Wild with Happy
Colman Domingo
New Conservatory Theatre Center
Grief comes in ways unexpected for Gil as he tries his best to rush through the whole process in dealing with his mom’s sudden passing where she resides in his hometown of Philly. After all, the struggling actor (and Yale English lit grad) needs to return tomorrow to New York for a call-back audition to play a craisin (cranberry + raisin) in a commercial. However, a sympathetic, drop-dead-handsome funeral director; a bossy, demanding aunt; and a sassy, swishing best friend all have other ideas how to help him deal with his loss. What else can a guy do but grab his mom’s urn and her prized, porcelain Cinderella doll from QVC and head on a roadtrip?
His journey becomes for us a belly-laughing, heart-warming, tear-producing trip as Gil comes to grips with his loss of a mom and of his earlier, unfulfilled dreams. Through the unbounded imagination of acclaimed playwright, Colman Domingo, unsuspecting Gil is about to find himself Wild with Happy as a Cinderella destined for a fairy tale ending. With an audaciously stellar cast under the sensitive and sensational direction of ShawnJ West, New Conservatory Theatre Center intermingles comedy with drama along some hot romance to ensure audiences exit with big sighs and smiles, everyone being Wild with Happy.
As Gil arrives in Philadelphia and heads to the funeral home where Black families like his have taken their loved ones for generations, memories of his mom, Adelaide, take over and send him into another world. There was the last time he was ever in a church at the age of ten when Adelaide — after a riotous night of partying and drinking — decided it was time to “get us some Jesus” and dragged them both to church, only to be swept up in an arm-waving, leg-stomping, body-jumping revival scene (one of riotous hilarity for us as audience) that scared him away forever from any other church. And there was the last time he talked to Adelaide just days before — a conversation where she urged him to dream more and to get over his bad luck with call-backs and with men. “You gotta get up, brush your knees off, shake your wig, and start all over again,” she tells him — along with hoping her latest letter to Oprah about him (her sixth one sent) will finally land him in stardom. But Gil tells his mom that “I don’t want to talk about dreams; they don’t come true,” even as she argues just the opposite to his insistence of “I don’t believe in make believe.”
After his recent NCTC role as Micheal in tick, tick … BOOM!, Marcus J. Paige returns as a somewhat cynical and bitter Gil who is impatient and a bit unforgiving with himself and his present life. He is certainly not looking for much help or sympathy from anyone else. But his gnarly Gil does show in his expressive eyes and glimpses of a smile the love and joy he feels as he remembers conversations and good times with Adelaide (the name he always called his mom).
At the funeral home, Gil is met by thirty-year-old Terry IV (i.e., the fourth in a generation of Jacksons who have been funeral directors), who is somewhat taken aback but still full of compassion when Gil insists on immediate cremation of Adelaide. Like Gil, Terry is not so happy with his present career path. He proceeds to put aside trying to sell Gil a coffin and instead to use his prowess as a ‘healer’ to lead Gil into a relaxed state of bliss through hilarious breathing and erotic massaging (all leading to a surprise climax for both!). Samuel Del Rosario is the cute, cuddly, and sincerely caring Terry who wonderfully embodies a Prince Charming role in the fairy tale unfolding bit by bit unbeknownst all around the reluctant but clearly aroused Cinderella Gil. While he never mounts a steed to find his princess, Terry will eventually head off into the sunset in a search for love with a missing shoe in hand.
Carla Banu DeJesus spectacularly alternates in roles between a fairy godmother and a wicked step-mother (often in near split-second switches of costume, hair styles, and total demeanor) as she plays both Adelaide and Adelaide’s sister, Glo.
As Adelaide, DeJesus is a delightful gossip, a wonderful storyteller, and a dutiful mother trying her best to shake her son out of his disbelief in dreams and to be the star she knows he can be. Her Adelaide sparkles as she talks to him on the phone, employing scores of facial expressions and vocal swings to get her message across the wires. As she furiously slaps and smacks lotion on her arms and legs, she begs him to dream, to believe in “magic,” and to pray on his “love situation.”
After Adelaide suddenly dies, Glo arrives on the scene of her sister’s apartment just as her nephew is hugging his mom’s new dress in the midst of his memories of her. Aunt Glo immediately erupts into a storm of indignation and fury as she finds out her “onliest” sister is now ashes in an urn. “Black people don’t do that … We only do that if the body is burned, mutilated, or too fat to fit in the coffin.”
Carla Banu DeJesus undergoes a Jeckyll-Hyde metamorphosis as her motherly Adelaide is now an Aunt Glo that becomes a monstrous force for her nephew Gil to deal with. Displaying all her former Southern upbringing as she turns one syllable words into those with sliding, multiple parts, she grabs dresses, beads, and high heels from her dead-sister’s closet while lamblasting Gil for not wanting to follow Black traditions for mourning that go back to their African origins — citing that even their ancient ancestor “Lucy” knew better what to do than he.
For Glo, Gil’s and the world’s current problems are all wound up in the “Internets,” with Glo bringing down the house as she gives her version of how the history of dial-ups, DSL, and even microwaves has left people like Gil with no real relationships, only a life of “texting and twitching.” Carla Banu DeJesus is more than worth the price of a ticket to relish her as not only Adelaide, but especially as an Aunt Glo who will in the end, cause tears to flow as that supposed hard heart of hers shows its true colors and melts ours.
The real magic of this somewhat fractured fairy tale comes about because of the dust the real fairy of the tale, Mo, sprinkles into its telling. James Arthur M is Gil’s boyhood pal, Mo, still living in Philly who is flamboyantly fabulous as his flits and flirts his way into every scene he lands. Mo has shown up to provide support to Gil; but his secret map and plan will lead both of them as well as Terry and Glo on an unlikely journey where all will find surprises, revelations, and resolutions formerly unimaginable by any.
With its mixture of memories, real-time, and eventual even fantasy, Wild with Happy becomes a wonderful playground for Director ShawnJ West and his creative team. West alternates scenes of hurricane force storming emotions with moments of delicious silence where a gesture or glance provide telling hints of what is to come later. The director finds ways to harvest a field of laughs where no words are needed as a massage takes on monumental dimensions or a sister paws her way into a closet of treasures. And when the fairy tale hits its peak, the director orchestrates a magical scene and feeling that even Walt Disney would have to admire.
Tom O’Brien’s beautifully conceived set and props designs, Ava Byrd’s eye-popping and often chuckle-producing costumes, Kevin E Myrick’s transformative lighting choices, Alex Fajeyode’s tuneful and time-exact sound design, and Isaac Fine’s comical and cosmic projection designs all complete the picture. The results is NCTC and Colman Domingo’s Wild with Happy being a picture of loving bliss even as the subject is one of grief and loss.
Rating: 5 E
A Theatre Eddys Best Bet Production
Wild with Happy continues through April 6, 2025, in a ninety-minute (no intermission) production by New Conservatory Theatre Center in the Decker Theatre, 25 Van Ness Avenue at Market Street, San Francisco, CA. Tickets are available online at https://nctcsf.org/, by box office phone at 415-861-8972, or by email at boxoffice@nctcsf.org.
Photo Credits: Lois Tema
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