“Whatever
She Wants” Review
By Derrick Warren
Dwarren@excapethematrix.com
Well, let us get this out of the way first: my first intention in seeing “Whatever She Wants” was to see Shaft, Richard Roundtree (who is arguably the blackest man in America!) That aside, let’s jumps right into the plot. When the curtain was drawn, one of the two sets for the play was revealed. The first was the social club, “Whatever She Wants,” which also doubles as an infomercial. As the title would suggest, the purpose of the club is for women to find that perfect man. It even comes complete with an electronic detector to weed out the fine from the whack (do people still use that word?).
Vivica
A. Fox stars as the ambitious Vivian Wolf, the owner of the club. As a woman
scorned, she is determined to make sure women don’t fall for the same tired
liars she’d previously fallen in love with. She would later find her own Prince
Charming in Julian Heaven (played by Boris Kodjoe), who seems way too good to be
any woman’s dream come true. The underlying plot revolves around her sister,
Tracy Jamison (played by Julie Dickens), who is having marital problems with her
proud husband, Carlos (Lil G from Silk fame). Theodore Wolf (Richard Roundtree)
plays the father for the sisters and through loving advice and later deception,
tries to ring home the overall message of the play: you must simply take chances
when it comes to love.
"My first intention in seeing “Whatever She Wants” was to see Shaft, Richard Roundtree (who is arguably the blackest man in America!)"
But this is a comedy with much of the same one-liner
formula that one has become accustomed to with traveling productions. Once
scenes got heavy enough to be considered tear-jerkers, a joke broke it just in
time. Not always though. I’ve seen many plays, and I’ve seen actors stumble
over lines just to pick them back up just in time to keep them going. This was
my first play where I experienced a blooper reel lovers dream come true. During
an emotional scene between Vivica A. Fox and Julie Dickens, they would both
burst into little fits of laughter. They kept pushing on; that was until the
audience began laughing with them and they lost it! Trust me folks, this is by
no means a bad thing. Vivica said at the end of the play that out of six weeks
of touring, this was the first audience to give them to break, and that felt
good.
But back to the play. Overall, it was an enjoyable
experience. Once I got out of the mode of a “serious” theater lover, I laughed
just as much as everyone else. The writing was a bit stale at moments, and some
of the lines Julian Heaven laid on Vivian Wolf were down right corny (and even
scary at one point).
"Once I got out of the mode of a “serious” theater lover, I laughed
just as much as everyone else."
I would recommend this to anyone who is into the trend of “comedy morality” plays that tour around today. By the time this is published, the tour will be over, but you can keep posted with http://www.imreadyproductions.com for any updates on Vivica Fox’s production company.