The cast of New Federal Theatre’s The World According to Micki Grant (from left): Matelyn Alicia, Brian Davis, April Armstrong, and Patrice Bell. (This photo and banner photograph by Gerry Goodstein.)
The New Federal Theatre is inaugurating a new residence on the Upper West Side with The World According to Micki Grant. This original, 90-minute revue, compiled and directed by Nora Cole, consists of songs, verse, and autobiographical prose by composer-poet-playwright-performer Grant, who died three years ago at age 92.
Armstrong sings “Last Night,” a ballad about suppressed anger, in Nora Cole’s revue The World According to Micki Grant. Photograph by Gerry Goodstein.
In 1970, when Don’t Bother Me, I Can’t Cope, Grant’s best-known work, was unveiled at a “snug little theater” in Chelsea, Mel Gussow, writing for the New York Times, found the show so exuberant it “nearly burst its seams.” He praised Cope as “a hand-clapping, foot-tapping, sky-reaching, finger-jabbing, body-swaying, ear-splitting, musical revue.”
Two years later, on Broadway, Cope was nominated for Tony Awards for Best Book of a Musical, Best Original Score, and Best Musical of the season. Those nominations might have become wins but for the fact that Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music arrived a month ahead of the Tony ceremony, recalibrating the awards competition. Night Music swept the categories in which it was pitted against Cope and collected awards in other categories as well. Cope, however, ran for 2½ years (a year longer than Night Music), racking up 1,065 performances (464 more than the Sondheim show). With Cope, Grant (43 at the time) earned a prominent niche in theater history as the first woman to write the music, lyrics, and book of a Broadway musical, and the first woman honored with a Grammy for an original Broadway cast recording.
A young Grant (right) in Chicago, her hometown, with Sarah Vaughn in an undated photograph. Courtesy of the Estate of Micki Grant.
Grant’s story is full of serendipity and, in Cole’s revue, it’s recounted by an endearing cast of four. Matelyn Alicia, April Armstrong, and Patrice Bell represent distinct aspects of Micki’s persona. Brian Davis plays a variety of male characters and tap-dances with spirit and charm. Under Tom Spahn’s musical direction, all four handle Grant’s songs with verve and a high level of musicianship.
Born in 1929, Grant was raised in Chicago by supportive, high-minded parents of modest means. She began writing poems at age 8 and decamped for Los Angeles before finishing college to seek her fortune in the entertainment world. In 1959 she wrote a song, “Pink Shoe Laces,” recorded by Dodie Stevens, that rose to No. 3 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Cast in a revue bound for Off-Broadway in 1962, she left California for New York and spent the rest of her 92 years there.
“Step into my world and spend some time with me,” goes a Grant lyric sung by Davis and the three Mickis at the top of the show. “We don’t have to treat it all so seriously. / As long as we can treat each other tenderly, / Everything will be all right.” That’s classic Grant—nonchalant, hopeful, with an appealing melody. At other times, her lyrics are witty, stirring, and, not infrequently, angry (and justifiably so, considering the times she lived in).
Brian Davis, who provides all the male vocals and most of the tap dancing in this new revue of Micki Grant’s songs, poetry, and prose. Photograph by Gerry Goodstein.
The New Federal’s production is frugal but eye-appealing. The scenic artists of Davis Designs have created a multilevel space, wide and uncluttered, in which the actors cavort with the upbeat energy this material invites. Costumes by Ali Turns provide vivid color, with hues reflecting the 1960s and ’70s, when Grant created her most successful work. Michele Baldwin’s projections—archival stills with bits and pieces of moving footage—bring the real-life Grant on stage without overshadowing or upstaging the live performers.
Despite its virtues, The World According to Micki Grant is merely a pale sketch of Grant’s career, punctuated with references, seemingly random, to her personal life. Veering from musical number to musical number with an “and-then-I-wrote” insouciance, the show is structurally amorphous and stingy with drama and suspense. Grant wrote or had a hand in at least 13 musicals. This revue samples several, yet conjures a visceral sense of only one—Your Arms Too Short to Box with God, the rousing retelling of the Gospel of Matthew, to which Grant merely contributed some songs.
In a 1972 New York Times feature, Guy Flatley characterized Grant’s work as “a soulful and soaring evocation of the Black experience that somehow manages to be both unsparing and optimistic.” The World According to Micki Grant captures Grant’s optimism but lacks the concentrated emotional insight and gale-force theatrics that made her best work a bracing part of New York theater 50 years ago.
New Federal Theatre’s presentation of The World According to Micki Grant runs through June 29 at WP Theater (2162 Broadway). Evening performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays; matinees are at 2 p.m. Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. For tickets and information, visit newfederaltheatre.com, or call (212) 353-1176.
Playwright: Nora Cole (adapted from the work of Micki Grant)
Direction: Nora Cole
Choreography: LaKai Worrell
Scenic Design: DavidsonDesigns, LLC
Costume Design: Ali Turns
Lighting Design: Victor En Yu Tan
Projection Design: Michele Baldwin
Sound Design: Aalics Bronson
