Throughout the time One Mo' Time occupies the Longacre stage, we keep wondering when will the fun stop? When will the same-sounding songs start to grate? And when will we want more than a wisp-thin backstage plot to fill out the evening? Credit writer/director Vernel Bagneris for staring down those questions for two full hours, right up to the ebullient curtain call. With amplification on the loud side (occasionally making lyrics indecipherable), one too many PG-13 blues tunes, and a cast of actress-divas who are strong without quite exuding star power, One Mo' Time shouldn't be as consistently entertaining as it is. However, Mr. Bagneris is as canny a creator as he is a smoothly ingratiating performer; the musical numbers are kept short, and the non-musical dialogue is often funny and allows the audience's ears a respite between tunes. (Compare this to The Last Five Years, where the score is more interesting but the song-cycle format finally becomes tiring).
All told, New York is lucky to get this Off-Broadway hit one mo' time.
