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A review by rsurban
Caroline, or Change by Jeanine Tesori, Tony Kushner
4.0
Having read the "book" for Caroline or Change, Tony Kushner’s musical about a black woman who works as a maid in a white Louisiana home in the 60’s, and then having heard the cast recording, and THEN having seen a local, incredibly well-done full production of it, I have to say that I cannot give this artistic work its due by simply reviewing the text. Sometimes, when reading the text of a play, and especially one that relies upon the written word for it power, as with Shakespeare or O’Neill, the language, the ideas and the emotion of the piece can be gleaned from a close reading. With something such as Caroline or Change, so much of the impact of the work is in the construction of the musical element, and in the acting, and even in the set design and costuming, that the text is but the barest frame on which to judge the entire enterprise.
That being said, you can see what Kushner is striving for here, and understand the structure of the story he is trying to tell. Caroline Thibodeaux is a broken down woman who has four children, a husband who has run off, and a job toiling in the employ of a Jewish widower and his young son, Noah. Caroline is seen as a mother figure to Noah, whereas her feelings towards him, while indulgent, are more complicated and muted. She knows she has her own children to tend to, which causes her the grief of knowing she is giving more of her time to this white child than her own kids. Complicating matters, Noah’s father has remarried, and the new wife, Rose, is anguished by the fact that her stepson feels closer to the maid than to her. For her part, Caroline makes do, taking pride in her inner strength and fortitude, while secretly tending her sorrow at the loss of the love of her life, who took off after his aimlessness and abuse of her led to her striking back in a fit of rage. Things seem to be maintaining their equilibrium in the world of Caroline until Rose decides that any change Noah leaves in his pants pockets can be kept by Caroline when she finds it in the process of doing laundry. The simplistic gesture by Rose, which she sees as a generous thoughtful gift, causes Caroline to see her position in the social and economic life of the Gellman household as even more fraught than it was previously, and helps bring about the change referred to in the freighted title of the play.
The musical revolves around ideas of inequity and inequality in class, race, religious identity, and gender, and packs in quite a lot of very nuanced subtext among the text, as can be easily seen by a close reading of the book. Kushner’s compassionate depiction of his characters means that everyone comes in for both an affectionate, as well as pointed, examination of their attitudes and beliefs, and the characterizations are rich and melancholy; even the allegorical characters, the Moon, the Radio, and the Bus, seem fully inhabited. Of course, being a sung-through musical, the language is economical and potent, and matches well with the song styles employed in the full production, from blues and r&b to recitative and even klezmer music.
To reiterate, this is a musical to be savored in a full production with fine actors with strong voices, an orchestra of technical virtuosity, and a stage designed to meld the allegorical phases of the moon with the banality of a concrete basement in humid Louisiana. Though this book is a fine starting point for discovering this underrated Tony Kushner collaboration, it only fully blossoms when seen in its complete, breathtakingly soulful realization.
That being said, you can see what Kushner is striving for here, and understand the structure of the story he is trying to tell. Caroline Thibodeaux is a broken down woman who has four children, a husband who has run off, and a job toiling in the employ of a Jewish widower and his young son, Noah. Caroline is seen as a mother figure to Noah, whereas her feelings towards him, while indulgent, are more complicated and muted. She knows she has her own children to tend to, which causes her the grief of knowing she is giving more of her time to this white child than her own kids. Complicating matters, Noah’s father has remarried, and the new wife, Rose, is anguished by the fact that her stepson feels closer to the maid than to her. For her part, Caroline makes do, taking pride in her inner strength and fortitude, while secretly tending her sorrow at the loss of the love of her life, who took off after his aimlessness and abuse of her led to her striking back in a fit of rage. Things seem to be maintaining their equilibrium in the world of Caroline until Rose decides that any change Noah leaves in his pants pockets can be kept by Caroline when she finds it in the process of doing laundry. The simplistic gesture by Rose, which she sees as a generous thoughtful gift, causes Caroline to see her position in the social and economic life of the Gellman household as even more fraught than it was previously, and helps bring about the change referred to in the freighted title of the play.
The musical revolves around ideas of inequity and inequality in class, race, religious identity, and gender, and packs in quite a lot of very nuanced subtext among the text, as can be easily seen by a close reading of the book. Kushner’s compassionate depiction of his characters means that everyone comes in for both an affectionate, as well as pointed, examination of their attitudes and beliefs, and the characterizations are rich and melancholy; even the allegorical characters, the Moon, the Radio, and the Bus, seem fully inhabited. Of course, being a sung-through musical, the language is economical and potent, and matches well with the song styles employed in the full production, from blues and r&b to recitative and even klezmer music.
To reiterate, this is a musical to be savored in a full production with fine actors with strong voices, an orchestra of technical virtuosity, and a stage designed to meld the allegorical phases of the moon with the banality of a concrete basement in humid Louisiana. Though this book is a fine starting point for discovering this underrated Tony Kushner collaboration, it only fully blossoms when seen in its complete, breathtakingly soulful realization.