By SALLY HOGARTY | Columnist

Curtain Calls: Interactive musical ‘Crowns’ engages audiences in Walnut Creek

Center Rep and its new artistic director, Matt M. Morrow, had the Lesher Center rocking earlier this month with the opening of the high energy, feel-good musical “Crowns.”

Playwright Regina Taylor takes the African American tradition of wearing elaborate hats to church and turns it into a wonderfully warm story of tradition, community and love infused with uplifting spirituals, jazz, blues and even a bit of rap music.

The show follows young Yolanda, a teen from Brooklyn who, after the murder of her idolized older brother, has been sent to live with her grandmother in Louisiana. Resentful at first, the young, hip woman finds herself embraced by her grandmother’s group of friends and introduced to a powerful set of rituals, not to mention roof-raising musical numbers. 

Director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg and music director Leigh Scarritt cast an amazing group of performers who splendidly execute choreographer Kendra Barnes’ creative moves. I particularly appreciated how Barnes kept Yolanda’s movements appropriate for a young city-bred teen even with elements from Yolanda’s opening rap number carrying into the more graceful group routines later in the musical.

Antonia Reed, a brilliant actress who manages to look tough and vulnerable at the same time, plays Yolanda with Juanita Harris and her striking vocals as her grandmother, Mother Shaw.

Also displaying impressive voices, acting ability and stylized movements are Yaadi Erica Richardson (the ladylike Wanda), Phaedra Tillery-Boughton (the minister’s wife Mabel), Constance Jewell Lopez (the tough funeral director Velma), Janelle LaSalle (the flirty Jeannette), who has a lovely solo ballet, and Darryl V. Jones, who plays The Man in the women’s various stories.

Nina Ball created the beautiful arches for the church set with Ben Rawson adding his evocative lighting. Using a silk-like slip as the basic costume for the church ladies, costumer Ulises Alcala added brilliantly colored jackets and over garments. Then there are the beautifully fabricated hats, several of which were supplied on-loan from Taylor’s mother, Myrtice Marie Turner.

This is not a musical where the audience engages quietly in their seats. Billed as an “interactive” musical, audiences are encouraged to holler, clap to the rhythms and, basically, go where the music and the good vibrations lead.

“Crowns” runs through Oct. 6 at Walnut Creek’s Lesher Center for the Arts with an ASL-interpreted performance at 2:30 p.m. Oct. 1. For tickets, call 925-943-7469 or go to lesherartscenter.org.

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