Sparkle 1976 songs12/7/2023 She treats her daughters differently and disdainfully commands that they seek more stable employment. Effie works as a maid for Max Gerber (Paul Lambert), who has ties with a Mafia family. Adding to the tension are Harlem gangster, Satin Struthers (Tony King), the boyfriend of Sister the young ladies’ pious mother, Effie, (Mary Alice) and the possibility of the group becoming involved with the illegal practice of “payola”. However, there are serious obstacles, including drug abuse, abandonment, violence, crime and racial discrimination, facing the sisters. The girls would be known as “Sister and the Sisters” and they enjoy wins on the local nightclub scene. Stix, who is Sparkle’s boyfriend, realizes this and decides he and his cousin can instead just manage the group. However, after several performances, it is clear that audiences really only want to see the sisters. Living in poverty, the sisters ultimately come to believe that becoming a musical act, complete with Stix (Philip Michael Thomas) and his cousin, Levi (Dorian Harewood), is the ticket out the ghetto and to a better life. Unlike Motown, which is in Detroit, Sparkle is set in the Harlem community in 1958 and centers around the relationship between three sisters: Sister (Lonette McKee), Deloris (Dwan Smith) and Sparkle (Irene Cara). Loosely inspired by the ascension of Motown musical group, The Supremes, this film presents the challenges and triumphs of the young ladies, as a singing trio, to succeed in the music industry. In this typical success story that illustrates the hard struggle to transcend from nothing to something, Sparkle is the fictional account of the Williams sisters’ attempts to gain stardom and wealth. More shoobie-doo and fewer lines such as “I been livin’ in Harlem all my life - I guess I know a rat when I see one” would seem to be the solution here: The script is too long and too predictable, even for those who haven’t seen the movie.Starring: Lonette McKee, Irene Cara, Philip Michael Thomas, Dwan Smith and Dorian Harewood None of these characters is actually a fully developed person, and so the many events of the plot never involve us emotionally. There are some fine voices in the ensemble - especially Sharon Gary-Dixon’s breathtaking three-octave rendition of the hymn “Precious Lord.” Fine acting is in scarcer supply, however, and the proceedings often descend into the stilted and the cliched. Characters say lines like, “Livin’ without dreams ain’t livin’ at all.” This is a righteous show. Various boyfriends, mothers and turns of plot clutter matters up, but eventually the good triumph and the bad guys - drug dealers, gamblers, fools of every stripe - lose. Dolores (Nikiya Mathis) ditches showbiz as well as Harlem and heads south for the civil rights movement (which gets kicked to the curb in this show as just too dull and dorky to matter) the other sister, Sparkle (Amina Robinson), is the sweet one, and “Sparkle” ends when she plays Carnegie Hall. Her younger sisters sing backup for her at the Apollo. Wicked men, especially the slick, violent Satin (understudy Darren Herbert, playing with much style at the performance reviewed), lead her to drugs, blacken her eyes and set her on the road to ruin. She also wants all the usual stuff - cars, jewelry, furs - and will trade sex for success. Sister (Lizz Fields, with a knockout figure and a voice nearly to match) is the oldest, and she wants out. Open-faced kids jump rope, laughing and singing, hoping to make a success of their lives with music.
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