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Tyler
Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family
A Review by
Ayodele Nzinga, MA, MFA
Friday night I went
to see Tyler Perry’s latest work, Madea’s Big Happy
Family, at the Paramount. The sidewalk to the venue
was lined with vendors hawking a variety of goods from
T-shirts to oils. Downtown Oakland hummed with an
overflow of vehicles and full parking lots as throngs of
theatergoers braced the brisk weather to view the
spectacle that is Tyler Perry.
The man and his
dress were in residence for my first experience of his
live work. Perry is box office magic; the circus has
come to Oakland and we are apparently exceedingly glad.
In the midst of approximately 3,000 people, I alone
seemed to miss the play that never arrived. There was
no plot, no major conflict, no resolution, and no play.
Perry introduced characters we have seen before doing
things we have seen them do before. These characters are
for the most part flat, lacking dimension and court
stereotypes we confront with distaste in mainstream
media.
The strongest
element of the evening was the impeccable vocals offered
by the cast who are fine singers but barely mediocre
actors. Shouts out also to Perry’s pit band both music
and sound were beyond reproach. The set sizzled; the
design was tasteful, dramatic, and creatively
functional. The show was not worthy of the set and the
music not being consistently integrated into a
developing story, stood alone. A fit analogy would be
jewels found by wading through feces.
Again we meet the damaged women,
the shy daughter hiding a don’t stop body under old
maids rags, the driven bitch who is hiding from past
pain, the women who don’t value the men they have
emasculated, and a mother so saintly she seems detached
from the reality that she didn’t manage to raise one
functional human being. To round out our collection of
wounded women we have weed smoking Aunt Bam who acts as
a foil for Perry’s Madea.
Bam, played with
spice by Cassie Davis, is the most interesting of the
female characters and the only one rounded enough to
earn any additional space here. She is aging less than
gracefully but having one hell of a time doing it. This
character offers some depth if you make meaning of her
recent adoption of religion after a life of clubs and
razors along with her willingness to reinterpret the
parts of the bible that might curb her actions. Bam
could be a real person sitting at your table on
Thanksgiving, a person with conflicts, a past, and a
lively presence. However, this character is supposed to
be a supporting cast member. Something is wrong if she
walks away with the show. That would be hard to do with
Perry onstage.
His entrance
garnered him a standing ovation that he basked in before
he went into a standup routine engaging audience members
still being seated thirty minutes into the show. You
understand in this moment that he can do no wrong. The
audience loves him. They laugh at his expected comedy,
delight in his unrestrained amusement with the writing,
and find genius in his frequently announced wanderings
from his script. In truth, his wandering did little to
detract from the non-play in progress, and might have
been the more interesting part of the evening.
Men fare no better
in Perry’s renderings. We have a reluctantly reformed
thug, a character often described as a little slow (as a
result of incest revealed too late to make any
difference to the story not being told), two emasculated
husbands, a crack head uncle, a doctor who functions as
eye candy and is somehow not just flat but a
non-character who has no story.
In this roster of
misfit men, it is Palmer Williams, Jr. as Monroe the
crack head uncle, which catches your attention. He is
the best actor on stage. When he is present, he manages
to galvanize small moments of sensibility in a
nonsensical script that goes nowhere. His timing and
comedic ability make him stand out as an actor in this
cast of vocalist.
So, if there was no
play and few actors in residence what then is the reason
for Perry’s successful evening? And do not doubt for a
moment, the evening was a smash for Perry and cast, and
they will be smashing all the way to the bank.
Look for some
answers in my next article, "Tyler Perry and the State
of the Arts," as I explore the phenomena of the Chitlin
Circuit theater and its relationship to the development
of the arts in the North American African community. I
will also consider some possible reasons for Perry’s
success in the absence of a compelling product. What
need does his work fulfill in Black community and what
affect does that work have at the end of the day on that
community?
What is it that
makes 2,999 people of color part with $80.00 a piece in
a recession to experience Perry’s particular and
peculiar brand of *FUBU Coonery, walk away feeling good?
Meanwhile if you
have not parted with your money, pop in an old Madea
movie, it does not matter which one, hold on to your
chips, it’s all the same. At least the movies attempt a
storyline.
A good read for our future
conversation:
http://www.conversateisnotaword.com/?p=134
- FUBU, an acronym; For Us By
Us. The name of a Black owned clothing company who
marketed to an urban market.
- Coonery: The performance of
stereotypical coon like acts in exchange for
personal gain.
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 |
Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
* * * * *
|
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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posted 8 February 2010
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