NY1 Theater Review: "All American Girls"
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The new off-Broadway play "All American Girls" concerns an African-American women's baseball team from Chicago during World War II. NY1's Roma Torre filed the following review. If the women of "A League Of Their Own" were to hook up with the men of "A Soldier's Story," they might produce something resembling "All American Girls," though as is sometimes the case with great lineage, the offspring is no match for the parents.
At first glance, you'd swear the play is a black version of "A League of Their Own," the 1992 film about the women's baseball team formed during World War II while the men were off to battle. "All American Girls" concerns a team of black women during the same period fighting not just sexism, but racism as well.
It's certainly an intriguing premise, but playwright and director Layon Gray dropped the ball on this one with some glaring missteps. In both dialogue and staging, it tends toward the melodramatic. The characters, while engaging and well defined, are inconsistent. There are also some jarring problems with wardrobe, which in some cases completely ignores the period.
Right off the bat, we learn that the team's coach, a hardened taskmaster, has mysteriously disappeared. A young woman, who identifies herself as a student reporter at a local paper, explains she's doing an investigative story on the case and interviews each of the players.
The plot instantly brings to mind the events surrounding "A Soldier's Play," also known on film as "A Soldier's Story," in which an abusive black sergeant commanding a troop of black soldiers during World War II is killed and each of the men is interviewed in the subsequent investigation. That's a big strike in the originality department.
But it does score in other ways. The performances, while not always Broadway caliber, reveal emerging talents that offer solid promise. As the doomed coach, Arlene A. McGruder stands out, establishing a strong presence, though she's forced to do an about-face that just doesn't make much sense. Chalk that one up as an error on the playwright.
Layon Gray does deserve credit for crafting a compelling story with the heart of a potential winner. But its similarity to much better written scripts forces comparisons that relegate "All American Girls" to the Minor Leagues at best.