Two very different musicals are wrapped up into one bewildering package with the New Group’s “Black No More,” which opened Tuesday night off-Broadway. …
Two very different musicals are wrapped up into one bewildering package with the New Group’s “Black No More,” which opened Tuesday night off-Broadway. Part of the show is an occasionally on-the-money satire about a fictitious device from the 1930s that can turn black people white. The poetic opening narration brings to mind “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and “Little Shop of Horrors.” But what follows is an unnecessarily bombastic melodrama that makes “Les Misérables” look like “Blue’s Clues.” Choosing both paths renders “Black No More,” based on George Schuyler’s 1931 Harlem Renaissance novel, a deeply uncomfortable experience for its audience — not because the fascinating material probes the ugliness of racism, but due to how poorly the story has been handled theatrically. The show is a mess that’s beyond repair. The start of “Black No More” is mostly in line with Schuyler’s novel: a vicious satire that was ahead of its time in its critiques of whites, blacks and class and race disparities. Max (Brandon Victor Dixon) is a Harlem black man who, disenchanted with life, signs up to use Dr. Junius Crookman’s (Tariq Trotter, aka Black Thought of the Roots) experimental Black No More machine to change his skin color. In the sole smart choice of the evening, Dixon’s appearance isn’t altered by a mask or makeup; we use our imagination to picture his new look based on how he’s described. Now named Matthew, he moves to Atlanta to seek out a white woman named Helen (Jennifer Damiano) he danced with on New Year’s Eve at a juke joint.
