THE ROYALE at LCT-Powerful, Impactful Play on Boxer Jack Jackson

THE ROYALE playing at LCT is a biopic play about the 1st Afr-Amer boxer who took on a white  heavyweight champion.  The fight is for social justice during the oppressive & brutal Jim Crow era.  Jack (Jay) Johnson (1878-1946) is a Negro boxer at the turn of the 20th C whose prowess in the ring causes repercussive waves throughout a volatile, racially divided nation.  Playwright, Marco Ramirez received a Julliard Playwright Fellowship Award & is an Emmy nominated TV writer.  His play THE ROYALE is a knockout production which should nab rounds of Obie Awards.  Everything about this 1 act play is compelling.  The intelligent writing resonates with the brilliance of Ellison's "Invisible Man."  The deceptively simple staging is a tour-de-force.  The lighting casts a haunting showdow boxing.  The sound illicits a pounding, visceral impact.  The clever choreography is forceful & fleet of foot.  The only female role is Nina, Jay's sister played by Tony nominated actress Montego Glover (Les Miserables & Memphis.)  Glover gave a knockout performance. She throws herself in the ring with her brother and goes the distance confronting him with racial attrocities.  She jabs & messes with his head.  She rings the clarion bell of expected reprisals ensuing from his fight.  THE ROYALE is a theaterical performance of imperial stature & gravitas.  Nevertheless, the play's focus is pervasive racial persecution and the battle for change & self-respect.