Colman Domingo’s solo piece about
growing up in Philadelphia surrounded by soul music does not, alas,
centre on the early-1970s golden age of Philly soul: Domingo is several
years too young for that. This is a much more catholic mix, including
Michael Jackson, the Ohio Players and Earth, Wind & Fire and
encompassing much that we would consider more disco or funk than soul.
Unfortunately, the dramatic material is not as colossal as many of its
musical counterparts.
At first, as Domingo clears his parents’ old albums from the basement
of their former house, it seems that we may be in for little more than
an extended evangelical riff on the music itself; it takes a while for
Domingo to integrate the tracks we hear with recollections from his
family’s past, such as the musical battles waged in the house each
Saturday night as his sister and brother each prepared to go out while
Domingo himself tried to practise his violin.
Some of the music is now tinged with period camp, which the
author/performer acknowledges by, unusually, dropping into a Barry
White
basso register to
deliver his most blatant punchlines. But the camp also settles into the
weave of the material, as the subject moves to Domingo’s adolescent
coming-out to family members one by one. He handles the tale well, but
I couldn’t help feeling that this was too obvious to be a compelling
turn of events within the genre of solo autobiographical performance.
By the time he moves on to a more recent visit to his ailing parents,
it is clear that we are well on the way to a sentimentally affirmative
ending of the kind typical in such work.
The portrait of the young JJ (his family nickname) is at least not the
stereotype of a boy discovering his sexuality through the music.
Domingo deploys moments of queeny flamboyance as convenient, although
his self-portrait becomes more unambiguously gay as, well, as he does
himself. Ultimately, though, this is an accomplished example from
within a conventional form of solo work rather than one which breaks
that mould. To paraphrase a hit during Domingo’s infancy by Philly
group The Delfonics (who are barely even namechecked), he didn’t blow
my mind this time.
Written for the Financial
Times.