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The Doves’ dance captain and manager is acid-tongued, tough-loving Knobby; the Doves themselves are rambunctious, womanizing Johnson, superstitious, ever-hungry Bunch, one-eyed Frankie (whose angry girlfriend stole his false eye), wise, practical Vern, and the troublemaker, lead singer Roscoe. Their golden oldies–love ballads they warbled with sexy struts and killer smiles–are back on the charts, and so despite various mid-life crises, the Doves are ready to fly again. But they must set aside hard memories of racial prejudice and, much harder, heal old wounds among themselves.
The misogynistically conceived Eva resembles both Yoko Ono and Eve–she nearly ruins the men’s musical Eden. Laura Walls plays this spitfire with too much aimless strutting and too many pregnant pauses, but when she launches into the soul-stirring solo that’s the first-act finale, “Is There a Heaven for Folks With the Blues,” she creates a musical heaven. Danne E. Reese as Roscoe, whose ambition is paint-by-numbers stuff, charms big-time with the anthem “Everything Must Change.” In a nicely conceived role, Trent Harrison Smith plays an awestruck rapper who registers the audience’s pleasure as he becomes a convert to the smooth tones of classic R&B.
