Sanctified

SHE AND HYMN Norrisa Pearson beams with praise.

Surly, aging patrons and dated gospel tunes menace the East Piney Grove Baptist Church in Johnson’s utterly disarming new gospel musical. Despite pleas from a youthful pastor and several young, hip-hop-minded patrons, East Piney’s older parishioners refuse to alter a note of their outmoded hymns—and churchgoers are thus abandoning the parish in droves. Upon this stagnant scene descend two angels disguised as deliverymen, bearing drum sets and aiming to inspire holy change.

Johnson’s intricate plot plays mostly second fiddle to a bevy of comic oddballs and an onslaught of rousing gospel tunes. As in any world where characters hash out debates via Aguilera-esque riff-offs (for example), many slapstick moments inevitably fall flat. But the script’s broad strokes offer brilliant moments for Congo’s musical comedians to strut remarkably wide-ranging talents—from Ernest Perry Jr.’s riotous portrayal of a patron overeager to assume the outsize, grunting gait of a megachurch leader, to Laura E. Walls as a churchgoer whose traditional gospel performance makes a serious case for old-fashioned church music.

Amid the invariably superlative cast, Ellis Foster, as developmentally disabled Bobby, earns commendation. Employing Waterboy -level signifiers of mental impairment, Foster achieves humanity by embodying not just Bobby’s underlying heart o’ gold, but, hilariously, his clipped, bitchy and altogether universal way of manifesting frustration. This conscientious portrait achieves the utter radiance of Sanctified’s most rousing gospel hymns.

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