The police shooting of an unarmed African-American teenager impacts the lives of a white rapper, his black backup singer, and the multiracial beat maker who completes their stardom-bound rap group in Idris Goodwin’s HYPE MAN: a break beat play, an exhilarating, discussion-provoking Fountain Theatre West Coast Premiere.

 Pinnacle (Chad Addison) and Verb (Matthew Hancock) have been inseparable best friends since (as the former puts it), “we was little dudes stealing blank CDs out the Walgreens so we could burn our crappy songs,” and now, thanks in part to Peep One (Clarissa Thibeaux), whose beats make them “sound expensive,” the two poverty survivors and their comely beat maker are about to not only embark on their first major national tour but make their network TV debut as well, on The Tonight Show no less, all the more thrilling because of what the early-30s twosome have been through together.

First and foremost is Verb’s ongoing recovery from drugs, strip clubs, and an entourage of 50 to 75 hangers-on, one of whom may have leaked some of the group’s tracks, and don’t expect Pinnacle to forgive and forget that last bit any time soon.

Easier to excuse is Peep’s uncharacteristically late arrival at today’s pre-Tonight Show rehearsal, particularly since its cause (“High-speed chase like on Cops. When the guy stopped finally, something happened and they ended up bustin’ all type of gunfire!”) turns out to be the latest Nightly News lead story, namely that of 17-year-old Jerrod (accent on the “rod”) Davis, who having led police on a high-velocity chase, surrendered with his hands in the air, for which he was rewarded by being cop-shot eighteen times.

When it turns out that Jerrod’s reason for speeding was to get to the hospital bedside of the grandmother who raised him, Verb proposes that the group use their Tonight show appearance to protest this latest police shooting, a suggestion that provokes an opinion split on racial lines, Pinnacle maintaining that the cops in question got “anxious” while Verb insists even more vehemently that it was racism pure and simple that provoked those eighteen shots.

Fortunately, the duo’s disagreement doesn’t get in the way of a spectacular Tonight Show performance.

Less fortunate, as least as far as police officers’ associations, tour sponsors, and Pinnacle and Verb’s decades-long friendship (not to mention their career hopes) are concerned, is the way the latter chooses to end their late-night debut.

Described by National New Play Network as a “a rhythmically woven drama exploring race, representation, fame and friendship,” HYPE MAN is all this and more, and as exciting a Fountain Theatre production as I’ve seen, spine-tinglingly directed by Deena Selenow and thrillingly performed by a trio of young actors who may not have been world-class rap stars when they sat down for their first table read, but thanks in large part to the beats laid down by master beat maker Romero Mosley, could easily bring Tonight Show audiences to their feet.

Expect to be talking about Addison’s remarkable transformation into hard-life survivor Pinnacle, Hancock’s into streetlife-tough Verb (even more stunning for those who saw his LADCC/Stage Raw Award-winning Hit The Wall Judy Garland-loving drag queen), and Thibeaux’s into a gifted, captivating beat maker who’s not about to play second fiddle to a couple of men with issues.

Scenic designer James Maloof gives the band a terrifically grungy rehearsal space, its walls papered with properties designer Shen Heckel’s assorted posters and flyers, Michael Mullen scores costume design kudos for the rap trio’s just-right outfits, and Chu Hsuan Chang’s striking lighting design goes from realistic to audience-surroundingly rave-tastic.

The production sounds as great as it looks thanks not just to beat master Mosley but also to sound designer Malik Allen.

HYPE MAN is produced by Simon Levy, James Bennett, and Stephen Sachs. Deborah Culver is executive producer.

Sarah Dawn Lowry is production stage manager and Scott Tuomey is technical director.

The latest in a long line of Fountain Theatre winners, HYPE MAN: a break beat play has much to say about race and racism, friendship and fame, and the power of music to both unite and divide. More importantly, it says all this in the most electrifying of ways.

The Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., Los Angeles.
www.FountainTheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
March 19, 2019
Photos: Ed Krieger

Tags: Fountain Theatre, Idris Goodwin, Los Angeles Theater Review