Down by the riverside, The Little Island stages a gospel jubilee that cloaks a depraved classic in a resplendent choir robe 

 

Another summer, another season’s worth of evenings spent in muggy amphitheaters pretending to be in love with classics like Sophocles and Shakespeare. My Theory of In/Accessibility: the best way to sell tickets to a show that’s mostly inaccessible in content, is to market a narrative about the accessibility of the venue. In this way, the modern viewer cosplays as a 1600’s English commoner, standing in the town square watching something low brow and scandalous.

 

Only, it’s hard to enjoy the low brow sentiment of dirty politics (Julius Caesar), drug-induced aphrodisia (Midsummer’s Night’s Eve) or even teenage love (Romeo & Juliet) when you can’t understand a word they’re saying, when you’ve nothing but facial expression and body language to sink your teeth into. But what if there were music to guide you along in the story?

 

Enter The Gospel at Colonus, on stage outside at The Little Island. The Little Island is public, but because it’s part of Hudson River Park, it’s not owned, operated or maintained by the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation. Unlike Central Park or Riverbank State Park (which, as the name implies, is state-owned), the 1998 Hudson River Park Act mandates park “self-sufficiency” which means The Little Island has bills to pay. 

 

Tickets to Shakespeare in the Park at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park are free and distributed by lottery, while seats at the Richard Rodgers Amphitheater in Marcus Garvey Park for Uptown Shakespeare are free first come, first serve. Getting a spot in “The Amph” on The Little Island requires advance purchase and $25, although you can save a little money and buy a standing ticket to the 90-minute show for $10. There’s that in/accessibility again. 

 

If the goal is making money, I’d offer an unsolicited tip: I know the island is an architectural wonder, but surely they’d sell more tickets if they redesigned the poster. Replace the image of the structure’s concrete underbellies with photos of the celebrity talent in the cast, like Kim Burrell and serpentwithfeet. At least add a tambourine or a choir robe. You know, something that says: gospel.  

 

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After all, the thing that has always made The Gospel at Colonus resonate with audiences is the music. Making sense of classical language, twisted genealogy, and Greek geography will have you adrift like a canoe in the nearby Hudson, but we can all understand the knowing counsel when the chorus sings “Live Where You Can”. Reflecting on the 1983 premiere of The Gospel at Colonus at BAM, critic Hilton Als (whom I count as an inspirateur) wrote, “here was a portrait of black life—of black music, joy, and pain—that I could understand.” Since its creation, gospel music has been intended to enrapture and sustain you, whether you can read the Good Book for yourself or not, whether you work for money or in chains. 

 

This 2025 production, with co-music direction by Dionne McClain-Freeney and James Hall, not only gets the music right but explores the dimensions of gospel as a genre. As a child, I preferred “Kirk Franklin gospel” and “Fred Hammond gospel” to my mother’s “Shirley Caesar gospel” and my father’s “Blind Boys of Alabama gospel”. (Interestingly enough, the Blind Boys of Alabama performed in the original production of The Gospel appearing collectively as the main character Oedipus, who is blind.) There are flavors from each of these styles as well as a more Paul Robeson reminiscent operatic track, the forceful harmonies of a Georgia or Mississippi Mass Choir, and R&B influenced crossovers. The tambourines shake, the horns blow, and the uninitiated in the audience clap off-beat.

 

Kim Burrell was a firebrand and the only thing I enjoyed more than listening to her jazzy scatting was watching her beam with pride and nod with approval when Samantha Howard cooed her mournful solo as Antigone. Haunting tones from serpentwithfeet, whose albums I’ve streamed on Apple Music, were an eerie welcome to “Fair Colonus”. There were solos but there were no stars. It’s rarely the case but everybody — each cast and chorus member — could sing. The costume ensembles by Montana Levi Blanco coordinated without looking cookie cutter, like twenty members of Destiny’s Child but in lilac instead of camo. In Gospel as with DC3, we knew we were in for a treat each time the mic traveled to a new set of hands. 

 

The story of Oedipus, who unknowingly murdered his father, married his mother, and conceived his four siblings before piercing his own eyes with his late wife’s dress pins is gross and, as Oedipus navigates exile in search of his final resting place, tragic. I explained what little I knew about the story to my friend, Almeta, as we exited the theater (I’d go home and fill in the gaps with Wikipedia later) and her face screwed up at the realization. 

 

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It’s strange that a story so twisted has had legs long enough to stretch over the centuries, to be on stage in Ancient Greece and during the fall of our American democracy. Whether we will go the way of the Greeks has yet to be seen; Oedipus warns that “you will never see a man who God has led escape his destiny” which leaves a lot of room for political suspense.     

 

I would see the show again just for the music if the forecast would yield a cooler night. Even though the theater is technically in the Hudson River, the breeze carried only a pulsing snippet of Bad Bunny’s “NUEVAYoL” from a passing party boat, nothing cooling at all. The stifling air reminded me of summer Sundays at St. James off of Pass Road, my late grandmother’s church home in Mississippi. Funeral parlor hand fans can only do so much. The performers are commended for their determination and ability to “dance like David danced” while in sweat-soaked garments. If you’ve got $25 for the collection plate and don’t mind perspiration beading down your brow, the doors of the church in Colonus are open and they occasionally welcome strangers.  

 

blacklove 🖤 and starlight 🌟 

 

The Gospel at Colonus will run at The Amph on The Little Island from July 8th to July 26th. Seated tickets are $25 and standing tickets are $10. The musical, which premiered in 1983 and opened on Broadway in 1988, was written by Lee Breuer with music composed by Bob Telson. The 2025 production was directed by Shayok Misha Chowdhury. 

If you can’t make it before the production closes, there’s a recorded performance available on PBS that features Morgan Freeman and Robert Earl Jones (father of James Earl Jones) from 1985. You can also watch the show on YouTube.

 

Watch my TikTok review!