Review by Robin Breon
Billed
as a celebration of "class, sass and style" 3 Mo' Divas (written and directed by Marion
J. Caffey)
certainly has all three of those qualities and much more. In the genre of
compilation musicals, this one lays out its project right off the top. We've
all heard of the 3 Tenors, the three great men who fill stadiums and sing the
great classical repertoire of the opera, hitting high Cs with the velocity and
precision of a space shuttle lift off. Well, now meet the 3 Divas who can sing
the classics, hit the high notes and then some. And it's the "then
some" that's important in this show.
It's
not really important to have a book driving one these musicals. Ain't
Misbehavin', the
grand-daddy of the compilation musical (based on the music of Fats Waller) has
no book to speak of and it does just fine, thanks very much. But sometimes just
a smidgen of a story line can help the music along. Forever Plaid opened with a guy group having
met their sad demise in a highway accident in upstate Pennsylvania on their way
to a gig at the high school prom. They find themselves in guy group limbo and
have to accomplish that last show before they can move on up heavenward for their
eternal reward ("Won't you help us do it, folks? Please?"). And 5
Guys Named Mo
kicks off with an opening scene that introduces us to a young man deep in
depression and contemplating taking his own life until five guys named Mo pop
out of the juke box and redeem his immortal soul with the jump-up, feel good
music of the great Louis Jordan
We
get a touch of possibility in the opening number of 3 Mo' Divas when diva Laurice Lanier, with her imposing mezzo-soprano
voice and no nonsense physical stature takes center stage and indicates her
growing displeasure when divas Jamet Pittman and Nova Payton begin to top her in Quando M'en
Vo from La Boheme.
It's all in good fun of course and could easily have become the running gag of
the show. But this is just a very slight quibble to a show that has much in it
to enjoy
And
as to comparing these remarkably talented ladies to the 3 great men who started
it all? Well here it is folks and I think it needs to be said. These women have
studied the classics and sing the arias and the art songs second to no one.
Think of the first section of the show as a tribute to Marian Anderson if you
will (and I mean that seriously). But it's when they move into the popular
repertoire that the comparison becomes interesting to the 3 maestros of
tenordom. The guys can't hack it. Somehow their classical training gets in the
way and they just don't have the chops as anyone can hear when they launch into
an embarrassing Feliz Navedad on the perennial PBS broadcasts during the
Christmas season.
This
is certainly not the case in 3 Mo' Divas. These women can roll with the classics, belt out
the Broadway show tunes, bend the notes in the jazz standards and move right on
into the soulful and the spiritual with skillful and equal aplomb. What a
wonder to behold and what a wonderful evening to spend.