Review: Actor’s Express’ ‘Choir Boy’ hits the right notes in young Black brotherhood

The seats at Actor’s Express are so close to the stage that when the young men of Choir Boy broke into a Negro spiritual, I felt it in my chest. A time or two, an actor might lock eyes with you, leaving no place to hide from the intensity of the song. But such intimacy became a crucial setting for a show that gets heavy. The proximity allows you to share the weight of the themes with the cast and with the people around you.

Running through August 30 at Actor’s Express with talk backs on August 16 and August 22, Tarell Alvin McCraney’s coming-of-age dramedy musical introduces us to the sought-after Charles R. Drew Prep School for Boys. 

At the center is the fierce and intellectually curious Pharus, played by Brandon L. Smith, who recently shone as Prince Chris in True Colors Theatre Company’s Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella. Pharus is named leader of the choir, an honor he’s earned and one he cherishes. But he dreads the spotlight it brings, because leading means being seen. And being seen means every whisper about who he is gets the spotlight, too.

McCraney co-wrote the Oscar-winning 2016 masterpiece Moonlight, one of the most important films this side of the 21st century. So he knows how to craft young Black brotherhood in all its complicated glory. We see grief, homophobia, compassion, tough love, yearning, self-discovery and ambition. We see tenderness, brilliantly delivered by Matthew Lolar-Johnson as AJ, who has looks, an arm for baseball, a down-home upbringing, a great relationship with his mama and nothing to prove.   

That complexity is where Choir Boy hits its highest notes. It refuses to flatten its characters. The writing is generous enough to let them live within their contradictions, where the marginalized still hold unjust opinions and sometimes the bully deserves a little sympathy. These are teenage boys trying to figure it out, after all. Yet, even as fragile as a high school environment can be, they are brave enough to hold each other accountable. 

Strong performances across the cast handle such contrast with care. There are rich legacy students and those relying on the school’s phone to call home. There is self-assuredness, and there is unrequited love, whether from family, a crush or from one’s own struggle toward affirmation and acceptance. There are those learning that vulnerability is its own special strength.

The play does slip slightly out of key in a couple of scenes. Headmaster Marrow, played by Clinton Harris, has a reverence for the newly hired white teacher, played by William S. Murphey, because “he marched with Dr. King!” It leans too deeply into the white-savior trope in one of the story’s tensest moments. And Pharus’ suggestions that deny the utility of Negro spirituals feel like a challenge to something so sacred and long-held.

But, hey, the white guy also serves levity well. Pharus’ argument reminds us that even the sacred can be questioned. And Choir Boy quickly finds its strengths again in its final scenes. 

Ultimately, this production brings us closer to the virtue of the stage, where, unlike society that too often tunes them out, the voices of young Black men are seen, heard and felt.

Where and When 

Choir Boy is at Actor’s Express through August 30. Tickets, $51.50.
887 W. Marietta St. NW, Ste. J-107

::

Angela Oliver is a proud native of old Atlanta who grew up in the West End. A Western Kentucky University journalism and Black studies grad, daily news survivor and member of Delta Sigma Theta, she works in the grassroots nonprofit world while daydreaming about seeing her scripts come alive on the big screen.