Jeffrey Sweet–Making the Scene

Gil Koffman was attracted to writing a solo piece (with instrumental accompaniment) about Leni Riefenstahl, the German movie star turned director whose film, Triumph of the Will, depicted Hitler as a god descending from the heavens to preside over the Nuremberg rallies. After the war, Riefenstahl tried to distance herself from Hitler and gain acceptance as a filmmaker who pioneered techniques that became part of the accepted grammar of world cinema. (No sports documentary can help but be influenced by her Olympiad.) Some people were inclined to cut her a break. Many were not.

Koffman was lucky to have Jodie Markell playing her in Leni’s Last Lament. She has the necessary wit and charisma in abundance. I think Markell was less lucky with the text Koffman supplied.

What can we expect a typical member of the contemporary audience to know? Because of projects I’ve researched, I am familiar with Riefenstahl and much of her history, but I’m going to guess that most people today have little or no idea of who she was. Since Leni is framed as a kind of fever dream of its subject, everything we see is from her perspective. Talking to us, the audience in her head, and she assumes we know things about her most people today don’t know. Koffman presents no objective correlative so that we have much chance of comparing what she affirms to what is true. Yes, we suspect that, since she’s still unable to utterly disassociate herself from Hitler, she’s not to be trusted. But that’s not enough. I don’t think Koffman’s conceit serves his subject.

Lights Out, co-written by Colman Domingo and director Patricia McGregor, is an attempt to depict Nat King Cole facing the end of his TV series. Contrary to popular belief, Cole was not the first Black artist to host a TV show (another pianist-singer, Hazel Scott, had that distinction some years before), but he was certainly a pioneer. Well-received by the press and featuring a dazzling array of guest performers, his show was shut down nevertheless because of NBC’s inability to attract commercial sponsors to support a program they were afraid would offend the South. Like Leni, much of Lights Out represents what’s going on in the leading character’s head. Much of that is the intruding presence of Sammy Davis, Jr., presented as a rebellious and anarchic spirit in contrast to Cole’s attempt to play by the rules.

Davis (played by Daniel J. Watts) also seems to be having fun, whereas, except when he is performing for the television audience, Cole (played by Dulé Hill) is depicted as being glum and depressed, trying to keep a hold on his temper in the face of constant provocations. This has the unfortunate effect of Davis stealing focus from what is supposed to be the leading character. Hill is an accomplished musical performer and I relished the opportunities the numbers gave him to cut loose. I’m betting a strong piece about Nat King Cole’s struggle with NBC could be written, but this falls short of the subject’s promise.