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Laurence Fishburne Celebrates Thurgood Marshall on Stage
By MICHAEL KUCHWARA
AP Drama Critic
NEW YORK (AP) _ "Equal Justice Under Law" four words emblazoned on the
Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. - offer a good summary of
what
guided Thurgood Marshall, a man now being robustly brought to life by
Laurence Fishburne at Broadway's Booth Theatre.
The evening is called "Thurgood," and in first-time playwright
George Stevens Jr.'s straightforward creation, we are offered a
one-man show that is part biography, part history lesson and part
inspirational sermon.
Fishburne has the theatrical, larger-than-life demeanor of an
old-fashioned preacher, including the necessary pizazz to keep an
audience's attention for an intermissionless 90 minutes.
Dressed in a natty blue suit for much of the evening (until he
dons a Supreme Court robe), the actor more than adequately fills
the stage as he portrays the man who was to become the first black
justice on the nation's highest court.
The playing area is decorated with a long narrow table and,
serving as a backdrop, an all-white flag with stars and stripes,
looking vaguely like it was designed by Jasper Johns.
The show begins with Marshall addressing students at Howard
University, his alma mater. The talk slowly evolves into his
telling the story of his life and his battles against racial
injustice. The format is unsurprising, but the actor's
ingratiating, conversational manner makes the chronology vivid.
Two things marked his family, according to Marshall: distinctive
names and extreme stubbornness. Marshall was named after his
grandfather, Thoroughgood, who owned a grocery store in Baltimore.
By the time the lad reached the second grade, he got tired writing
out his long first name. So he shortened the monicker to Thurgood.
The youth was, in the **>words<** of one of his teachers,
"disputatious." As punishment, he had to memorize parts of the
U.S. Constitution. Soon, he knew the whole thing. It also helped
that Marshall had a demanding father who was interested in the law,
a man who liked to sit in courtrooms and watch cases. The father
constantly challenged his son, sharpening the young man's mind and
teaching him to be intellectually alert.
It got him into Howard University and later a job with the NAACP
Legal Defense Fund, which propelled Marshall into the most
important case of his life, Brown v. Board of Education. Recounting
this landmark desegregation case as it worked its way to the
Supreme Court is the soul and dramatic heart of "Thurgood" _ not
to mention, its most moving moments.
Marshall, who died in 1993, fought tenaciously to overturn the
so-called "separate but equal" laws that were anything but. The
lawyer, as lead counsel, eventually won over the Supreme Court but
it took longer for the rest of the country to follow.
And Marshall found himself noticed by the political
establishment. He was appointed to the Federal Court of Appeals,
then Solicitor General of the United States and finally, after a
tough confirmation battle (with wily help behind the scenes from
Lyndon Johnson), to the Supreme Court itself.
The public side of Marshall's life is well documented here. The
personal is harder to find, although the outlines are present: the
death of his first wife of cancer at age 44 and the devastating
effect it had on him; Marshall's second marriage and the children
it produced.
But then the primary focus of the evening is Marshall's
relationship with the law. At one point during "Thurgood,"
Marshall announces, "The law is a weapon if you know how to use
it." And Marshall was one of the best marksmen of all time.
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