Mr. Scrooge: Bring on the Funk and Hip Hop!!!
ArtsWest has become the first theatre outside of Chicago to produce one of the Q Brothers’ funk and HipHop treatments of stage classics. Alongside Christmas Carol, the Chicago-based collective of real life brothers GQ and JQ have worked with collaborators Jackson Moran and Postell Pringle to produce “add-RAP-tations” of Shakespeare, Aristophanes and more, like Othello: TheRemix, Dress The Part (Two Gents of Verona)), I Heart Juliet, Funk It Up About Nothin’ (Much Ado) ms. estrada (Lysistrata), along with Christmas Carol, a perennial favorite at the holidays.
Q Brothers are Chicago royalty, and Chicago Shakespeare’s theatre at Navy Pier has been their artistic home for a decade. The Collective has toured the states and appeared across the globe. The Collective is beyond fabulous, and audiences roar with appreciation at their brilliant HipHop verse adaptations of—well— some of the greatest verse plays in the world.
In the ArtsWest production of the Collective’s Christmas Carol, performers Dre Anderson, Lola Rei Fukushima, Jerik Fernandez and Christopher Kehoe are working hard to inhabit the Q Brothers’ clever adaptation of Ebenezer Scrooge and Bob Cratchit’s well-worn tale. The text and songs gallop along at the Q Brothers’ pace, with prerecorded beats and orchestrations. Though each performer has wonderful moments where they shine, as a company they do not have the voices or movement skills to carry off the 85-minute, fast-paced affair.
HipHop consultant Jace Ecaj, director Daniel Cruz, and music director Greg Fields needed more time before opening night, as the performers were wobbly during the first number and vocally felt weak—not in the spoken verse per se, but in the sung numbers. The opening song didn’t feel like funk at all, but rather like a sugary musical theatre number, with cliché movement. There is no choreographer credited. Perhaps it was under-rehearsed, as I’ve heard it sung by Q Brothers and it was funky, full voiced, and got the whole place rocking. At ArtsWest, the opening was strained and felt forced.
The setting (by Jeremy Hollis) started off as a bright, red-trimmed department store—(Not)Target, and Xmas clearly signaled. Though off to a rough start, once we settled into Scrooge’s (Kehoe) corporate greed and Bob Cratchit’s (Fernandez) overworked loyalty and poverty-stricken family, the company is on firmer ground. Hollis’ set is serviceable and clever as it unfolds to provide Scrooge a bed, the Cratchits a kitchen, and the ghosts of Xmas past, present and future graveyards, clouds of fog, and other properties needed for the story to unfold.
Anderson is at his best in the HipHop versions of the ghosts he plays. He roars onstage as the ghost of Xmas past, a Jamaican, baritone-voiced prophet driving a chariot and bearing messages about Scrooge’s past and the past (history) of HipHop. The sound mix on opening night made it impossible to catch all of his important lyrics. Some of the best-performed verse in the show is delivered by Fernandez, who crafts his ghost of Xmas present(tense) as a B-boy right off the streets and studios of Seattle’s International District, cool, collected and always close to the audience
Kehoe is splendid as Scrooge, treating the Q Brothers’ verse as though it were in fact Shakespeare—every word clear, long phrases supported by breath and diction. Fukushima’s best moment is when they literally take the soapbox and deliver what perhaps is autobiographical material. If it was Q Brothers’ text, Fukushima made it their own. For a moment, their rushed and hard-to-understand performance became focused, clear, and immediate.
I know this show will get better as it finds its core rhythms. It is difficult material to learn, and pre-recorded beats make it hard to find your groove whether you are singing or rapping. No matter what, the ArtsWest performers do a good job telling the story of the greedy capitalist who learns his lesson through the ghosts of his karma and conscience. Scrooge ultimately finds forgiveness and the spirit of generosity via the grace of those he oppressed, yet who always saw his humanity. Thanks Mr. Dickens; it’s a story I never tire of. I wish it could come true.
Q Brothers Christmas Carol runs ArtsWest 4711 California Ave SW. West Seattle, Seattle 98116. Thurs-Sat 7:30 pm. Sun. 3:00 pm. Wed Dec. 21 7:30. Til Dec. 23rd. N.B. The West Seattle Bridge is now open. The Sunday matinées are timed to start just as the year-round West Seattle Farmer’s Markets are closing. It makes a nice Sunday afternoon outing.
Based on the story by Charles Dickens, written by Chicago’s Q Brothers Collective. Directed by Daniel Cruz, Musical Direction by Greg Fields, Scenic Design by Jeremy Hollis, Light Design by Hannah Gibbs, Sound Design by Spencer Behm, Props Design by Jessamyn Bateman-Iino, Costumes by Ann Cornelius. Stage Managed by Antoinieta Carpio. Starring Dre Anderson, Jerik Fernandez, Lola Rei Fukushima, and Christopher Kehoe.
Info: Artswest.org