Theater: “Choir Boy” with Jeremy Pope
High school can be hell. Especially if you’re gay. And black. And, you attend a religious all-black prep school. Where you’re bullied by a student whose uncle is the headmaster. Somehow, Tarrel Alvin McCraney has taken these unlikely, disparate elements and turned them into an unqualified hit.
I speak, of course, of “Choir Boy,” the part-Gospel music, part-dramedy that anybody who’s ever felt like the world’s against them in HS needs to see right now. Starring Jeremy Pope as the gay scholarship boy who just wants to sing in the choir, facing off against J. Quinton Johnson as the homophonic bully who cuts him no slack. Also featuring Austin Pendleton (yeah, him!) as the #visiting-professor-so-white.
Fantastic ensemble choreography by Camille Brown, original a-capella music and arrangements by Jason Michael Webb. So turn off that damn SOTU already. And think about buying a ticket. How much fake news can a person take anyway? At MTC (Tuesday) #choirboy