black Pentecostal church service to retell the story of Oedipus, the king of Thebes who unwittingly killed his father and married his mother, then gouged out his eyes in shame. The original production starred Morgan Freeman as the pastor who tells Oedipus' story and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama as the singers who give voice to his pain. Now, Chowdhury has assembled a multitalented cast: the R&B singer-songwriter serpentwithfeet; the actors and singers Stephanie Berry, Ayana George Jackson and Jon-Michael Reese; and, sharing Oedipus's singing parts, the operatic bass-baritone Davóne Tines and the jazz musician Frank Senior. Burrell appears as Theseus, the king who offers Oedipus refuge at the end of his life. Chowdhury, a Pulitzer-nominated playwright, studied and later taught about spirituals and other religious music at Stanford. He said he assembled this cast because of their voices. 'There's enormous sonic diversity under the umbrella of Black sacred music,' he wrote in an email, 'and in gathering together a team for this production, I wanted to highlight that range of sounds and textures.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
