Playwright Inda Craig-Galván puts a personal face on a national epidemic in Black Super Hero Magic Mama, a Geffen Playhouse that scores points for originality provided you’re a fan of Marvel/DC blockbusters.

A magnificent Kimberly Hébert Gregory burns up the Audrey Skirball Kenis Theater stage as single mom Sabrina Jackson, not yet ready to give up reading bedtime stories to her fourteen-year-old son Tremarion (Cedric Joe), the latest of which stars a certain Harry Potter.

Not that Harry’s tale stands out from the multitude of others she’s read her son over the years, revolving as it does around a child, usually a boy, always white, who’s either unbearably sad (because everyone who loves him is dead), or living in miserable conditions, or both.

More problematic for Sabrina is how predictable all these stories are. “There always seems to be something too harsh for their little minds to handle,” she complains aloud, “and their minds snap and they go someplace magical where they get to play the hero.” (Prophetic words, it turns out.)

Fortunately for Ms. Jackson, there’s nothing particularly sad or harsh about her home life with Tremarion, and there’s surely nothing harmful about “The Adventures Of The Masai Angel,” the comic book her son and his bad-boy bestie Flat Joe (Noah Abbott) are collaborating on, nor can Mama be anything but proud of Tremarion’s expertise in black history, sure to stand him in good stead in tonight’s taping of Know Your Heritage.

True, Sabrina does have some misgivings about Coach Brackett’s (Daryl C. Brown) plan to drive his entire teen team to the TV studio as well as about his budding friendship with Sabrina’s glamorous art-gallery owner sister Lena (Cynthia Kaye McWilliams), but neither causes her all that much worry.

Then, in an instant, everything changes as gleeful Nightly News anchors Connie Wright (Reiko Aylesworth) and Tom Blackman (Kevin Douglas) break a story too often heard in today’s America, after which police Officer Dave Lester (Walter Belenky) tries in vain to compose a letter, Coach Brackett calls repeatedly but keeps getting an answering machine, and the two men’s lawyers insist that neither one say he’s sorry.

A story as familiar as today’s headlines, and one told quite powerfully in Black Super Hero Magic Mama’s compellingly real first act.

Then, as Sabrina goes from withdrawn to virtually catatonic to a land called Alternate Universe, nuanced characters turn into two-dimensional villains and the real-world consequences of their actions get left behind.

 At the very least, Black Super Hero Magic Mama’s second act gives its cast the chance to take on new characters with names like Lady Vulture and Human Hyena, and theatergoers who can’t get enough of X-Men, Avengers, or Guardians Of The Galaxy may find themselves in superhero heaven.

Not so much this reviewer despite costume designer Karen Perry, lighting designer Alex Jainchill, sound designer/composer Lindsay Jones, and above all projection designer Yee Eun Nam’s stunning transformation of scenic designer Myung Hee Cho’s teenager’s bedroom into a comic-book feast for the eyes.

Under Robert O’Hara’s direction, Gregory’s Sabrina is a force of nature, Aylesworth, Belenky, Brown, Douglas, and McWilliams do terrific double duty, and Abbott and Joe show promise in their youthful roles.

Rachel Wiegardt-Egel is dramaturg. Susie Walsh is production stage manager. Lizzie Thompson is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Phyllis Schuringa, CSA.

Inda Craig-Galván merits snaps for taking chances on an offbeat approach to issues of gun violence, racial profiling, and the exploitation of both for higher TV ratings. It’s a tactic that may work for some, but if comic book universes leave you cold, so perhaps too will Black Super Hero Magic Mama.

Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood.
www.geffenplayhouse.com

–Steven Stanley
March 14, 2019
Photos: Chris Whitaker

Tags: Geffen Playhouse, Inda Craig-Galván, Los Angeles Theater Review