Playwright: Jackie Taylor and Rueben Echoles. At: Black Ensemble Theater, 4450 N. Clark St. Tickets: 773-769-4451; www.blackensemble.org; $45. Runs through: April 21
Since the invention of recorded music, every life story has boasted a soundtrack. Black Ensemble's 2011 production of All Is Fair In Love implemented the connection between popular music and its listeners' personal experiences to propose a communitythe village of Love, Illinoiswhere the social values are shaped by the wisdom found in the lyrics of its songs.
The setting of this latest BET revue is Unison Hills, where the townhouse residentsparents, children, siblings, spouses, significant others, everybody but the postal carrierall work in the music industry. Despite the uniformity of their economic and occupational status (affluent and successful), however, everybody is at odds with everybody else. Since these neighbors are fond of conducting business on their front stoops, it takes only minutes for us to become acquainted with their individual wants and needs, an hour for their troubles to reach a crisis, and one more hour for everything to be resolved.
You don't come to Black Ensemble for weighty discussions of knotty issues, though. You come to hear four middle-aged guys swap harmonies on the classic "16 Candles" and four young guys respond with a syncopated spoken-word variation on that same melody, before joining together for an eight-voice arrangement of the Drifters' immortal "There Goes My Baby." You come to hear rebellious daughters rap on "Independent Woman" and subservient wives declare their emancipation with a defiant "You Don't Own Me." You come to cheer on a blue-eyed soul version of "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and a nerdy-white-boy rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off You." You come to chair-dance to the wall-to-wall beat of the most virtuoso stage band north of Bronzeville, and be sent home at the end of the evening with the gospel anthem, "Live in the Light of His Love."
So what is the gospel according to Jackie Taylor, the guiding force behind the nearly-four decades of this company's thriving history? Verily, that music has the power to cross the boundaries of race, age, gender and affectionswhen a member of a female trio reveals that her boyfriend is, in fact, a girlfriend, the news barely makes a ripple in the flow of goodwill. ("As long as you're happy with yourself, nothing else matters.") After a year steeped in partisan discord, isn't that the perfect accompaniment to our eager anticipation of spring?