*Mykel Coleman, the original writer of the motion picture “Obsessed,” brought his stage play, “My Wife Your Woman,” to the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles for a one-night performance, on Saturday, January 28.
DJ Tammi Mac, from Stevie Wonder-owned KJLH radio, came onstage to get the evening started. She immediately spotted play producer Don B. Welch in the audience and told him, “I knew you made plays, but I didn’t know you went to them too.”
After a few minutes of Tammi Mac’s vamping, while waiting for the audience to fill in, the play was ready to get underway.
The cast was an attractive group and included Coleman (Marlon), Chasnie Houston (Brittany), Solomon Israel (Dante), Coshima Houston (Kim), RayShawn Abram (Steve), Nesha Jones (Cecily), and Alex Rose (Dawn).
There were three scene locations in the play: a coffee shop, an office, and a living room. The setup for all the scenes were already on stage: the coffee shop on the left, the living room on the right, and the office in the center.
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In “My Wife Your Woman,” Marlon comes home from war two weeks early to discover his wife Kim has been having an affair. He finds her lover, Steve’s, wallet on the couch and goes to his job at the university to confront him, which is when all hell breaks loose. Marlon, Kim, Steve, and Steve’s ex-wife, Brittany, end up in Steve’s office. Marlon has a gun and shoots Steve, which is how Act I ended.
Act II began with a choir scene, and what I thought at first was a funeral, but it turned out Steve was still alive. The rest of the play had Brittany begging Steve to forgive her for having an affair with Marlon, him refusing to forgive her, Kim trying to save her marriage to Marlon while being pregnant by someone other than Marlon or Steve, and Dante’s ex, Cecily, trying to get back together with him, after seeing him become successful, and living the life of Riley. Yep, there was a lot going on there.
There were some good things about “My Wife Your Woman.” There was open seating, which people appreciated because it meant they could sit as close as they wanted. The play was promoted as a dramedy, and where it was meant to be funny, it hit the mark. There were several humorous scenes and lines mixed in with all the drama, and there was enough drama, that’s for sure.
Another thing I liked about the show was even though it was about adultery, it was performed without profanity, more than likely because it had a religious message of faith, forgiveness, commitment, and having God in your life.
Although not billed as a musical, there were several music scenes, and Dante being the only one who could actually sing notwithstanding, I liked when the cast turned Michael Jackson’s “Working Day and Night” into “Praising Day and Night.” I was a little thrown off, and I wasn’t alone when cast members started to sing, but I think people loved hearing Dante, since when he started singing, “Just Call My Name,” they started yelling “Dante!”
There were things not quite right about “My Wife Your Woman.” For the most part, the sound system was good; however, there were times when the performer’s mics phased out. Although there was open seating, which in and of itself was a good thing because people sat where they wanted to, some people came to claim seats that someone was already using. Apparently, people had paid for specific seats, so that begs the question, why offer seat choices? Dante flubbed one of his lines big time, but oh well, it happens.
What I didn’t expect to happen were the continuity issues, like beginning Act II with a church choir scene, right after Steve had been shot. The scene looked out of place. I wasn’t the only one who thought a funeral was taking place. As it turned out, Steve only had a flesh wound. Speaking of that flesh wound, I’m pretty sure they said he was shot in the leg, so why did he next appear with a sling on his arm and nothing wrong with his leg? And why did he forget he had a sling on his arm, and raise it in animation…your arm is supposed to hurt, remember?
At the end of the play, it was mentioned there will be another installment of “My Wife Your Woman.” If that is true, I hope they consider enlarging the print on the program and listing the parts the cast members will be playing. The print was too small to read and it did not mention the characters the actors were playing. At the intermission, I realized I needed to figure out who was playing who, which left me scrambling.
“My Wife Your Woman” was entertaining. I enjoyed it and it seems the audience, which was very sparse, did as well. Hopefully, the kinks will be worked out and more people will attend next time because I think the makers of the play have something there.
Marilyn Smith is a Los Angeles-based writer/reviewer. Contact her via MzSportsJunkie@gmail.com
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