Inspired by a 2000 book of 50 photos and interviews, CROWNS: Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats, Regina Taylor wrote Crowns, a series of scenes from different time periods, places and stories told by various characters interwoven with mostly Gospel music. The play premiered in 2002 under the aegis of Princeton’s McCarter Theatre, subsequently won four Helen Hayes Awards and, according to dramaturg Zoya Bromberg, “for over two years has been the most performed show in the [United States].”
Unfortunately, the opening performance of Crowns at The Theater Project in Cranford last night left me wanting more stories told by these women and less Gospel music. In fact, there was so much of this musical genre that it lost its power and became, excuse my bluntness, rather boring.
Crowns’ plot, such as it is, involves Yolanda, a young black woman from Brooklyn who loves to rap and who, when her beloved brother is murdered on the street, is packed off by her worried mother to her Grandmother Shaw in North Carolina. There, she will be safe and will learn about her heritage. For most of the time after her introduction, Yolanda, played splendidly by Rashanna Harmon, stands around rolling her eyes at the antics of the middle class church ladies until a scene near the end where she finally “gets the spirit,” is baptized and, ostensibly, becomes one of the community. 
Along the way, she hears stories of the lives led by a bevy of beautiful women, who proclaim their status by the hats they make, purchase and wear to church. Spunky, determined, the women display the “hatitude” needed to “wear a hat well.” According to them, hats are necessary to fulfill the biblical injunction that a woman’s head should always be covered. As one says, “Our crowns have been bought and paid for; all we have to do is wear ‘em.” Along the way, we (and Yolanda) learn the rules about hats, including the injunction not to lend hats, not to touch another’s hat and not to hug too close and disturb another’s hat! Hats are very important to these status-seeking women; they are heirlooms handed down like china and crystal or the antique dresser cherished by Mother Shaw.
The stories told by Taylor are very interesting. One woman has so many hats that she has nowhere in her house to put them! Another, a funeral director, devises a way for a corpse to be buried wearing a hat! And, most touching of all, one woman recalls the time after the Civil Rights Act has been passed when she enters a former whites-only store and buys, for cash, a hat that is far too expensive, but whose purchase certainly makes a point!
So what’s my quibble? Well, for one thing, the 90 minutes running time felt very long. I’m not sure why because Director Mark Spina certainly moves the actors efficiently around the expansive stage in the Roy Smith Theater. I think it has to do with the preponderance of Gospel music that interrupts the dialogue and many times, doesn’t really advance the plot along. Crowns at times felt like a concert with dialogue, instead of a play with music. And because most Gospel music sings of one thing, reaching Salvation through Jesus, the repetition became tiresome after a while. Too, it was difficult at times to hear the actors in the larger auditorium; they weren’t miked, and the microphones dangling in front of the stage didn’t appear work. They need to be fixed, and some of the actors need to project better, especially when at the back of the stage.
The actors are terrific, however. Chavez Ravine was wonderful as Mother Shaw, Yolanda’s grandmother and the Preacher’s wife. Tamara Beamer (Wanda), Antu Yacob (as Velma, she sings a fabulous and lengthy “His Eye is on the Sparrow”), Saaimah Talley (Mabel, who warbles “No Cross, No Crown”) and Gail Lou DeSandies (Jeanette, and the play’s Musical Director) have strong voices and really know how to put across a song. The lovely hats (by Nobby Hats of Linden) and the colorful costumes make the stage a kaleidoscope of ever-changing hues.
Perhaps the Gospel music in Crowns is an acquired taste; too bad such a predominance of it (19 songs in 90 minutes) crowds out the compelling stories these women tell. My feet were tapping, but my mind thirsted for more tales of hats and the wonderful women who wear them.
Crowns will be performed at The Theater Project on the campus of Union County College, 1033 Springfield Avenue, Cranford, through October 17, Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 PM and Sundays at 3 PM.
Tickets range from $10–30 and can be reserved by contacting Brown Paper Tickets either online at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/125413 or by telephone at 800.838.3006. Information is also available at http://www.thetheaterproject.org/.
