Goddess
Theater review by Raven Snook
There's an enchanting new chanteuse at Moto Moto, a sultry hot spot in Mombasa, Kenya, where people from all walks of life go to dance the night away. Played by Amber Iman, who is stunning in voice and stature, Nadira is a truly heavenly creature: the human form of Marimba, the goddess of music, in hiding from her tyrannical mother, the goddess of evil. Marimba is looking for love, and she finds it. As she casts a spell on the mortals who hear her sing, she's enthralled by them in return—and particularly by Omari (Austin Scott), the scion of a conservative political dynasty who plays sax on the sly at Moto Moto. Before long, these two rebellious kids are making beautiful music together.
Goddess | Photograph: Courtesy Joan Marcus
That's the setup for Goddess, a musical loosely inspired by an African folktale that has captivated the Kenyan-born director and book writer Saheem Ali since he was a teenager. When the exuberant cast and band are performing Michael Thurber's fabulous score—a seductive blend of Afrobeat, Taarab, R&B, soul and jazz that reflects Kenya’s multicultural makeup—the show soars to the skies. But Goddess’s nonmusical scenes weigh it down with an unfocused narrative and an array of underwritten stock characters: a jilted fiancée (Destinee Rea), a domineering father (J Paul Nicholas), a worried mother (Ayana George Jackson), a lecherous club owner (Jason Bowen), an all-knowing shaman (Reggie D. White).
Goddess | Photograph:...