Ovation Fellows are current students or recent alumni from Los Angeles area universities. Fellows are paired with a Mentor, currently serving as an Ovation Award voter, and see productions and meet artists around Greater Los Angeles throughout the year. Their articles, posted on LAStageBlog, are intended to be their personal responses to their experiences, and not as critical reviews or representing the views of LA Stage Alliance.
Alessandra Brown is an Ovation Fellow from CalArts.
I had the pleasure to see Madea’s Big Happy Family at the Kodak Theater on its closing day thanks to a friend of mine who got tickets. I’ve only seen the Kodak Theater through my television set while growing up and since coming to LA I’ve always wanted to visit. When I got the opportunity to see Madea’s Big Happy Family I was thrilled. I can say it wasn’t simply a play but also a concert, a comedy show and, afterward, it was a conversation.
From the beginning I knew the show wasn’t going to be like any I’d experienced lately and truthfully my anticipation grew at seeing a Tyler Perry play at the Kodak Theater. Walking into the theater I was overcome with emotion. It was exciting and from the beginning it was different.
The show started with a beautiful musical introduction by the cast which transitioned into a doctor scene where our main character learned her cancer was back and that she had very little time left to live. With a revolve of the stage we are taken to her house as she and her Aunt played by Cassi Davis are preparing for the arrival of her children and brother; likewise, I was preparing for the eruption of applause that Mr. Perry’s arrival would herald and I wasn’t disappointed.
The moment Madea stepped through the doors audience members were cheering, clapping and some stood up to applaud. But the real shock was the break Mr. Perry took in order to reprimand audience members that were still arriving. As funny as many audience members thought this break in the show was I was a bit saddened the momentum of the play was halted in order to reprimand latecomers. The play progressed quickly as family drama was heaped upon the audience from a son who dealt drugs to two married and verbally abusive daughters to a son with a mental handicap combined with the main character’s impending death.
The play turned into a concert at one point as several cast members belted out “old school” love ballads and then it turned serious as Mr. Perry began lecturing the audience on the difficulties marriages experience. At these points Madea’s Big Happy Family became something other than a play. It became family and marriage counseling, a concert, stand up and a family reunion but most obviously it was a way for Mr. Perry to grieve. His mother passed away almost two months ago and from the play’s ending you could see how much he missed her. After our main character passes she appears on stage in a white gown where she sings before disappearing off stage and reappearing in a video segment where she transforms into an angel and journeys to Heaven.
It is at this point the entire show makes sense. Madea’s Big Happy Family is a son’s eulogy for his mother and it could not be expressed without all those spectacular aspects. Madea’s Big Happy Family needed to be more than a play because he needed to express his love for his mother. As many of us can attest, explaining how much we love our mothers is quite difficult to properly put into words. Despite its shortcomings my experience at Madea’s Big Happy Family was exciting, overwhelming, entertaining and funny.
