Lorraine Hansberry's 'Black Nativity' uplifting:
Around this time of year, it's easy to feel grumpy about the seasonal stress, especially as harried shoppers careen zombie-like against you on your way through Union Square, but if you can make it a few blocks up the hill to the Marines Memorial Theatre, a couple of hours with the gospel inspiration of the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre's annual 'Black Nativity,' directed by Stanley E. Williams, can not only warm, but even uplift.
Narrated with unbridled preacherly resonance by Michael Leroy Brown, the show comes in two parts - a Christmas pageant-style re-enactment of the Nativity story, and a second act set in a modern-day church and delivered with all the gusto of a Baptist revival. There's a lot that has to fit onstage and this year's setting - Jedd de Lucia's vaulted Gothic interior -manages to accommodate a choir, soloists, dancers, plus a three-man band - the superbly reliable Kenneth Little, James "Booyah" Richard and Omar Maxwell under the musical direction of Arvis Strickling Jones.
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