By Joe Basque, Contributor
Everything about “Caroline, or Change” is unconventional.
It is an uplifting tragedy set in a Jewish home in Louisiana populated by an African American maid and a basement full of singing appliances. It is about pocket change and generational change. According to Tony Kushner, it is neither a musical nor an opera. It is an “opera-cal.”
It is a marvel. Written by Kushner (who won a Pulitzer Prize for “Angels in America”) with music by Jeanine Tesori (who, along with Lisa Kron won last year’s Tony Award for Best Original Score for “Fun Home”), the story focuses on Caroline, a single black mother raising her family on a domestic servant’s wages while the Civil Rights movement swirls around her. Her world is in the basement of the Gellman family, sixteen feet under sea level. Her only companions are an upbeat washing machine, a fiendish dryer, and the Supremes-like trio of her radio, with occasional intrusions by the moon and her bus.
Caroline’s life is turned inside out when she is charged with keeping any change that young Noah Gellman leaves in his pockets in order to teach him a lesson. Her relationship with Noah is shattered when a $20 bill goes missing.
According to director Susan Baer Collins, the story is semi-autobiographical. Tony Kushner grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, with musical parents and a black maid in the 1960’s. Caroline (played by Echelle Childers) and Noah (Danny Denenberg) are thrown together in a world where everything in the world is changing around them. “The play is all about change,” says Collins. “It’s about the loose change in pockets, about what money means to people who have it and to people who don’t in 1963.” At the same time, it is about change in a much larger sense. “Caroline loses her son to Viet Nam. Noah loses his mother. His father loses his wife. The country loses JFK.” And Caroline is lost in the wake of the Civil Rights movement.
And yet, in the end, the tragedy of Caroline is overcome by the uplifting sense that change will bring hope and happiness to her daughter.
Doran Schmidt music directs a talented cast with a marvelous score that ranges from Motown and blues to gospel and Jewish Klezmer music.
The Omaha Community Playhouse’s production of “Caroline, or Change” will run from February 12 through March 20. Shows are Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 7:30, with Sunday matinees at 2:00. Tickets are $40. Half price “twilight tickets” may also be available in person at the box office window starting at noon on the day of the show. Cash and check are the only accepted forms of payment for twilight tickets. No phone reservations accepted for this special offer, and seats are limited and subject to availability. No advanced reservations can be made for twilight tickets. The Omaha Community Playhouse is located at 6915 Cass Street in Omaha. Tickets are available by calling the Omaha Community Playhouse box office at (402) 553-0800 or toll free at 1-888-782-4338 or online at https://www.ticketomaha.com/productions/Caroline-Or-Change. Box office hours are Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 10 am to 5 pm, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from: 10 am to 6:30 pm and Sundays from noon to 4 pm. Questions? Contact the OCP box office or e-mail them at: info@omahaplayhouse.com.