Charles Fuller’s “A Soldier’s Play,” later made into the 1984 movie “A Soldier’s Story,” with the young Denzel Washington, is a good mystery set against the background of the segregated Army during World War II.
The excellent cast of the revival at the off-Broadway Second Stage Theater keeps the audience guessing who might have killed Sgt. Waters, played by James McDaniel (TV’s “NYPD Blue”).
Taye Diggs (”Wicked,”"Rent,” TV’s “Kevin Hill”) plays Capt. Davenport, a black lawyer sent to the base in Louisiana to investigate the case, which is a bit too hot for the white officers to handle.
Davenport has to fight for the right to determine his own course even as he develops the evidence by interviewing and reinterviewing the men of Waters’ unit, which functioned mostly as a baseball team.
Among the cast standouts are Anthony Mackie, almost unrecognizable from his recent starring role in “McReele”off-Broadway, and Mike Colter as Pvt. C.J. Memphis, beloved by other members of the unit though he apparently failed to meet Sgt. Waters’ standards.
The show is a treat, especially for those who don’t know or remember the ending.
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Comment by Mr Blogsome — November 2, 2005 @ 6:35 pm