‘Blues for an Alabama Sky’ Review: Samira Wiley Stars in a Richly Rewarding Production of Pearl Cleage’s Play
David Benedict Part of the instant appeal of “Friends” was that, from the get-go, the relationships between the members of the gang who hung out in the apartments above Central Perk felt not just likeable but absolutely lived-in. The same is absolutely true of the perfectly meshed cast of Lynette Linton’s beautifully directed National Theatre production of Pearl Cleage’s “Blue for an Alabama Sky” in London. Cleage’s 1930s-set rooming-house drama is far more wide-ranging — it ultimately encompasses tragedy as well as comedy — but its glowing hallmark throughout is its ability to keep audiences basking in its warmth. Glowingly lit by Oliver Fenwick with a palette rising to richly expressionist crimson, Frankie Bradshaw’s towering, vividly atmospheric set goes from the front stoop to the rafters of a down-at-heel Harlem house. It’s here we meet drunk Angel (a birdlike yet commanding Samira Wiley, in her U.K. stage debut), who staggers back to the home of snappy costume designer Guy (hilariously smart-mouthed Giles Terera, London’s knockout Burr in “Hamilton”). A self-styled “notorious homosexual,” he takes pity on his long-time friend who has not only lost her boyfriend but her job singing in a nightclub.