Caroline, or Change

Description
At once a harrowing American electric-soul opera and a delicate period tragedy of manners, playwright Tony Kushner and composer Jeanine Tesori's howling Caroline is one of this country's great dramatic works of the last few decades. The story of an impoverished black maid in the home of a 1963 Jewish Louisiana family might appear slight, but this shattering upstairs/downstairs play contains a historically important performance by E. Faye Butler as the titular character; and as a woman who makes $30 a week when she finds a stray $20, she's really playing both titular characters. Charles Newell's steely, graceful production blows a hole through the heart.—CP