Jill Bloede and Shay Youngblood are attempting to breathe new life into a moribund tale. Mary Hoffman's original book could be read as a bedtime story in as little as 10 minutes. So concise is the flavorless text of Amazing Grace that sometimes it's downright hermetic, and Caroline Binch's original illustrations vividly recall the artwork of elementary reading primers -- not a beautiful recollection. Ably aiding this reclamation project is Sandra Gray's scenic design, which captures the rustic homestead where young Grace's imagination roams free, projecting big crayoned slides into the background that illustrate the tales handed down to Grace by her earthy, African Nana. Renee Haynes-Robinson makes another huge contribution with choreography that involves the hands as much as the feet, gets the kids clapping, slapping their thighs, and relaxing onstage.
Meredith Spears, playing Grace, is the most eager to please among the young, evidently relishing the sound of her own voice. That -- and the adorable things Bloede and Robinson have her do -- makes up in large measure for her rudimentary acting skills. So does the steadying presence of the adults. Corliss Hayes brings a sure authority to the Teacher, though it would help if she were either kind or stern. Darlene Parker-Black blends love and strictness more engagingly as Grace's mom. But Elisha Minter is regally, hilariously supreme as Nana, clearly the ancestral source of Grace's budding flamboyance. Youngblood does take too long to develop the conflict in her drama. By the time Grace comes skulking home from school, upset because classmates have told her she can't aspire to play Peter Pan (she's a girl and she's black), it's too late to care. We have fortunately been diverted in the meanwhile by the saltiness of Minter and the kids' shenanigans. That's enough, but there should have been more.
