No Place to Be Somebody

Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Waco Theater Center
Through March 9

Charles Gordone’s smoldering drama aptly encapsulates the protest, violence and tumultuous change seen in America’s urban cities in the 1960s. The play debuted off-Broadway in 1969, garnering Gordone a Pulitzer in 1970, the first win by an African-American playwright.

Directed by Richard Lawson, the current production at Waco Theatre Center features Jeff Rolle, Jr. as Johnny, a criminally ambitious bar owner looking to score big in New York’s underworld. A product of the school of hard-knocks, Johnny is not a nice guy; his girlfriend Dee (Jenna Skeva) adores him — and he reciprocates by pimping her out to other men and slapping her around for what he regards as any infraction.

Johnny’s bar is stomping grounds for an assortment of interesting people: Gabe (Terryl Daluuz), Johnny’s longtime friend, an actor and poet and whose philosophical perspective frames the drama; Shanty (Robert Jekabson), his white employee who has ambitions to be a drummer; the middle-aged Cora (Courtney Nichols), who works as a caregiver and is Shanty’s extramarital squeeze, and Melvin (Jason Lyke), the bar’s cook, an aspiring dancer, who shares a humanity with Gabe that contrasts with Johnny’s often ruthless and misogynist behavior.

One person whom Johnny admires is Sweets Crane (Earl Billings), a black mobster who’d taken Johnny under his wing when he was a kid. Sweets, serving a long-term prison sentence, is soon to be released, and when the play opens, Johnny is awaiting his arrival impatiently so they can collaborate on some big schemes to get rich.

Though the race and gender issues it reflects on are still with us, No Place to Be Somebody comes across as period piece, hewing closely to the mores and manners of New York City 50 years ago. It can seem dated. (Who today refers to a black man as a “spade,” common lingo of that day?) But its spectrum of characters, which include an Italian mobster, a judge’s daughter perversely thrilled to be getting down with Johnny, the judge himself, and a cop, make it primo material for showcasing a large ensemble. It’s perhaps one of the reasons Lawson chose it as the first in-house production by a company of actors, many of whom (to judge from the program) have come out of his acting workshop.

As director, Lawson does a fine job of staging; the show moves at a brisk pace and the characters are crisply delineated. Most of the performers have a confident presence. Carlos Flores’ set design is smartly and credibly detailed.

What’s missing in the production is more truth in character, specifically of the “street” variety. As Johnny, Rolle’s performance is a well-choreographed replica of how an angry, violence-prone man might behave. But there’s never a sense that this character really had grown up in a hard-scrabble environment, or that his sudden twist in moods emanated from an uncontrollable trigger in the gut. Like Rolle, Daluz, whose Gabe serves as Johnny’s foil as well as the playwright’s alter ego, has a strong idea of where he wants his character to go, but isn’t there yet, though a scene where Gabe is caught in the middle of a gunfight is notably played.

Among the supporting players, Billings is aptly cast as the aging Sweets, who looks to end his life in peace, while Nick Teti delivers a convincing cameo of an Italian mafia henchman. Taylor Lee Edwards stands out as Dee’s gal pal, a woman with zero tolerance for Johnny’s b.s. who (you go, girl!) tells him so. And Lyke is on point as the gentle, empathetic Melvin.

Waco Theater Center, 5144 Lankershim Blvd., N. Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through Mar. 9. https://www.eventbrite.com/o/waco-theater-center-15331422943. Running time: two hours with an intermission.