King Liz
Fernanda Coppel
City Lights Theater Company
With Jay Z blasting through the office’s speakers, Gabby serves as a cool DJ in shades while her boss, Liz, enters the office dressed in 5th Avenue glamor – and also in dark shades – lip synching the rap lyrics that help her pump up for the day’s money-making ventures: “As sure as I made it here, I could make it anywhere.”
Declaring, “It’s good to be king,” Liz shoots out a series of rapid-fire, f-word-inflicted orders to her assistant from scheduling a facial to sitting her in the wive’s section of the upcoming NBA playoff games (“It’s poaching season”). After all, Liz is the Number One agent for the top basketball stars whose collective salaries of $900M have made her millions; and she is ready to make some more bucks today: “No one can stop me. Not even God.”
City Lights Theater Company presents Fernanda Coppel’s King Liz directed by El Teatro Campesino’s Kinan Valdez in a hyped-up, explosive, and hard-hitting look at what one Black woman believes it takes to be on top in a world dominated by white men. Even with a cast that consistently scores three-pointers with their star performances, King Liz fails to deliver a total win with a story’s arc that feels too much aimed for high drama moments too incredible and overly-done – more like those made for a TV series of multiple episodes (which according to the program, is the next step plan for Fernanda Coppel’s script).
Please continue to Talkin’Broadway for the rest of the review.
Rating: 3 E
King Liz continues through April 21, 2024, in a two-hour (one intermission) production by City Lights Theater Company, 529 S. 2nd Street, San Jose. Tickets are available online at www.cltc.org .
Photo Credit: Christian Pizzirani
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