Alicia Keys’ Hit Play, ‘Stickfly,’ Splashes Onto New York’s Broadway Stage: Black Issues Explored

I was delighted to see Lydia R. Diamond’s Stickfly has made it to New York City’s Broadway from its humble beginnings at the Congo Square Theater in Chicago years ago. I saw it then and today’s production retains the same biting dialogue between the main characters pitting race, class and family dynamics against each other. Now the work has a soundtrack supplied by the play’s producer Alicia Keys adding to the star power along with leads Mekhi Phifer (Flip LeVay), Tracie Thoms (Taylor) and Dulé Hill (Spoon  LeVay). My reaction to the production was similar to when I saw it in Chicago – great comedic timing especially by Joe LeVay (Ruben Santiago-Hudson) the flawed family patriarch, the thoroughly enjoyable racially charged cuss-out of the lone white character Kimber (Rosie Benton) by Taylor (Thoms), an emotionally bankrupt black female who is still trying to find herself and work through residual “Daddy issues”, and the unveiling of juicy yet familiar family secrets through Cheryl (Condola Rashad). The story takes place at the LeVay family home on Martha’s Vineyard and exposes a conversation about the categories of upper-, middle-, lower-middle, lower-class, educated, uneducated, urban, old school and new school African American beliefs that become a consistent discussion (or debate) when folk get together to fellowship.

Diamond lays bare what we all want to say sometimes about current racial tensions but don’t, with diatribes refreshingly absent of a hip-hop or sports undertone. It is another presentation of black life and drama that rarely is shared in theater or on the big screen. The audience members were willing participants in the ups-and-downs of the drama filled getaway with the LeVay family offering several audible “uh-huhs” and “ohs” as the plot thickened. What we didn’t get from this family drama set to stage was a resolution wrapped up in a neat little bow a la typical Hollywood fashion. Frailties were exposed and left hanging by each of the characters, all theirs for the figuring out, letting us know we’re not ever that far removed from our “issues” no matter what category we claim.

At the Cort Theater, 138 West 48th Street, Manhattan; (212) 239-6200, telecharge.com. Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes.