My Brother Marvin, A Review

By Ayodele Nzinga, MA, MFA

Off the top, this black woman had a hard time with standing for the national anthem at the opening of a theater curtain. My Brother Marvin at the Paramount Theater on April 15, 2007 began that way. The audience was asked to stand through an at least 2 minute rendition of the Star Spangled Banner replete with a light show to a backdrop of a flag fluttering on the movie screen used at various points in this production of the life and times of Mr. Marvin Gaye.

It helps to know that Marvin’s 1983 NBA All Star Basketball game rendition of the oft-debated anthem was a bootleg hit for The Prince of Motown. But the fact slips between one of the many cracks in this presentation. This questionable beginning was underscored by the annoying fact that The Paramount continued to seat audience well into the first half. The rather unsettling beginning gives way to an uneven performance of a weak script that borrows lines from other plays and even owes it’s name to flipping the title of Frankie Gaye’s (another younger sibling), badly received autobiography of his brother.

As the show proper opens we find the first of a trio of Marvins and the rest of the immediate family introduced in it’s dysfunction. The mother played by, Allyson Williams, with the voice of a gospel angel, Ms. Williams delivered stellar vocals, if her acting was a bit stiff, and her character seemed as old as 9 yr. Old Marvin’s mother as she did as the adult Marvin’s mom. She was the first bearer of a string of oddly placed asides to the audience by way of narration. These chronological markers for the most part detracted in their telling rather than showing and did an incomplete job of supplying a few needed clues to decipher the lived life of Marvin Gaye if you weren’t a fan of a certain age.

Havier Hill Roller introduces us to the hyperbolic acting style that permeates the production which has the pace and volume of a concert. And indeed is most alive, and impressive during the recreations of Gaye’s performance history. The performance chronology is sufficient to anchor us in time and is one of the plays strengths.

The Motown, story in the story, history was a bright piece of flash and dazzle that drew unintended laughs as a retirement weight group of conked Temps blew the hell out of a Temptations medley, after some lack-luster Supremes scandalized Ms. Ross. Appearances by a scary David Ruffin and a boisterously gregarious Barry Gordy (who also blesses us with odd and ill placed asides), and a tempting Tammy Terrell, fill out the Motown scenario.

After what hat seemed a long hour and a half a twenty-minute intermission was announced, the lengthy intermission culminated in audience trailing back in for twenty minutes after the curtain went up again. This is a long production starting at 7:30 and ending well after 10:00PM.

The second half moved better than the first borne by longer performance vignettes from Keith Washington as a mature Marvin Gaye between some very Gaye like performances with the aforementioned movie screen as a backdrop. The movie segments were somewhat distracting competing with some of the shows better moments. The footage offered was at times baffling in conjunction with the lyrics being performed and the repeating of images was in effective and inconceivable in the portrayal of someone who must be the subject of considerable footage.

Keith Washington does a lot to make you forget about some of the problems with the script and staging by offering up some amazing musical moments that allow you to suspend belief and fall into the illusion of Marvin alive before you.

The reviewer admits that, the overacting that made me cringe at the scene transitions seemed to enliven the audience, which talked back to the stage in their enthusiasm at several points in the production. In fact a quick survey of the audience, which included The Honorable Ronald Dellums and wife, as well as Marvin Gaye’s niece, pronounced the offering thoroughly entertaining, putting this reviewer’s criticisms in the minority opinion column.

It becomes apparent that My Brother Marvin belongs to a particular genre of theater popular at the Paramount in Oakland. The plays always musical have sloppy storylines but they provide a type of theater not available to its faithful audiences elsewhere. These plays reflect the life situations, the struggles and joys, tinged by faith and optimism, of the life and times of black folk.

When viewed through the prism of black traditional theater a lot of what irks is non important and what works is appreciated much more. We have a raw rendering of reality, unspoken parts of the script, audience participation out of total immersion, an artistic documentation of our times with its luminaries tied together and spiced with music that speaks volumes. This is an insider addendum to a story we already know with a, anti-hero, hero we already love. In that respect it’s a peep into a time capsule, a dramatizing of a legendary life, with a view of black religiosity in its many faces, a critique of the music industry and a view of the artistic struggles of the one and only Marvin Gaye, The Prince of Motown.