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WHITE CHOCOLATE – Century Center for the Performning Arts, a Culture Project
Production
A new comedy written by New Yorker cartoonist William Hamilton
Directed by David Schweizer
Set – James Noone, Lights – David Weiner, Costumes – David Zinn
With: Reg E. Cathey, Julie Halston, Erik Laray Harvey, Paul H. Juhn, Samantha Soule, and
Lynn Whitfield
You know the cartoons of William Hamilton (cartoon bank) from the New Yorker. Sort of raw, wild
and rich white people saying pretty much what they want. His work looks as though he and his
characters are moving very very fast. Most of it is funny and a lot of it is piercing.
So to with some of the writing of this show – which I hope he takes home and reworks to get it into
the comedy that he really wants. Because the very best aspect of this play is that black and white
people are in the audience laughing at black and white people on the stage. So hats off to Hamilton.
We need more shows that make this happen.
As it is the play is too long. It is the story of a Jewish Upper East Side couple that wakes up black.
The opening scene is in the dark – husband and wife talking in bed – and the husband goes into the
bathroom. We see his silhouette when he turns on the light and instead of fainting dead away, which
is what he should have done, he stands there and yowls about how he cannot believe this has
happened. He yowls on and on and on – terrifying he wife and boring us.
The rest of the play is too long as well. The ‘Plot” revolves around the fact that our leading man was
hoping to get the job as director of the Metropolitan Museum, and is now afraid that is impossible. No
one seems to recognize this new dark skinned couple, although we are told that the only thing that
changed was their skin color, so they make all requisite, stupid ethnic and racial comments you can
imagine, and then some. Daughter comes home with Asian boyfriend and more ethnic jokes are
thrown into the mix. Finally in comes the only competition for the Met job, and he is a real black
person who is just as loopy as everyone else.
It could be slapstick, but it’s not. The main ingredient that makes this not slapstick, not nohow, not
nothin’ is the acting. Well, it’s hard to call it acting. It’s mugging, and hamming it up and a lot of
walking around with wrists dangling the way they do in Acting 101. That’s about how good these
people are. Maybe not even.
And they are not aided by the direction, which is leaden. It’s as though the director cast this show,
but came in the next day and discovered they had changed into other actors. Other bad actors. And
he just gave up.
Poor Mr. Hamilton. I hope this doesn’t put him off the theatre for good.