Play by
William Hamilton
White Chocolate is also something of an identity switch for its author, William Hamilton. Though this is not his first play (his biography lists Plymouth Rock, Happy Landing and Interior Design), he’s best known as a New Yorker cartoonist. His desire to expand on the ideas that a cartoon must compress into a single visual image and caption is understandable. His aim to develop a fantastical situation into a humorous examination of race and identity in our culture and the ways in which we are shaped by others’ perception seems ideally suited to his applying his cartoonist’s skills to playwriting. Still, the goofy eccentricity of the plot and the comic dialogue that does hit the satiric bull’s eye are fun to watch and give not just Ms. Halston but her colleagues a chance to flex their comedic muscles. Whitfield and Cathey make a feast out of the Beales’ reaction to finding themselves no longer the lily white Manhattanites they were when they went to sleep in their handsome four-poster bed. Whitfield is a feisty and amusing Black Jewish American Princess. Cathey, a fine actor, is less at home with his part Manhattan art crowd, part prep school accent.
Opening Night Cast Off Broadway
| Actors |  |
|
| Name | Role | |
| Reg E. Cathey | Brandon Beale | |
| Julie Halston | Vivian Beale Somerset | |
| Erik Laray Harvey | Ashley Brown | |
| Paul H. Juhn | Winston Lee | |
| Samantha Soule | Louise Beale | |
| Lynn Whitfield | Deborah Beale |
Opening Night Production Credits
| Culture Project, Producer |
| Allan Buchman, Artistic Director |
| Nile Roger’s We Are Family Foundation, Produced in Association |
| William Hamilton, Playwright |
| David Schweizer, Director |
| James Noone, Set Designer |
| David Zinn, Costume Designer |
| David Weiner, Lighting Designer |
| Robert Kaplowitz, Sound Designer |
| Origlio Public Relations, Press Representative |
| Scott Pegg, Production Stage Manager |
External Links
White Chocolate at Lortel Off Broadway Archives
White Chocolate Review at Curtain-up