STAGE REVIEWS : ‘Wicked’ Humor Is Saving Grace of Matthews’ Musical

Nobody ever underestimated the box-office clout of sin and salvation. A touring gospel musical, “Wicked Ways,” has turned the Wilshire Ebell into a kind of urban revivalist meeting.

Even before the show starts, the stage is a noisy pulpit, rocking with pep and piety, including a dance-crazed choir master, a boisterous deacon and a lady in a wheelchair waiting for the hand of the Lord.

The almost all-black audience that filled the house on a recent Sunday night, drawn heavily from local church groups, was cheering from the moment it sat down and continued to whoop throughout the show.

But the production, by any measure, is the five and dime of African-American theater.

Hookers, pimps, drugs and murder are arrayed against God, family, a massive choir and a burly deacon. The forces of Satan, seen here as crack dealers, at one point assault mourners at a funeral and step up to the open casket and gleefully pump a round of slugs into the cadaver. The outrageous scene is worth the price of admission and probably a first for a morality tale, let alone for theater.

Meanwhile, the production brashly passes the plate.

During the intermission, an actress from the show springs into the crowd hawking tapes of the cast recording. You don’t even get free programs.

Some theatergoers may cringe at the show, but musically, the piercing, soaring vocals, accompanied by a live orchestra, are the show’s ore. A raucous musical rumble by a gyrating deacon and his wife (Derrick Brinkley and Alyson Williams) brings the house to its feet along with the resurrection of the couple’s wayward son.

Of course, angels were always looking down on this show--Jesus Christ is credited (only half kiddingly) as executive producer.

An ebullient showman from Detroit, Michael Matthews, produced, directed and wrote the piece, which is a variation on his other gospel play, “Momma Don’t,” which was a hit at the Ebell last year.

Matthews’ saving grace is his streetwise humor and his unwillingness to take things too seriously. But he does have a serious intent: He was inspired to write these anti-drug message plays following a devastating experience with a cocaine-addicted younger brother.

You don’t have to be black to identify with the situation or the humor. But “Wicked Ways” really understands its audience. The show isn’t artful like “Spunk” (at the Mark Taper) or “East Texas Hot Links” (at the MET), although the down-home body language in all three shows is similar. Rather, it’s old-fashioned religion hitched to a war on drugs.

“Wicked Ways,” 4401 West 8th St., Tuesdays-Sundays, 8 p.m., Saturday - Sundays, 3 p.m. Ends Oct. 27. $16.50-$23.50 (213) 939-1128. Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes.