“Ms. Blakk For President” at Steppenwolf Theatre Company

Ms. Black for President – Steppenwolf Theatre

Steppenwolf has kicked off the early summer with a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience, Ms. Blakk for President, which brings the audience along Ms. Blakk’s run for United States President, an endeavor that started as an attempt to bring awareness to the AIDS crisis and queer issues and make it to the floor of the Democratic National Convention. Marketed as play, party, and campaign rally, the entire evening includes a pre-show party, art-displays, historical timelines, and a one-hour and forty minute long play that introduced the audience to Ms. Joan Jett Blakk, the drag name of Terence Alan Smith. Tina Landau directed while also co-writing the script with Tarell Alvin McCraney, who portrays the title character.  

One of the founders for the Chicago chapter of Queer Nation, an LGBTQ activist organization, Ms. Blakk was asked to run for Mayor of Chicago in 1990 by Queer Nation during the height of the AIDs crisis. Running against Richard Daley, Ms. Blakk received a lot of media attention, which was the goal. Actual political position was never the goal in this endeavor, nor was it the goal when Blakk ran for President of the United States on the Queer Nation Party ticket in 1992 against George H.W. Bush and against Bill Clinton in 1996.  The historical event was diminished to a publicity act at the time, a joke if you will. But a joke can hold much power because they are always rooted in truth.

This production centered on Ms. Blakk’s first Presidential run in 1992. More widely known for his critically acclaimed play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, McCraney drove the show from start to finish with equal measures of charm and honesty. The entire cast gave superb performances that came from a place of energy, honesty, and nuance. This is because they are first rate performers who also are of the appropriate voices to tell this story. McCraney was as adept with delivering iconic quips as poetic soliloquies, finding nuance in the trendy and accessibility in the elaborate. Bouncing from rallying speeches to sassy comments and from tender confessions to expansive monologues is no easy feat, but McCraney handled all of these gearshifts with a masterful grace.

Once people entered the theatre space, it became very obvious that nothing about the show was traditional: nothing about the space was even straight. David Zinn designed a stage that zig-zagged across the center of the room as a runway, giving the actors depth to perform scenes in and length for them to dance and strut. Close seating in cafe tables and couches replicated the nightclubs that Ms. Blakk rallied and performed in. Even the traditional rows of general admission seating weren’t excluded from the action of the play as the actors climbed, marched, and grinded in the aisles. What drag show would be complete without music? Sound design and original music supplied by Linday Jones enhanced the evening through a story-telling aspect as well as a rallying tool. Two songs were performed, one lip-synced by McCraney and one sung by Sawyer Smith (who portrayed Q), which rallied the hearts and energy of the audience and fostered the nightclub/rally aura and environment as well as took us through the timeline of the campaign trail of Ms. Blakk.

Landau superbly directed every beat of this piece. She brought authenticity to the performative moments, the moments out of time, the internal moments, and the scenes and the speeches at a validated pace that kept the audience energized and engaged throughout the entire night. The ensemble of actors had an olympic feat on their hands. Every performer aside from McCraney played a wide range of gender-identifying characters. Both Jon Husom Odom and Sawyer Smith impressively switched from drag characters (Odom with Glennda and Smith with Q) to imposing police officers. Daniel Kyri brought a breath of fresh air as the youthful JJ, and Patrick Andrews wrenched the hearts of the audience as the driven Mark, consumed by his quest to protect his living loved ones and honor those who had been taken away. Molly Brennan portrayed Lenny (and others) with the needed levels of buffoonery and strength (aided by a fake mustache and cowboy hat supplied by Toni-Leslie James).

Just as Ms. Blakk revealed that she wore nothing fake in the show and McCraney spoke to the audience with such authenticity, the same notions were applied to the costume design by James. Attention to detail was paid to every heel and shoe lace, every string of pearls and cowboy hat, and every police officer uniform and wig. Stark house lights, extravagantly colored lights, and glittering disco balls created by Heather Gilbert bathed the performers and the audience in the tastes of the varying locations.

Within the first five minutes we were told that it was not a play but a rally, and we were given all of the background information that we needed to accompany Ms. Blakk on her journey to Washington Square Garden and the Democratice National Convention. The evening was a poetic rally, and not solely about the past, the present, and the future, though all of those things came in to play. It was about visibility for those who have been denied it, visibility for queerness and blackness. It was messy because life is messy. It was nonlinear because, obviously, progress is nonlinear.  The instances that weren’t one hundred percent true but rather inspired by true events gave us the chance to hear the things we should have heard, and gave people the chance to speak when they had previously been silenced. The truth of history lives in those who were there, in the twang of the heart as much as the written or spoken word and the televised speech. Ms. Blakk for President  will prove to be one of the most self-aware, authentic, and effective theatre pieces of the year.

This production must be seen by all theatre goers not despite the fact that it is queer, drag, and black but because it is queer, drag, and black. For centuries, people of diversity have watched white-washed, heteronormative stories and found instances that they could commiserate with. Themes presented by the script and cast such as people-pleasing, identity, dismantling the system or working with the system, and baton passing can be appreciated by every human being who walks in the theatre door. But for those who claim that the show might not contain experiences and themes that they can identify with or relate to, they can take a seat and get educated on something that is not directly pandering to them.

This production runs May 23rd through July 14th. Shows begin at 7:30 pm  Tuesday through Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 3 pm and 7:30 pm, and Wednesday at 2pm. Tickets run from $20 to $94. Along with general admission, there is the party-zone, which means sitting close to the runway, as well as couches and cafe tables. Assigned seating such as this occurs during ticket purchase online or in person. The production and pre-show party takes place in The Upstairs Theatre (1650 N Halsted St.)

Highly Recommended

Reviewed by Sophie Vitello

Tickets are available at www.steppenwolf.org.

Additional information about this and other area productions can be found by visiting www.theatreinchicago.com.