Cecil Washington Jr. not only sings and performs wonderfully as creative music and entrepreneurial pioneer Sam Cooke, he also manages to look like him--only even more handsome. Of course, Sam Cooke’s major talent was as the originator of the music he performed. It’s this, presented by Washington and a stellar supporting song-and-dance cast, that’s drawing hearty audience applause at WBTT. An as-yet too complicated effort to tell Sam Cooke’s “story” entails staging of biographical events in scripted scenes between musical numbers. It’s illustrated by videos of Cooke’s life and times. Pictures start with a drive on a rainy night to a roadside motel where, as newspaper headlines show, he’s murdered. The projections continue throughout the flashback biography, starting with Cooke’s first career in gospel and connections with his family and women who might or should become part of it. Cooke’s first song, “A Change is Gonna Come,” quickly becomes a fulfilled prophecy. He gets involved -- if too often thwarted -- in recording, both artistically and as a business. This theme runs through his life In addition to that of his aims at growth as a music creator and performer and, equally important, his finding a true, deep, undistracted marital relationship with a woman. Illustrating Cooke’s life story are his songs, such as “Touch the Hem of His Garment” from his gospel phase, “You Send Me” from the height of his pop phase, “Wonderful World” from a balladic turn. WBTT’s best singers and dancers (and they’re top notch) join Washington’s Cooke in proving, especially to spectacular choreography, that “Everybody Loves to Cha Cha” and how vigorous a couple (in this case, Jeffery Cason, Jr. and Ashley D. Brooks) can go “Twistin’ the Night Away.” After hits like “It’s Alright” going into rock, Cooke involved himself in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s enough to highlight racial inequities. To these his “Chain Gang” -- staged by the cast’s men with prisoners in stripes axing at the ground — brought notice. During the “Last Mile of the Way” for Cooke, he seemed to be resolving both artistic and personal issues, but the story at WBTT leaves him distracted. It’s a tough end for a show that succeeds tremendously when it’s basically a jukebox musical review and falters dramatically. A large part of WBTT’s success is the contribution of the onstage musicians under unfaltering direction by James E. Dodge II. Of course, without Nate Jacobs’s direction and Donald Frison’s vigorous choreographing, there’d be a concert, not a musical revue. The scenic design is practical, considering the demands of the musical numbers and the need to use props as the main way to set the many short dramatic scenes. As for the acting in those scenes, could anyone be more versatile than Michael Mendez? He goes from a member of a number of back-up crooners to a hoodlum to Sammy Davis, Jr. and can draw an audience member into a dance that looks well rehearsed but is actually spontaneous. Of course, Mendez is one of a WBTT cast that thrives on playing whatever is needed to present Sam Cooke’s story, particularly highlighting his contributions to musical history.
