Father-son conflict, romantic friction, and the threat of imminent unemployment ignite dramatic sparks amidst tension-relieving laughter in August Wilson’s Jitney, whose 2017 Broadway debut now visits the Mark Taper Forum after a well-earned Best Revival Tony win.

The year is 1977, and in Pittsburgh’s historically African-American Hill District, 60something Becker’s (Steven Anthony Jones) car service provides much needed door-to-door transportation in a part of town where regular city cabs refuse to go.

Driving these unlicensed “jitneys” are Korean War vet Doub (Keith Randoph Smith), heavy-drinking Fielding (Anthony Chisholm), inveterate meddler Turnbo (Ray Anthony Thomas), and fiery hothead YoungBlood (Amari Cheatom), whose girlfriend Rena (Nija Okoro) has been led by Turnbo to suspect the father of 2-year-old Jesse guilty of infidelity.

Not only does Becker’s car service offer employment to its crew of drivers, it provides a home away from home for bookie Shealy (Harvy Blanks) and local hotel doorman Philmore (Brian D. Coats).

If Becker is in a particular tizzy this morning, it’s not just because the city plans to board up his business in the name of progress.

His convicted-murderer son Booster (Francois Batiste) is about to be released from prison after two decades behind bars, twenty-years during which Becker has never once paid the young man a visit, blaming Booster’s trial for bringing about his mama’s death despite the then teenager’s protestations that the victim had it coming. (I mean, how would you feel if your well-to-do white girlfriend cried rape after her disapproving daddy came across the two of you in consentual flagrante delicto?)

YoungBlood, meanwhile, finds himself accused of cheating when a gossipy Turbo gets it in Rena’s head that her own sister has been been stepping out with YoungBlood behind her back.

Talk about a recipe for Hill District drama.

The first of August Wilson’s ten-decade-spanning Pittsburgh Cycle to debut, Jitney takes its good time getting started, cramming early scenes with so many characters and so much local vernacular that audience members may find their heads spinning from too much, too soon.

Once the play’s central conflicts emerge, however, Wilson’s play is a gripper, in particular when Rena confronts YoungBlood about his apparent infidelity, and even more so in a knock-down, drag-out father-son showdown that’s sure to have audience members debating the pros and cons of each man’s arguments at intermission.

Director Ruben Santiago-Hudson elicits some of the most fiery, colorful performances in town from an all-around sensational ensemble of nine, four of whom are original Broadway cast members.

Cast newbie Jones delivers a powerhouse star turn as Becker, whether chiding Turnbo for minding other people’s business, or responding to Doub’s criticisms of how the jitney station is run, or confronting his son about the crime that sent the younger man to the penitentiary for so many years, a long-awaited clash that allows a sensational Battiste to give as good as he gets.

Cheatom (who impressed L.A. audiences at the Geffen in Dominique Morisseau’s Skeleton Crew) and Okoro (who did the same last year in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running at the Matrix) ignite their own sparks as a young couple torn apart by accusations of infidelity.

Smith is terrific too as the the thorn in Becker’s side and so is Thomas’s Turnbo, who just can’t help himself when it comes to spreading strife amongst the jitney crew.

Last but not least, Blanks, Chisholm, and Coats may have considerably smaller roles, but having honed their performances on Broadway, they make the scene-stealing most of them as Jitney’s Broadway design team* transport us to the Hill District circa 1977 to striking effect, with Thomas Schall scoring his own fight choreography points.

James T. Alfred, A. Russell Andrews, Coats, Coats, and Patrese D. McClain are understudies.

Kamra A. Jacobs is production stage manager and Mandisa Reed is assistant stage manager.

With holiday season fare filling most L.A. stages between now and New Years, August Wilson’s Jitney comes as the most thrilling and invigorating of alternatives. Only a Scrooge would dare object to its arrival.

*Jane Cox (lighting design), David Gallo (scenic design), Toni-Leslie James (costume design), Bill Sims Jr. (original music), Darron L. West and Charles Coes (sound design)

Mark Taper Forum, 35 N. Grand Avenue, Los Angeles.
www.centertheatregroup.org

–Steven Stanley
November 24, 2019
Photos: Joan Marcus

Tags: August Wilson, Center Theatre Group, Los Angeles Theater Review, Mark Taper Forum