'Kingdom' is a first-rate effort

ReVision marks its "Kingdom" in Asbury

By TOM CHESEK
Asbury Park Press
April 24, 2009

You may not completely catch what's being said onstage in "Kingdom," the hip-hop-flavored, bilingual musical drama now in its East Coast premiere engagement in Asbury Park. You might not be on the same page as its non-moralizing, largely sympathetic view of urban gang life. And you're probably not going to exit the auditorium humming the score.

But if you're interested in seeing a piece of modern musical theater that compels the attention, not through gimmicky stagecraft but through purely people-powered energy, then you've knocked on the right door.

When they set up shop in Asbury Park last year, the founders of the professional ReVision Theatre Company quickly distinguished themselves with their passion for musicals, their stated mission to bring some fresh and challenging fare to the local stage and their remarkable ability to transform the most oddball of spaces into a functional site for live performance.

"Kingdom" carries irrefutable evidence of the first two points, and the troupe's host venue — the generously scaled bingo hall inside the city's historic VFW building — shows that this young, essentially "homeless" company continues to earn its name daily. This is the same place where ReVision presented a silly holiday show last December. But this time, the room is configured so that the action takes place basketball-court style, with the actors inhabiting a long central area, a four-piece band on the raised stage and the audience set up on either side of the performance.

In the story by book author and lyricist Aaron Jafferis, a pair of Latino kids in an unspecified city — naive Juan (Christian Amaraut) and the ever-so-slightly more streetwise Andres (Miguel Jarquin-Moreland) — are on the lookout for more out of life, having quit their Dunkin Donuts jobs (and shared quarters when Juan's mom skips out on him). A dust-up at a neighborhood dance introduces them to tart-tongued Marisa (Desiree Rodriguez), sister of Cano (Dell Howlett), the charismatic head of the local chapter of the Latin Kings.

Hot music

Taking Juan and Andres into the fold — and dedicating himself to maintaining a fragile peace in his Portingale Park neighborhood — Cano finds it necessary to intervene when his hotheaded young charges get in a confrontation with drug dealers Hector and Danny (Keith Antone, Jose Candelaria). It's all done to a rocked-up score by Ian Williams.Jafferis makes some points about the ways in which wars begin and spiral out of control, using the litter-strewn park in the 'hood as his flashpoint. It's all done as realistically as possible for a show in which characters break out into song or scripted freestyle (the actors under the direction of Carlos Armesto and supervision of choreographer Tiffany Rachelle Stewart prove adept at both).

The two young leads remain strong and credible throughout, inhabiting the invisible cityscape of the show like they've lived there all their lives. There is such a thing as theater magic, after all, and in the end this first-rate company works to break down all barriers — cultural, generational, logistical — in bringing this highly charged show to life.

Additional Facts

KINGDOM

VFW Theatre, 701 Lake Ave., Asbury Park — 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 7 p.m. Sundays through May 3 — $25-$35

(732) 455-3059

www.ReVisionTheatre.org