We went to "Ask Your Mama" for Jesse Norman's voice and grace as well as for Langston Hughes' poetry. Our seats were in the lower and upper mezzanines of the Apollo Theatre. The three of us agreed that, while performance included many lovely, witty and/or nostalgic moments, it basically didn't work. It is a most ambitious effort.
"Ask Your Mama" uses archival video, photographs, poetry, song and music to review some of the African-American experience. We thought that poetry would be the core of the piece but, on Saturday night, the words were often unintelligible. This was true when they were spoken by Langston Hughes in archival recordings, by the male performer on stage and when they were sung. We may be wrong but we didn't think the problem lay with the acoustics or with the sound technicians. Musically, there was no clear structure to the piece. It was divided into twelve fairly similar sections. Except for the flashback ending sequence, we each found the composition as well as the sound to be disappointingly "mushy." Two of us were reminded of Robert Wilson's "Einstein on the Beach."
On the positive side, it was fun to be in the Apollo Theatre and marvelous to be in the presence of Ms. Norman and to learn that she still has an interesting voice and a great range. We also enjoyed the jazz singer's voice and style and thought that the other two singers were well-rehearsed and professional. The conductor did very well with the student orchestra (that, to our disappointment, didn't seem to include even one African-American musician) but the music was simply not interesting enough to create a framework for the visuals or for the poetry. If the sound had been better balanced, perhaps the music could have been the background for the different "stories." My next task is to read about the composer and listen to some of her other work in order to try to understand what she was trying to achieve.
Lastly (and I hope there is a way for the Apollo Theatre's management to see this review), it is distracting to hear talk/laughter from ushers and others in the back of the mezzanine practically throughout a performance as serious as this one was intended to be.
