A BLACK MAN NAMED JOE
Part of the problem lies in the structure of the script. The first act takes place on the night Joe is killed. Scenes alternate between the family’s reactions and Joe’s story, which he tells himself from a vantage point in the Great Beyond. From his family we learn that he was deeply loved and that his life was finally getting back on track. From Joe we learn his philosophy of life, peppered with anecdotes. But we’re never given anything but hints as to how his life had gone off-course. Joe’s vibrant personality comes through loud and clear, but his actual story remains hidden. I still don’t know what he did for a living, though it’s often stated that he had a job. I don’t know what happened to his wife and children, though I know he had them. I don’t know the extent of his involvement with gangs and drugs, though I know there was some. In the first act I really don’t find out much about Joe Taylor at all, except that he was fun to be around and his family misses him.
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The last song in the show, “Just Joe,” is emotionally overwhelming for the entire cast. I would have liked to see Plummer come back at this point and sing Joe’s words to his family, rather than see the family struggle to keep it together enough to sing them. Perhaps then we’d be allowed to feel the sorrow now appropriated by the cast members. It’s touching to see people cry onstage. But it’s far more moving to watch them struggle not to cry.
