They’re Not the Supremes, but They Know the Tunes!
Sistas: The Musical — From left, Amy Goldberger, April Nixon, Tracey Conyer Lee, Jennifer Fouché and Lexi Rhoades don gold lamé for a show written by Dorothy Marcic at St. Luke’s Theater.
The New York Times – Theater Review – By Anita Gates – October 28, 2011
Dorothy Marcic’s “Sistas: The Musical,” now playing at St. Luke’s Theater, is a sweet and sassy …little show. Three sisters (Jennifer Fouché, Tracey Conyer Lee and Lexi Rhoades); their mother (April Nixon); and their white sister-in-law (Amy Goldberger) prepare for the funeral of the family’s 92-year-old matriarch. One sister was sexually abused; one is throwing away her life on a worthless man who mistreats her; one has become deeply religious; and the mother is an overachiever who was valedictorian at Spelman. They discuss lynchings, freedom riders, SNCC, racial profiling, feminism, hair weaves (“Black women have the same relationship with their hair that white women have with their weight,” one character observes), weakness versus vulnerability, and the difference between “naming the pain” and wallowing in it.
…The real reason you’re there is for the songs, which range from Ms. Fouché’s powerful rendition of “Ain’t Nobody’s Business if I Do” to a ’60s soul medley that hits the heights with “Stop! In the Name of Love,” sung by all five women wearing makeshift gold lamé gowns. The group number “Single Ladies” is pretty great too.
In the end it’s a good-natured, low-budget evening with plenty of humor and some impressive voices.