Raucous ‘He Say, She Say’ Lifts the Spirit

“He Say, She Say . . . but What Does God Say?” is a good-natured gospel/pop morality musical that’s traveling around the country, drawing in a faithful following of virtually all-black audiences. If the roaring crowd at the Wiltern Theatre on Tuesday night is any indication, the show knows its audience and the audience loves the show.

“He Say, She Say” is written, produced and directed by 29-year-old David E. Talbert, an impresario with a string of other, similar touring successes. Talbert has patched together a formula that works for audiences even if it rarely attracts notice from large-circulation publications in major cities across the country.

As the title implies, this raucous, occasionally violent musical sitcom divides the world into the secular and the religious, the good and the bad. But the bad are redeemable, and the piece climaxes when a dynamic pastor (gospel star Kirk Franklin) persuades an apparently dying drug dealer to embrace Jesus. From up in the loge seats, where the sound quality was truly horrible, the audience cheered and stamped so approvingly that the balcony literally rocked.

At the top of a two-tiered set is the lair for the drug dealers, led by the silky-voiced Satin Jones (Sid Burston). Satin’s plans to get out of the drug business are not well received by his glam-girl moll Margerine (BernNadette Stanis) or their sidekicks, the hipster Demetrius (Cordell Moore) and the rotund clown Forty Ounce (David Mann), who stage a coup.

Their conflict spills over down below, where the good people dwell, at the True Vine Full Gospel Church. A group of cheeky eccentrics, these are the salt-of-the-earth types, including the always eating Sister Tiny (Pam Trotter), crotchety old Mother Butler (Maurice Wilkinson, in drag) and the irrepressible choir director Dion (John Gray). In a split second, they can drop everything, whip out dark glasses and start swaying in perfect Stevie Wonder imitations to “My Cherie Amour,” then go back to whatever they were doing.

The very broad comedy is insult-laden but good-natured, interrupted only by song (quite rousing despite the sound problems) and by some serious if everyday matters, such as the pistol-whipping of congregants by drug dealers. But, of course, the congregation charges on.

Pastor Jackson (Franklin) saves the day just as he continually ignites the characters and audience alike. Franklin, also the show’s songwriter, is a pint-sized performer with a raspy, aggressive gospel voice and a nice dollop of Jerry Lewis goofiness that makes the character humble and lovable. He conducts a second-act service that is a full-blown church sermon and gospel concert. When he asks, “How can we have church in a play?” the entire audience is on its feet, swaying its answer. Here Franklin proves definitively that the theater is also a church. Jokes about your mama are just an added bonus.

* “He Say, She Say . . . but What Does God Say?,” Wiltern Theatre, 3790 Wilshire Blvd., tonight-Friday, 8 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 3 p.m., 7:30 p.m. Ends Sunday. $20-$30. (213) 480-3232, (714) 740-2000, (213) 380-5005. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.