Pasadena Playhouse concludes its monumentally successful Tony-winning 2022-2023 season on a sky-high note with Zora Howard’s gripping, thought-provoking, thoroughly entertaining “kitchen sink” dramedy Stew.

The kitchen in question belongs to African-American family matriarch Mama (LisaGay Hamilton), busily preparing enough of the titular dish to feed fifty at today’s church social, aided in said task (with varying degrees of interest and effectiveness) by her 30somehting older daughter Lillian (Roslyn Ruff), her seventeen-year-old younger daughter Nelly (Jasmine Ashanti), and Lillian’s tween daughter Lil’ Mama (Samantha Millier).

Conspicuously absent from this three-generation family gathering are Lillian’s husband J.R. and her grade-school-age son, the loud bang Mama hears at lights up serving as a reminder of how quickly a black man or boy’s life might easily be cut short without warning or provocation.

For the moment, however, what’s on Mama’s mind is getting her stew done in time and just right, a task more easily said than accomplished given how little help the younger generations are offering.

Lillian’s marriage might be on the rocks, Nelly’s mind is on her boyfriend (sorry, make that her “man”), and Lil’ Mama would far rather be preparing her school play audition monolog as Queen Elizabeth in Richard III.

In the latter task, at least, Mama might be of some help considering her considerable local renown as the “founder and director emeritus of the Mt. Vernon High Dramatic League.”

Over the course of Stew’s brisk hour-and-a-half running time, playwright Howard lets us get to know this specific yet universal family unit as, little by little, secrets get revealed—about Mama’s health, Lililan’s marriage, and Nelly’s condition—and if Lil’ Mama’s life is still pretty much an open book, there’s still that pesky audition she needs to memorize.

The laughs come fast and furious during Stew’s first hour or so despite hints of dramatic sparks ahead.

Who keeps calling the land line (Howard’s play is set “somewhere around the millennium”) and hanging up? Is Lillian back home just for the weekend or is she planning on a more extended stay? What’s up with Nelly feeling faint? Could the aforementioned bang have been something other than a blown tire? And what exactly does the play’s shocking eleventh-hour turn signify?

All of the above are guaranteed to keep audiences on the edge of their seats all the way up until Stew’s stunning final blackout.

Under Tyler Thomas’s incisive direction, leading lady Hamilton positively dazzles as matriarch extraordinaire Mama, whether barking orders or correcting bad grammar or singing her own praises as “the first soloist at the Greater Centennial A.M.E. Zion Church for the past 15 years,” and never more so than when showing her granddaughter what great acting is about when she delivers Elizabeth’s soliloquy mourning her murdered son, words that ring particularly true for a black mother in today’s America.

Ruff is heartbreaking real as a woman not yet willing to give up on the possibility of happiness, even if it means breaking her wedding vows; Ashanti could not be more delightful as a teenager who, like anyone else her age, is sure she knows best where love everlasting is concerned; and Miller is a petite ball of fire as a budding middle school stage star whose hilarious attempts at soliloquizing are in dire need of Mama’s coaching.

Scenic designer Tanya Orellana, costume designer Samantha C. Jones, and lighting designers Yajayra Franco and Elizabeth Harper have done a bang-up job creating Mama’s home and outfitting the people who live or visit there, and Elton Bradman’s sound design and original music up the tension every step of the way.

Nikki Hyde and Alyssa Escalante are stage managers and Dylan Elhai is assistant stage manager. Casting is by Ryan Bernard Tymensky, CSA, of RBT Casting.

Pasadena Playhouse artistic director Danny Feldman deserves his own standing ovation (in addition to that Tony) for not only keeping the Playhouse afloat despite considerable challenges but making it better and more successful than ever.

The Los Angeles Premiere of Zora Howard’s Stew further cements Feldman’s visionary leadership. It is professional regional theater at its absolute finest.

Pasadena Playhouse, 39 South El Molino Ave., Pasadena.
www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
July 15, 2023
Photos: Mike Palma

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Pasadena Playhouse, Zora Hoard