The show opens with an elderly gentleman, dressed in a blue suit with a red, white and blue tie and black horn-rimmed glasses, making his way to the center of the stage with the help of a cane.
His stride is slow, but steady. He surveys the audience and then matter-of-factly begins to tell his story, losing the cane as he recalls history.
"We might as well get right down to it," he says. "I've given 50 years to the law. I've seen a lot and I've gotten too old to keep secrets."
The show is "Thurgood," and the story it tells is the life of Thurgood Marshall, the first African American to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. It's brought to living color through the thunderous and luminous acting of Laurence Fishburne at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood.
Set at his alma mater, Howard University, where he has returned to give a speech, "Thurgood" is a riveting 95-minute class that not only reiterates Marshall's legendary status as a civil rights lawyer and justice, but also provides insights into who he was as a man, which apparently included a relationship with liquor and an eye for the ladies.
Part history lesson, part law and civil rights review, "Thurgood," written by George Stevens Jr., plays like a live documentary, winding through the noted jurist's life from humble beginnings until his appointment to the highest court in the nation.
It speaks to Marshall's relationship with his father; his wives; Charles Hamilton, his mentor at Howard University; President Lyndon B. Johnson; his friendship with poet Langston Hughes; and how he became interested in the law and justice after witnessing too much injustice.
As he recalls his life, we watch him win cases, work on Brown v. Board of Education, doubt himself after arguing a case before the Supreme Court, work as a lawyer for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and chide himself for being so engrossed in his work that he didn't know his first wife was dying of cancer.
Although this one-man show is laden with enough law and historical facts to help you pass an exam, Fishburne totally engages the audience, effectively delivering the material with passion.
There are funny moments as well as emotional and tense ones, like the story of the night he was almost lynched.
Reprising the role that garnered him a Tony nomination, Fishburne, who did the show on Broadway in 2008, is comfortable and confident in this role, confirming him as one of today's best and cherished actors.
Aided with some audio and video shown against a stucco-colored backdrop, Fishburne, with few props, is left to his own acting devices to get the show's points across. Points well taken.
Marshall's life makes for a good story, and Fishburne is a good storyteller.
"Thurgood" is not only a play about Marshall, it's partly a play about America.
That's why it's highly appropriate that Fishburne ends the show with a quote from Langston Hughes — "O, let America be America again."
The Geffen Playhouse is at 10886 Le Conte Ave., Los Angeles. Showtime information: 8 p.m., Tuesdays — Fridays; 3 and 8 p.m., Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m., Sundays; through Aug. 8. Ticket costs $65-$85.
More information: (310) 208-5454, www.geffenplayhouse.com.
On the Donloe Scale, D (don't bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likable), O (Outstanding) and E (excellent), "Thurgood" gets an E (Excellent).
Darlene Donloe is a writer for the L.A. Watts Times.
Photo by Carol Rosegg.
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