'Caroline, or Change'

Caroline, or Change
November 6, 2004 (first preview)
Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles
Book & lyrics by Tony Kushner
Music by Jeanine Tesori

“Caroline” is a musical in which very little happens. It is more of a sung-through character exploration than a full-fledged plot musical, and yet the show manages to remain completely fascinating for its entire two hours. The plot is minimal: set in 1963 Louisiana – right at the time of the Civil Rights movement and JFK’s assassination – the story concerns a black maid, Caroline, working for a Jewish family and struggling to raise four children on a meager $30-per-week salary. Tension arises when the Jewish family’s stepmother implores Caroline to keep the pocket change that Noah, the family’s eight-year-old son, keeps leaving in his pants pockets.

The plot, however, tends to fade into the background in favor of expository passages in which the characters talk about their personal histories or their feelings. And because of the somewhat unique way that creators Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori have structured their musical, it completely works. It’s highly original for its genre, structured more as a pop-opera or a sung play than as a “musical.” Characters do not randomly break into song – the music is completely folded into the dialogue and language of the characters, allowing for the characters to plausibly talk about themselves without boring the audience.

The show opens, for example, in the basement of the Gellman family home, where Caroline is busy doing loads of laundry in the middle of the afternoon. As she hums, doing her work, she begins “talking” to the washing machine and the radio – they pop up behind the machines in the basement as a kind of Greek chorus, commenting on her actions and her feelings. The radio, represented through a Supremes-style trio, sings, for example: “Tough and dreary and all disheveled / sixteen feet, below sea level / Baby, gonna drown / All day long, you wear a frown / Dressed in white and feeling low, talking to the washer and the radio.” Even though Caroline never actually talks to these characters, they are there providing insights to Caroline’s character throughout. The lengthy exposition never really gets boring because it is sung through in such an appealing format, using musical styles of everything from Motown to Mozart.

Perhaps what makes “Caroline” work as well as it does, however, is the completeness of the characters that Kushner creates. These are very normal people living very normal lives, and Kushner is brilliant and portraying their inner thoughts. While each character gets a chance to exposit, Caroline gets the most poignant material. She is a heavily flawed character – grumpy and angry for nearly the entire show – but she is drawn as someone who has been so crushed by her experiences that she simply has no strength left to fight her situation. She sings at one point: “Always theys been people who / hold they head high gettin through / I cant - I can't ... And some folks go to school at night / some folks march for civil rights / I don't - I ain't got the heart, I can't hardly read / Some folks do all kinds of things and black folks someday you'll live like kings ... / oh sure, it true, but not for me.” This is not your normal musical theatre character: she’s weak, and she doesn’t perform the satisfying rebellion that makes the audience leave the theatre smiling.

However, what one has is a portrait of a very normal person: how many of an oppressed minority - any oppressed minority - actually has the strength to break out and accomplish the revolution necessary for complete change? Most are so crushed by their situation that they choose to hunker down and get through it. One can identify with Caroline when she says she just doesn't have the strength to fight it.

The plot only semi-resolves itself by the end of the show, but the show concludes in a way that is much more true to life. Events don’t neatly finish real life, and nor do people completely change after one or two incidents. What makes “Caroline, or Change” remarkable is the way that the characters have been revealed to the audience through the minimal events of the story. It’s a very rich and varied text that deserves further exploration, but completely satisfying as theatre as well.

Part of the reason that it is such satisfying theatre is the highly talented cast: Tonya Pinkins is powerful and fierce as Caroline, yet entirely sympathetic as well. Anika Noni Rose gives Emmie - Caroline's daughter - a polished and ebullient performance. Also of note are the Radio girls, who belt and croon skillfully, played by Kenna Ramsey, Tracey Nicole Chapman and Marva Hicks. Veanne Cox gives a nuanced and wonderful performance as the stepmother, Rose.

- "Caroline, or Change" is at the Ahmanson Theatre through December 26. Visit www.taperahmanson.com for more information.