Hedgerow Theatre presents Ethel Waters, His Eye Is on the Sparrow

Theater: Hedgerow Theatre
Show Title: Ethel Waters, His Eye Is on the Sparrow
Opened: January 31, 2008
Seen: February 1, 2008
Reviewer: Ryan Bunch
Submitted: February 3, 2008

This month, Hedgerow Theatre presents Ethel Waters, His Eye Is on the Sparrow, in a moving and emotional performance by Demetria Joyce Bailey.

Larry Parr’s one woman show tells the story of Ethel Waters, the singing star of vaudeville, Broadway and Hollywood who broke racial barriers in her rise to stardom. Born into a troubled family life and raised in a slum of Philadelphia, young Waters finds escape by attending vaudeville shows, and after a great deal of personal adversity eventually succeeds in touring with her own act. Along the way to success, she undergoes a series of experiences as a black woman that represent a catalog of the horrors of Jim Crow America. In spite of her triumphs over adversity within her industry, Waters is confounded by a festering resentment of white racism and spiritual fatigue from her private ordeals until she must finally confront her inner demons.

Interpolated in the story are songs from Waters’ career meant to heighten the drama, emotion or mood of various episodes in the script.

Demetria Joyce Bailey is the woman who carries the weight of this production, which requires a high level of ability and stamina for a well-rounded actor-singer. It is little wonder she was nominated for a Barrymore Award for her previous performance of this role at Bristol Riverside Theatre last year, for she rises to the task admirably. This production is a reprise of that earlier turn at this show by Bailey and director Susan D. Atkinson (at that time Bailey remarkably stepped into the demanding role at the last minute when Broadway veteran Ernestine Jackson became ill). Supported only by a taciturn piano accompanist, Bailey takes us through a two hour story of agony and redemption, infusing the compelling character of Ethel Waters with unabashed emotionality.

In both song and monologue, the script is at its strongest in the quieter and more emotional moments, and so is Bailey. Her rendering of “His Eye is on the Sparrow,” sung at Waters’ recollection her grandmother is positively heartbreaking. So is “Little Black Boy,” sung for a child’s funeral.

Bailey’s renditions of some up-tempo songs and those that require a great deal of vocal power are more mixed in their effect. Nonetheless, she really hits the mark when it counts. Her delivery of “Stormy Weather” when Waters is divorced by her husband is electric. The Fats Waller/Harry Brooks tune “Black and Blue” becomes the centerpiece of the show’s theme of deeply internalized racism, setting up the final epiphany and release of emotion when Waters confronts her own prejudices. Bailey not only executes this song with convincing emotional sincerity, she adeptly uses a whole palette of vocal affects to color the song’s sentiment with character-driven intensity. What might have been a heavy-handed musical commentary about racism becomes a deeply moving and personal expression of weariness.

I don’t want to give the impression that this show is all heartache and pathos, though. There’s plenty of comic relief, too, and Bailey does a chuckle-getting impression of a young star-struck girl imitating the manners of a vaudeville performer in some of the early songs.

As for the script itself, it is engaging moment by moment in its series of moving, comical and sometimes shocking eposides, all delivered by Bailey with great feeling. The songs are most effective when they are judiciously integrated with the action of the scenes they accompany. At other times, songs seem to come out of nowhere, having only a tenuous connection or excuse for inclusion. If numbers like “Masculine Women, Feminine Men” and “Heat Wave” fall a little flat, it is more because they don’t seem to belong than because of any fault of performance or production.

Bailey is ably accompanied on the piano by Tom Mucchetti, who applies a mostly light and supportive touch to the keyboard, artfully saving the big gestures for when they are most needed. The set design, divided between a clean performance space in front of the piano on one side of the stage and a cluttered dressing room on the other, creates a nice visual balance and parallels the baring of Waters’ soul on one hand and the disorder of her life on the other.

Ethel Waters, His Eye Is on the Sparrow runs through February 24 at Hedgerow Theatre. For tickets and information call 610-565-4211 or visit www.hedgerowtheatre.org.

Ryan Bunch is a vocal instructor, writer and composer specializing in musical theater and theater for young audiences. He has provided voice training, musical direction, songwriting, script development and educational services for the Opera Company of Philadelphia, Mainstage Center for the Arts, Center Stage Productions, Chichester School District, West Chester Summer Stage, Renaissance Artist Puppet Company, and the Players Board of Chestnut Hill Academy and Springside School. For additional information visit www.ryanbunch.com.