Choir Boy | Riverside's National Theatre of Parramatta
A friend of mine texted me after I saw this show to ask me what I what I thought and all I could tell him was that “there was nothing wrong with it”. This might seem like a vicious read but I genuinely mean it when I say there was nothing wrong with this show. Choir Boy is beautifully made and wonderfully performed, but there was something missing for me. So, while this review might seem negative or nit-picky, I want you to remember that I did enjoy this show. It just didn’t gut-punch in the way a lot of its hype told me it would.
All images by Phil Erbacher
Upon reflection, this ‘lack’ had to with my not being able to immerse myself in the world of this work. I’m a very tactile spectator. I like to feel the work, its energy. I talk a lot about distance and closeness when I’m discussing my experiences with art. And Choir Boy does not feel as intimate as I thought it would; as its premise, themes, and politics advertise it as being.
The first factor that contributes to this has to do with its status as a play-with-music. I write this with a keen awareness that previous productions of this work are Tony Award nominated, but I won’t allow that to keep me from questioning why this show needed musical numbers. Don’t get me wrong, it *makes sense* that they are here given the content being about a culture of song, but (at least in this production) it didn’t feel vital.
In my experience, one can usually attribute this feeling to the jarring nature of the music’s inclusion; the ways sudden shifts into musical numbers snatch the viewer out of the story and prevents them from fully experiencing pathos. It’s actually the opposite in this case. The music is phenomenal and by “the music” I mean the singing because the entire show is sung acapella. These moments are the most affective of the show both due to the immense vocal talent of the cast and the emotional intensity they bring to the songs.
All images by Phil Erbacher
It is the spoken scenes that have to justify their presence in my opinion. This has little to do with the script itself and more to do with how it was handled. The performers were moving so quickly through their dialogue that sometimes a scene’s emotional poignancy couldn’t be sat with appropriately (by them or by viewers). Perhaps more pressingly, as someone with an awareness of gospel culture and their own, different but deeply visceral, experience with the spiritual I don’t know that Choir Boy effectively communicates the intensely physical relationship gospel singers have to gospel music.
The intersectional nuances of race and sexuality are explored to their fullness, but the way the titular choir and its dramas are handled make Pharus, the titular choir boys’, devotion to gospel and his ambition to lead the choir seem resultant of a Rachel Berry-esque delusion as opposed to a spiritual conviction. If this triad of race-sexuality-spirituality had been juggled a little bit more expertly I think this work would have packed the punch that its renown has clearly indicated, it has the potential for.
All-in-all Choir Boy is a wholesome night at the theatre filled with musical wonder but it’s depth of emotional resonance does not necessarily live up to the work’s reputation.
