Getting "Through the Night"

I first saw the multi-talented Daniel Beaty--poet, playwright, actor, singer and composer—in Emergence-SEE!, his Obie-winning solo show at The Public Theater in 2006. He has since smoothed out that title; now it is, simply, Emergency. But the jolt of SEE!-ing this lone performer bring dozens of fictional characters to radiant life lingers in memory.  

Beaty's back with a handsome new one-act play--Through the Night, directed by Charles Randolph-Wright--at the Union Square Theatre. This 80-minute work focuses on six main dramatis personae--all Black American and male, interconnected through blood or community--with a handful of supporting characters. This time, no phantom slave ship emerges in the harbor, alarming contemporary New Yorkers and launching the drama. Here Beaty takes us through the night and its realities, holding the magical realism elements aside until the very end. It's far from a robust, convincing conclusion, but Black people need a miracle, and this playwright does his best to provide.

Alexander V. Nichol's elegant, efficient scenic projection continuously alters the play's backdrop to suit the rapidly-shifting cast of characters and their intertwined stories. A powerful preacher struggles with food binges and diabetes, worrying his wife, who only wants to grow old with the man she dearly loves. An upstanding neighborhood businessman fights frustration, trying to keep his health food store open and keep hope alive for his brilliant 10-year-old son. A music industry executive and mentor to a promising high school graduate, questions the sexualization of underage girl singers. Meanwhile, he's hiding a crucial truth about himself. These folks, and a few more rendered in Beaty's physical being and sometimes lyrical text, are all headed towards an event that might change their lives forever. Beaty—dressed casually and impersonally in New Balance shoes and a light-grey shirt and slacks—switches and flows from one character into the next with amazing dexterity, clearly a superb observer and keen listener.

Unlike Anna Deveare Smith, whose outstanding one-woman shows depict real-life, usually well-known people, Beaty deals in carefully-rendered types. Through impressive vocal range, simple but precise body language and movement, and an abundance of warmth, he turns potential stereotypes into people we might know and with whom we might identify. He cares about them, and so do we.

Though entertaining, Through the Night is clearly more than a play, more than a gig, for Beaty. It's an earnest love letter to Black America with the aim of fostering open discussion of issues such as health, addictions, relationships and homophobia. Beaty has engaged a team of Black celebrities--including Ruby Dee, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Phylicia Rashad, Ben Vereen and Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr.--to help him spread the word and get more bodies in the seats at Union Square Theatre. But Through the Night should succeed, I think, not only because Beaty intends to do great good but because he is good--a performer of exceptional appeal who must be seen.

Through the Night

Union Square Theatre

100 East 17th Street (between Park Avenue South and Irving Place), Manhattan

Tickets or 1-800-982-2787

For the performance schedule and more information, click here.