Centerstage - Chicago's Original City Guide

Goodman Theatre
Tickets (312) 443-3800
Tix-at-Six (Half-price day of show) available at the box office
Through August 8

Jitney is the latest in August Wilson's chronicle of African-American life in the 20th century. His plays have won numerous prizes, and have brought him international acclaim as one of the nation's greatest living playwrights. This latest offering, now at the Goodman Theatre, has a very good premise, and indeed is quite captivating. Jitney is a masterfully written play. Until just near the end.

August Wilson has made good use of the 20th Century with his earlier successes such as Fences, The Piano Lesson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and, most recently, Seven Guitars. He is a master of language; his characters all speak the truth, but Wilson manages to make it sound like poetry. Jitney takes place in Pittsburgh's Hill district in 1977. Becker (Paul Butler) runs an unlicensed cab service, he and his drivers run "jitneys" throughout Pittsburgh, often for not much more than bus fare. Faced with the reality of having their headquarters torn down due to urban renewal, and his son's pending release from prison after 20 years (he has not seen his son in all that time), Becker is fighting for survival. As in all of August Wilson plays, there are unforgettable characters: Becker's remorseful son Booster (Keith Randolph Smith), Shealy (Willis Burks II), the happy-go-lucky numbers runner, Doub (Barry Shabaka Henley), the practical idealist, Youngblood (Russell Hornsby), the Vietnam vet trying to make something of his life, Turnbo (Stephen McKinley Henderson), the busybody of the group, Fielding (Anthony Chisholm), a former tailor turned alcoholic jitney driver, and Rena (Michole Briana White), Youngblood's girlfriend, simply trying to survive with a child in the city.

For the majority of the play, Wilson makes Jitney a quiet character study, a comic, touching and engrossing portrait of life in the Hill District, and we really care about the characters and what happens to them. And then the bottom falls out. It's almost as if Wilson realized the play was running too long and decided to end the play the quickest way he knew how (yes, I am being deliberately vague). The end left me very disappointed. As the audience jumped to its feet in wild appreciation, I sat there wondering how the play could have ended like that. It just didn't make sense.

David Gallo's set, Donald Holder's lighting, and Rob Milburn's sound create the period masterfully. The saving grace of this production is the consistently excellent ensemble acting: especially Paul Butler as Becker, Anthony Chisholm as Fielding, Stephen McKinley Henderson as Turnbo, Russell Hornsby as Youngblood, and Keith Randolph Smith as Booster.

My advice: Don't see this play for the consistent story, see it for the technical elements and the excellent acting.