Written by Deardra Shuler
Wednesday, 20 February 2008

Rhythm^^^^^^^^^and^^^^^^^^beat
Verse^^^^^^^^^^and^^^^^^^^song
Rhythm^^^^^^^^^and^^^^^^^^beat
Verse^^^^^^^^^^and^^^^^^^^song
Rhythm^^^^^^^^^and^^^^^^^^beat
Verse^^^^^^^^^^and^^^^^^^^song

WoooOooWoooooooooooo SAME TRAIN.

SAME TRAIN came rolling into the Algonquin Theatre with such a roar the audience couldn’t help but be pulled along, captivated from start to finish with the depth and profundity of each saga. Comprised of seven tales emphasizing the lives of Black folks from the time of Jim Crow until present day, the SAME TRAIN performers tell each story via verse and rhyme, music and song, with such mastery of rhythm it’s simply a tour de force of artistic genius.

It was easy for this reviewer to get-on-board with this production. SAME TRAIN is simply the best play I have seen in some time. I was impressed with the writing and lyrics of playwright Levy Lee Simon (also known for The Guest at Central Park West), and the music and lyrics of Mark Bruckner whose individual talents are woven with such intimacy under the direction of director Mary Beth Easley, that the play is nothing short of a mastery of syncopation. Mark Bruckner’s skill as a pianist and percussionist marries the talents of bass player Tara Thierry, whose musical co-mingling gives forth just the right dramatic effect, comic timing and excitement, that colors each spoken line and each song sung; tangling and detangling each web of love, intrigue, romance, violence, and pathos which makes up the human experience and the reverie within the play. This play moves with such locomotion one doesn’t know what hit them as they are carried away by each poignant, amusing and soul-stirring tale that depicts the beauty and terror of living Black in the good ole USA.

SAME TRAIN is powerful...

Singers Ayeje Feamster, Kami Percinthe and Cedric Turner sing songs such as Down the Road, Slide Your Top Down, Same Train, Moon Cuts A Slingblade, Flat Foot Floozie, Hootchie Coochie Man, Blessed Child, Voulez-Vous Dancer, et al, with such power, each melodious note is a testament to their marvelous vocal acumen as they wrap their metrical souls around the gospel, jazz and blues music that integrates itself with the rhythmic verbiage of Audelco Award winner Levy Lee Simons.

Does it seem like this reviewer enjoyed SAME TRAIN? Well, you would be right on track if you guessed, yes! I definitely recommend this play.

 

nytheatre.com review

Martin Denton · February 13, 2008

Excerpts
Same Train is a collection of songs and stories and spoken-word vignettes reflecting the African American experience of the past hundred years. Playwright Levy Lee Simon has put seven tales on stage, set to the music of composer Mark Bruckner; both of these creators of Same Train are part of the show's ensemble, with Bruckner on piano and percussion and Simon speaking many of his own words along with six other actor/singers.

Serving as a kind of narrator—or, perhaps more accurately, the glue holding the divergent strands together—is Cedric Turner as a timeless African American from South Carolina named Old Man Henry. ...he leads us into each of the segments of Same Train with an apropos anecdote, usually about his lifelong friend Butterbean, with whom he got into a variety of scrapes over the course of time. Turner delivers many of these interludes accompanying himself on guitar, which he wields with an effortless mastery; there is never anything so sublime in this show as when Turner sings and plays the blues.

But there is a great deal else in the show...
The stories recounted here, in song, poetry, and prose, cover many of the familiar bases of African American life as it has been depicted in popular culture. There's a tale of two young men hitchhiking during college spring break to Florida, realizing the worst fears of one of them when they get stuck in an unfamiliar woods in the dark. Another piece is about a young man who gets caught up in the cycle of gang violence and drug dealing in Harlem; while a third shows us another man returning to his old Harlem neighborhood, where he meets up with an old flame who has become, apparently, a very busy lady of the evening (she protects herself with a trio of scary pit bulls, who provide the comic impetus for this particular vignette).

Less charted territory is covered in pieces like "Efumi," which has as its theme the troubling issue of female circumcision in Africa, and "Into the Night," about an African American cop who gets an unexpected assignment as he heads downtown from Harlem late one evening.

The writing here is interesting; Simon has a distinctive voice, and his poetry in particular is impressive...