Nat “King” Cole is remembered today with the contours of an icon: a debonair, sophisticated singer smiling from a television screen, applying his voice the way a master painter uses a brush, a national figure who appealed to crossover audiences in a time of percolating social turbulence. The reality was, of course, considerably more complicated, a crosscurrent of injustice and hope rendered with subtle heart and skill in Penumbra Theatre’s premiere of “I Wish You Love.”
The action in writer Dominic Taylor’s scenario predominately occurs on the set of Cole’s television show over a span of weeks at the close of 1957. When Cole performs, we see Dennis Spears in black and white on screens over the stage, amply evoking Cole’s considerable magnetism. When we go to break, vintage commercials run while Cole, his bandmates and a network representative (Michael Tezla) deal with the issue of the day: whether Cole’s show will be renewed.
In the early going, it’s an open question whether director Lou Bellamy’s cast will be able to steer the ship above the middling range of the jukebox musical. This is no knock on Spears, who tackles the task of approximating one of the greatest vocalists of the previous century with soul and delicacy. In the first act, he delivers a wry “I Was a Little Too Lonely” and a precise “I Know That You Know” with a precision that duplicates Cole’s making-it-look-easy virtuosity, if not quite his boundless mastery of tone.
By the time Cole receives a noose in the mail preceding a tour heading to the South, though, the restraint of the actors (Kevin D. West as the world-weary bass player Oliver and Eric Berryman as young guitarist Jeffrey) leads one to wonder whether this show will find its footing. Spears wins us over in the early going; the question is whether the show will demonstrate the heft toward which it aspires.
It does, with a ratcheting sense of intensity. At the end of the first act the trio plays Alabama, where their reception dovetails with Civil Rights backlash and the ever-poised Cole is heckled from the stage (and his guitarist is assaulted by the police). The second act, which plays out in the TV studio, entails Cole receiving edicts from advertisers to segregate his band. Spears’ performance begins to smolder, and we learn to question some of the more ambiguous looks Cole fired at those cameras more than a half century ago.
Along the way, mind you, Spears gathers even more steam and uncorks a series of brilliant performances: a transcendent, aching “Morning Star” and a wrenchingly beautiful “Mona Lisa.” But it’s the end that raises the stakes for the evening. While Spears delivers the title tune, a series of images play out on the screens above him — while maintaining unflinching historical consciousness, the show leaves us with a reminder that truth, and memory, can contain profound notes of optimism and progress. It’s nothing short of beautiful, and a fitting tribute to a complex man who left a difficult-to-summarize, yet undeniably powerful, legacy.
What: “I Wish You Love”
When: Through May 22
Where: Penumbra Theatre, 270 N Kent St., St. Paul
Tickets: $38-$10
Information: 651-224-3180 or penumbratheatre.org
Capsule: This portrait of Nat “King” Cole starts out unsteady, albeit with great tunes, then leaves us with beautiful optimism.
