Conceived, Directed and Choreographed
by Marion J. Caffey
A Mari Mo’ Music/Dancap Productions
Presentation at the Winter Garden
March 4-16, 2008

    You don’t have long to catch 3 Mo’ Divas, so you should rush down to the Winter Garden before this show hits the road again. If you want musical and vocal textures galore, a clean, uncluttered concert presentation of various musical genres, and three of the most talented singers anywhere, who can move easily and naturally from opera to gospel and blues without seeming the least bit artificial, then this is the very show for you. It follows a trend (by way of Three Tenors and 3 Mo’ Tenors) rather than being a trend-setter, but who cares when the voices are fabulous? 3 Mo’ Divas is a tour de force for three black females who are made to tour, but with “class, sass, and style”—as the house program puts it in its subtitle for the show. The director/choreographer is Marion J. Caffey, who is a dab hand at this sort of concert presentational style, his having staged such previous hits as Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Cookin at the Cookery.  There isn’t much choreography, really, but what there is works in this instance, where the main focus is really on the music and songs rather than on writing or movement. The show uses two casts, and I have seen only the opening night’s trio of Nova Y. Paton, Laurice Lanier, and Jamet Pittman, but if the second cast (DeVonna Lawrence, Ramona Dunlap, and Andrea Jones-Sojola) is anywhere as good as this group—and there’s little reason to suspect otherwise—then the show is a surefire hit no matter which divas sing.

   There’s very little writing in this show, and though this may be a good thing in that it doesn’t slow down proceedings, it is missed at times in the pallid repartee between the divas and the audience. It is also missed in the sense that the show moves from musical style to style without much explanation or information. However, it is a rare concert, indeed, when numbers or sets are given prologues. And, truthfully, in this case, a narrative is hardly the point. So, too, are theatrical flourishes which amount in the show to little more than a trim, elegant set by Dale F. Jordan (suggestive of a nightclub but non-specific otherwise), washed with colour by Richard Wrinkler, attractive costumes by  Toni-Leslie James (who relies on black to make an initial statement before bringing on other colours later), and some broad but mild interplay by the three divas who hardly need to worry about upstaging one another because all three are quite splendid in their vocals, easily generating power (hardly in need of their small headpiece microphones). Backed up by a wonderful small orchestra, led by pianist Annastasia Victory (who could easily be called a Black Russian for her passionate sass at the ivories), the show moves with celerity through almost 40 songs in genres ranging from classical opera and Broadway to jazz, blues, pop, soul, and gospel/spiritual. Well, not all are full songs, alas, and some audiences will surely lament the abridgements of real crowd-pleasers (“Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B” or “It’s In His Kiss,” for instance), but no tune or sampling is ever done in perfunctory fashion. The singers clearly enjoy their material, and their variant styles and personalities compound our pleasure.

   Nova Paton, soprano from Washington, D.C., has a stacked upper deck (physiognomically as well as in chest tones), and her rendition of “Summertime” is a powerhouse display, though I was always aware of it as a diva’s performance rather than a deeply felt, spontaneous outpouring of the Gershwin character supposedly singing it. She is, in fact, better powering through “Defying Gravity” (from Wicked), and then goes much smaller, of course, with “My Funny Valentine,” and does very well, indeed.

   Laurice Lanier, mezzo soprano out of Jackson, Tennessee, has the largest, most theatrical personality of the trio, with her exaggerated eyelashes, highly glossed lips, and a voice that is heavenly heavy velvet when it isn’t an intimidating, satiric growl (as in the thoroughly down and dirty “Downhearted Blues”). What she does with “God Bless The Child” (Bubbling Brown Sugar) and “His Eye Is On The Sparrow” (Ethel Water’s great signature number) is incredibly stunning. The lady can sing seductively (“Mon Coeur S’Ouvre A’ Ta Voix”), lushly, and dramatically (“Strange Fruit”). I have not heard any other singer match or, dare I say it, overmatch the late Billie Holliday in the lament for lynching victims, and her director has given her a terrific melancholy vocal backup from Jamet Pittman, Washington soprano, who has the most naturally ingratiating stage personality of the impressive trio.

   Ms. Pittman’s biggest impression is made in Act II, where she is gowned and coiffed like Billie Holliday (with print-patterned dress and a white gardenia in her hair) as she performs one of Lady’s signature hits. She also accompanies herself at the piano as she sings “Everything Must Change,” giving ample evidence of her double talents and justifying all advance expectations of this widely experienced, award-winning diva.

   The three ladies know that their show is but a retrospective concert of older music, but their vigour, versatility, and verve produce a hefty entertainment. 3 Mo’ Divas puts the focus on vocal textures, dimensions, and scales, and, as such, is highly recommended.

photos: Scott Schuman

pic 1: Jamet Pittman

pic 2: Laurice Lanier

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