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CrazySexyCool, the ambitious new song about the vision of the 90s trio The cost of TLC at the Arena Stage in Washington DC, he wants to make his debut and then some. Filled with platinum hits and plot twists, it follows a group of iconic girls – Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes, Rozonda “Chilli” Thomas and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins – through more than a decade of success and struggle, leading to a series of breakthroughs and heaps of content. Colorful t-shirts and a claw-footed bathroom full of Nikes are on fire. At its most extreme, CrazySexyCool appears to be testing the power of a self-playing jukebox.
Then again, this is TLC. The reality was ugly. And that makes for a busy, confusing, detailed show. In the various shows that are taking place, the three musical directors – Holli’ Gabrielle Conway in T-Boz, Jade Milan as Left Eye, Stoney B Woods as Chilli – bring out positive and kind feelings as the original TLC did when they ruled the radio thirty years ago. During CrazySexyCool’s midweek performance at the end of June, the audience seemed to be reunited with old friends, singing, laughing, shouting and dancing in their seats.
The songs sound bright and big-hearted – Waterfalls, No Scrubs, Creep – but their playing becomes difficult as the trio battle illness and alcoholism, the neglect of the music industry and, of course, the tragic death of Lopes in a car accident in 2002. CrazySexyCool writer-director Kwame Kwei-Armah He says he saw the issue of loyalty and cooperation. “What I’ve tried to write about is how these three people – before and after Left Eye – need each other to be the best they can be,” Kwei-Armah says in a phone call. How do you survive?
Delving into those questions, Kwei-Armah turned his ears to TLC’s What About Your Friends?, a 1992 hit with the words: “What about your friends? That’s what Kwei-Armah wanted to express. How do friendships affect your life?” he asks. “Who do you have and who don’t you have?”
His friendship story unravels chronologically, from Chilli’s reading of the group with glee, establishing himself as an ally against the music biz tycoons who would try to stop TLC’s bright vision. From there, the video changes its appearance. As the trio’s popularity grew, T-Boz battled sickle cell anemia and later, cancer. Left Eye burns his friend’s shoes – and with it, heee, his mansion – then returns to Central America to detox. With the plot moving at the speed of life, the group’s friends strengthen the music. They grow closer by dancing in lockstep (Ain’t 2 Proud 2 Beg) and collaborating in music (Perfect Girls).
Kwei-Armah is the former artistic director of London’s Young Vic theater and a creative force in 2018. Twelfth Night is a 2023 drama Benatha’s place. He was able to read the first draft of the script aloud to TLC’s Thomas for feedback. “I read a person’s life to them: my interpretation of their life,” says Kwei-Armah about the experience. “I didn’t realize how scared I was until we finished, and he cried, and he hugged me so tight, I think I slept for two days after that.” But when he got up, he still needed a shakedown from the other remaining TLC member. When he handed the script to Watkins, “He said: ‘That’s a great way to start,'” Kwei-Armah says with a laugh. He continued to reform and replace the two.
In the end, CrazySexyCool responds to the memory of the audience – a fact that is not lost on choreographer Chloe O Davis, who, like many of her generation, grew up memorizing the TLC signature while watching the lights of MTV. Under the direction of Davis, Conway, Milan and Woods combine their characters to the last group of muscles. Notice the way T-Boz twitches his nose, the way Left Eye shakes his shoulders, the way Chilli does “those Chilli knees,” says Davis, referring to the anti-gravity that’s immortalized in the Creep movie. “A lot of what you see on stage also comes from the actors who really take the time to understand each other, get to know each other, appreciate each other.”
If the level of nuance is important, it’s because this kind of production is rare. “There aren’t a lot of black stories made by black people in the theater,” Davis says. “I felt honored to have my hands on it, to make it sound as authentic as possible.”
That combination of intimacy and authenticity is what makes CrazySexyCool feel so true to the spirit of TLC. To be honest, these women made pop art, but it’s always an effort of friends having fun together. And by making these characters like friends on the platform, CrazySexyCool makes them feel like friends to all of us. Even in a carefully told story, Kwei-Armah knows that his facts are secondary to those feelings. “If people want to go to Wikipedia, they can, right?” Kwei-Armah says. “Our job is to create people.”
