Coming of Age Is Exactly ‘What’s Going On’

Twenty-four romantic, sexy, sad and deeply impassioned songs by Motown legend Marvin Gaye--performed by 120 young singers, dancers, actors and musicians--are the heart and soul of the new musical “What’s Going On,” presented by students at Washington Preparatory High School’s music magnet.

The message-conscious show, playing tonight through Sunday at the Los Angeles school’s Stephen and Carrie Odell Theatre of Performing Arts, was conceived by jazz trumpeter Fernando Pullum, who directs the Washington Prep Jazz Ensemble. It is based on a play by another faculty member, Mark Swinton, “Harlem Hear My Cry,” about a young singer-songwriter who hits bottom in his search for success and learns what it really takes to follow one’s passion.

The ambitious production, staged with the help of industry professionals such as stage and TV lighting designer David Flad, is directed by Swinton, an actor and playwright who heads the school’s drama department.

Putting the spotlight on the 2-year-old music magnet, the show is the culmination of two months of rehearsals--four school days and all day Saturday each week--by student performers 14 to 18.

Confronting the social ills that challenge young people, including drugs and violence, Swinton’s play “speaks to when we go out in the world, we leave our family, we have to start making decisions for ourselves. There are so many people in the inner urban areas who lose their footing. So it’s really about foundation, about being strong and keeping your purpose.”

In the play, the young musician and his mentally challenged brother leave the South after the death of their mother and come to Harlem, where dreams of glory give way to joblessness and desperation--and, finally, to drugs.

“The show is set in 1969. It was the Vietnam War era and that’s the time when heroin was really beginning to destroy the fabric of society in Harlem,” Swinton said.

The show is also a celebration of an artist whose velvety tenor and passion defined many lives in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Pullum’s use of Gaye’s songs to shape the musical was inspired by his experience performing as a musician in “Play On,” Sheldon Epps’ Duke Ellington take on Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1999.

Swinton found Gaye’s music a perfect fit for his urban drama.

“Marvin Gaye’s music,” he explained, “tells the story of decades. The first act of the show is set in 1969 and uses his music from the ‘60s; the second act is set in 1970, a dramatic change. His music from the ‘70s was really socially conscious. All of his music deals with pain and emotion. It’s in every line, in every lyric.”

Pullum and Swinton, who have overseen the creation of the magnet program at Washington Prep, proudly note that the students have received encouragement and help from individuals and organizations in the community and the music industry. The recently established Friends of Washington Prep foundation helps support the magnet program. Members include such high-profile talent as Jackson Browne, Courtney B. Vance, Gregory Hines and Angela Bassett, who often attend the student shows.

“We’ve been upgrading our auditorium, we’re building a recording studio, and we have comprehensive classes in the performing arts at the school. It’s been an amazing undertaking and it’s certainly coming around,” Pullum said.

“A really big deal,” Swinton said, is that audiences from outside the community are discovering what the school’s students are doing. “So many people are afraid of South-Central,” he said. “Now, for the past couple of years, I’ve been looking up in the audience and I cannot believe that in this South-Central community, there are so many people who are traveling from the Westside to see our shows.”

“Sometimes we think we’re forgotten over here,” Pullum said. “It’s rare that we get something positive written about us, but when something negative happens there’s a swarm of people around. And it hurts us because we work really hard to provide a positive image. We’re finally feeling that the word is getting out.”

* “What’s Going On,” Stephen and Carrie Odell Theatre of Performing Arts, Washington Preparatory High School, 10860 S. Denker Ave., Los Angeles, tonight and Saturday, 7:30 p.m.; Sunday, 3 p.m. Adults, $10; children, $5. Information: (323) 757-9281, Ext. 0 (ask for Mimi), 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. only.