The Midnight Train Crossing

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from this show. It was in Jan-Feb which means it’s the show for the older audiences. I knew a little bit about it, that it's about an African-American family that goes to Alabama during the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s, but that is all that I knew about it.
What I did not expect was that it was going to be as funny as it was.
True the story touched on the movement, but it was really about the family dealing with their eldest son, who was going through a rebellious teenager phase.

Part of the set was the living room/kitchen in the first act, and the front porch in the second act, but the other half of the stage was the cool part. They had a full sized old pickup truck on the stage. The truck had working headlights too, which we found out because we were sitting in the perfect position to get the lights straight in our eyes.

Highlights in the cast were the Dad, played by Wayne T. Carr, Byron (the afore mentioned oldest son) played by DeAndre Hudson, and Kenny, played by Joel Boyd. Kenny, by the way, hails from my old high school.

The Watson family lives in Flint, Michigan and the play begins with them huddled together for warmth while the temperature is below zero. This was somewhat ironic, because in the real world outside, the temperature is also below zero.
The mom (Samantha Montgomery) is from Birmingham, Alabama where it is much warmer. In addition to their two sons, Byron and Kenny, they also have a little girl, Joetta (Abby Thompsan). They fight a bit, as siblings do.
Byron is busy being rebellious and picking on his younger siblings, especially his brother. He tells them stories to scare them… like how lots of people freeze out on the streets, and the big garbage trucks take them away. He also teases his brother about being smart and wearing glasses. But Byron isn't all bad, he makes sure that the older kids only tease Kenny and Joetta - not beat him up.
Kenny pretty much narrated the story, so sometimes it was clear that only the audience could hear him. He did a fantastic job with that role. Some of his expressions were priceless. The same could be said for the father. When his wife would be furious at Byron, he would just laugh and enact some sort of creative punishment.

There were many instances when Byron caused trouble, but two of them were by far the funniest.
Near the beginning of the show, Byron and Kenny were sent out to scrape ice off the car. Byron said that sometimes he wondered if his parents were really his parents, because there is no way that two people like that could have a child as amazing looking as he was. He takes off his shades and gazes fondly at his reflection in the car mirror, then kisses it… and freezes his lips to the mirror.
His mother panics and tells her husband to call the hospital. He just laughs and says to Byron that "I guess no one can call you hot lips". That pretty much sums up the father.

In another scene, Byron and his mother are having an argument about his hair - he wants to straighten it, but his parents say no. Being the rebellious teenager type, he does it anyway. When his mother asks him what he was thinking, he says, as he slicks back his hair, that he wanted "Mexican-style" hair. At which point I have a slight criticism, the long haired wig was not very good. I could see how it was attached to his head.
So when his father comes home, she introduces her son as "his long lost son from Mexico City, Byron-ito."
The father is not angry. He doesn't yell. He just cheerfully takes his son into the bathroom and buzzes off all his hair. Then he introduced his wife to their other long lost son from Siam, Yule Bryon.
Byron also has an interesting hobby that his mother doesn't like. He locks himself in the bathroom and lights matches, throwing them into the toilet. Apparently this is fun. When they first wheeled the toilet out onto the stage I was sort of wondering what that was going to be for. Personally, I don't find lighting matches all that entertaining.

Being fed up with not being able to get through to their son, the Watsons decide to go down to Birmingham to see if their grandmother, Grandma Sands (Alma Washington) can talk some sense into him. Byron is not very happy to go. He continuously refers to her as "the troll"
Byron's transformation from sulky rebellious teen to human being happens rather quickly. He is trying to scare away a bird by throwing rocks at it, but it won't fly away and he accidentally hits it with a rock and kills it. His grandma tells him that he is acting out, being rebellious and violent because he is not brave enough to not be. The worst part about it is that he is teaching his younger brother to be like him too.
Somehow this makes him start to be more sensible. It doesn't happen over night, but something must change because Kenny comments.

The kids are going to go swimming and their grandmother tells them not to go into the water at this one spot, because there is a small whirlpool and they could get sucked in.
Joetta asks what a Whir-Pooh is, and rather than saying, Byron says that it is Winnie-the-Pooh's evil twin and that it lives under the water and pulls kids down. Byron also tells Kenny not to go in the dangerous part, which is when Kenny asks why Byron does what he is told now.
Kenny falls into the water and gets caught in the under tow. Byron dives in and saves him.
But this scene was strange. Someone in a flowing green costume with lots of strips of material drifted around the stage. I thought it was meant to be the river, the "Whir-Pooh" and it dragged Kenny around. On the other side of the stage Byron kept diving in and searching for his brother. Then Joetta came out, dressed as an angel and stood there for a bit while the others ran around. Maybe if I had read the book I would have understood better, but… it was strange.

A bit later, the fact that the Civil Rights movement is going on, finally hits home. Joetta, in a pretty white dress, goes off to Sunday school and a few minutes later, there is a huge boom. The church was bombed. The whole family rushes to the church.
Calling his little sister's name, Kenny goes inside of the wreck. There is smoke everywhere. Normally stage smoke doesn't bother me, but this stuff smelled bad. Once again the Whir-Pooh appears, giving Kenny a burnt white shoe.

He goes home only to discover that his sister thought she saw him running down the street and making faces at her, so she chased him home. She was not there when the church exploded. But… he was not there. This part was rather confusing. They strongly imply that Someone is watching over their family. It gets a bit confusing, but they talk about guardian angels a lot. Byron tells Kenny that they are family, they watch over each other a lot.
They get along much better, but its not perfect. Byron still complains when he is asked to do things, and he and Kenny still fight, and Joetta still gets in the way, but they are still a family, and they will endure together.

I didn't expect this play to be as funny as it was, and some things were glossed over, but with such a great cast and so many funny moments, I really liked the show.