When we got home from “Purlie”, playing now at Downing-Gross Cultural Arts Center, our cat Pepper was up in arms.  “How offensive that they would do a song called ‘Skinnin’ a Cat’!  Unbelievable!” she meowed at us.  When we finally got her settled down enough to listen, and explained to her that it was just a metaphor about how there is more than one way to get back at Ol’ Cap’n, the plantation owner whose family used to own all of the African Americans on this Georgia plantation in name but now just controls them in substance, she was a little more receptive. 

Yes – “Purlie” is a musical about a community of people coming together to plot a way to pry what is rightfully theirs away from the powers-that-be on a cotton plantation in Jim Crow era Georgia.  Despite the serious nature of the subject, the show is generally light-hearted and fun, with upbeat and funny songs, as well as a cotton bale full of excellent one-liners, including:

• “Some of the best pretending in the world happens in front of white folk”,
• “It can be fun to be a Negro – when nobody is looking”, and
• “The South is split like a fat man’s underwear”.

Singing those songs and delivering those one-liners is a talented cast, led by this production’s Purlie, Michael Malbrough.  When you first hear him talk, you can see how he might inspire a whole town with his words – Malbrough could preach to you a list of vegetables (and in fact does so in the second act) – and still keep you compelled and engaged.  To help with the scheme he has cooked up, Purlie has brought the young, innocent, bright-eyed Lutiebelle with him to town.  Mara Suggs takes on the role of Lutiebelle, and her smile immediately lights up the stage.  Lutiebelle must learn how to act like a college-educated member of the family, and Suggs is fantastic at looking like she just realized something, and realized it with incredible joy.  As she inevitably starts to fall for Purlie, Suggs excellently sings a song named after him (with a very fun little dance break), and the audience, in turn, falls in love with her. 

Egging on this little romance is Purlie’s sister-in-law, Missy, played by Erika Patrick.  Patrick also has impressive vocals, and seems to know just when to make a little move here or a subtle motion there to make a conversation flow just right.  Missy’s husband (and Purlie’s brother) Gitlow is the one piece of the puzzle who needs a little convincing to bring on board with Purlie’s plot.  Gitlow, you see, has been canonized by the Ol’ Cap’n as “deputy of the colored” – and thus has been entrusted by the old man with some power (although, he doesn’t really seem to be reaping any of the rewards of that power).  Last year’s HRACT Award winner for lighting design, Derrion La’Zachan Hawkins is back on stage in this production as Gitlow – and he is his usual excellent self.  He brings such energy to the role, pushing the plot forward, and surprising you with little one-liners in the background of scenes that are so cleverly stuck in there.  And his vocal gymnastics are impressive – not just his singing, but Hawkins also shoots off a great impression of the Ol’ Cap’n, followed immediately by a great impression of Purlie, which had me laughing out loud. 

That brings us to the plantation house household.  Ol’ Cap’n is played by Justin Giroux, who is doing his best Confederate Colonel Sanders impression – and we all very quickly know who to hate.  His son, Charlie, is a surprising ally to the African American cause – and Chandler McHugh is a strong singer in the role as he hilariously continues to try to write a good folk song, but can’t quite get it right.  And Sheila Diggs Jones, donning a very cool pair of small circle eyeglasses, plays Ol’ Cap’n’s irreplaceable cook, Idella Landy, who can manipulate him with food in ways most of us can only dream about.

The leads all have little dance numbers thrown into their songs, and director/choreographer Deon Ridley leans into (and gets his actors to lean into) the cutesy-corniness of them.  But, when Ridley has use of his full ensemble (which is surprisingly rare in this show), the dancing and sound they produce as a whole is enviable.  The very first song of the show (which starts with a coffin with a Confederate flag on it – quoteth my wife “that can’t be good”) is full of so much energy, I was tired just watching it.  The dancers are led by the very talented Ayden (like Cher, he only needs one name in the program), twirling and leaping his way around stage, a level of dancing we don’t see often in community theater.  The singing in that first number – “Walk Him Up the Stairs” – was to die for (apologies to the man in the coffin).  And we were very impressed by the full band (I counted at least eight members), led by music director Sherrod Brown, rounding out the sound perfectly.

“I still don’t see why they couldn’t just say there is more than one way to chop down a tree or something – ‘tree’ rhymes with just as many, if not more, things than ‘cat’!” Pepper proclaimed as she settled into her cat bed.  I may not be able to get Ms. Pep to see beyond that poor choice of feline metaphor early in the first act of “Purlie” – but I’m confident you will enjoy this show that reminds us all to continue to fight injustice and be an ally to those who are suppressed – and you’ll get some laughs along the way.