Nina Simone: Four Women (runs through March 3rd) at KC Rep Copaken Stage, Kansas City MO (2024-02-16)

A single moment can often alter the path of a lifetime–



In some cases. It’s a life-defining experience; in others, a culmination of emotions that come to an internal apex and a decisive moment that forever alters a path forward.



For the fabled black classical and jazz artist Nina Simone, the moment would be on September 16, 1963, the day after the unforgivable bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL that killed four young black girls. She was still reeling from the June assassination of civil rights activist and good friend Medgar Evers in Mississippi and this latest unspeakable incident, proved to be the tipping point moment to transform her into an activist artist.


Nina Simone: Four Women is a fictional but powerful depiction of that catharsis, set in her Mt Vernon NY living room, as she struggles to compose her first protest anthem, which would go on to be one of her biggest and most controversial songs, “Mississippi Goddam.”


At this point of her career, the Julliard-trained classical singer-songwriter had gained some notoriety, via her recording of Gershwin’s “I Loves You, Porgy” from the “Porgy and Bess’ musical, but not much else noteworthy nor profound.



“Music is my activism!” she would cry out, as a result of this latest in a series of senselessly violent acts mostly in the South, “These notes are my daggers!”, determined to use her voice and gifts to make a societal impact, in the only way she knew how.

Along the way of her creative process, struggling with demons, doubts, and the self-imposed pressure to succinctly put her feelings down with music, Simone is surprised by a trio of very different personalities (similarly themed to what we saw in our last KC Rep production, A Christmas Carol) with each character giving Simone greater insight, perspective, and at times, criticism as to her work.



We’re never disclosed as to the ’realness’ of these visitors, though to the Simone fan, they’re directly influenced by her own “Four Women” song from 1966, one that describes four different women of color, one with “black” skin, one with “yellow”, one with “tan”, and one with “brown” skin that typified some of the social stereotypes of the day.



Her first unexpected visitor is Auntie Sarah (played with aplomb by Gabrielle Lott-Rogers) a warm motherly figure who is comforting but also resilient. Next is the light skinned Sephronia (played in fine voice by Toni Martin) self-described activist who struggles with perceived privilege as a biracial woman, but still feels like an outsider to all, and the unashamed and outspoken Sweet Thing (in a firebrand performance by Brittney Mack) a streetwalker not afraid to use her body and emotions to get what she wants, completes the three visitors. The ‘fourth’ woman, as it would be revealed, is Simone herself.

Nina Simone credits

In that foundational role of Simone that anchors this only five-person cast is Alexis J. Roston, a 4’11” dynamo that commands your attention whether waxing eloquently on the matters of the day or accompanied by the piano playing Matthew Harris as Sam on key numbers such as “Go Limp”, “Young, Gifted, and Black”, and “Sinnerman”.



In a later scene, where the music envelopes her body and releases itself in an emotionally freeing movement of dance, is a show highlight, and something we’ve only seen done similarly by one other, the late Sharon Jones. Set design by Shaun L. Motley counterpoised the elegance of Simone’s living room with the monochromatic destruction backdrop of the church bombing aftermath.



Opening night was fortunate to have not only the writer Christina Ham in attendance (who world-premiered the play in our former main stomping grounds of St Paul, MN back in 2016), but also director Malkia Stampley, who both stayed around following, for an opening night toast and some brief words of thanks.



Effective change is most often uncomfortable and expressing that in art is equally or more so, and the social struggles of six decades ago are still sadly too relevant – from George Floyd and countless others, to the recent public gunfire at Kansas City’s own Union Station, it can only take a moment for a path to change. Nina Simone: Four Women reminds us both of that, and Simone’s ahead-of-her-time relevance as an artist turned activist.



((Photos provided by their website) / Click on any image to enlarge and see in full)

NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN (at KC Rep Copaken Stage)

NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN

NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN Cast

NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN Theater for All

john c (johnc@weheartmusic.com) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ X / Twitter.com