Unmitigated Truth: Life, a Lavatory, Loves, and Ladies

With a title like Unmitigated Truth: Life, a Lavatory, Loves, and Ladies, you might think that Melvin Van Peebles’ new show, currently at the Algonquin Theater, is an autobiographical memoir. The pioneering African-American filmmaker, Emmy Award winner, and Tony Award nominee would surely have a lot of juicy anecdotes to share. And yet, he’s taken a different tactic for this performance, which is instead made up of an odd, yet compelling collection of stories and songs. The arrangement of the material sometimes seems completely arbitrary, and the show, performed in a tiny and intimate venue, can have you grinning uncontrollably one moment and scratching your head the next.

One of the first tales that this charming and quirky storyteller spins involves a friend who wants to kill his wife, and the dubious advice that he gives him. Another forms the centerpiece of a three-part “BM Suite,” in which the story’s narrator — who goes by the nickname “Sloppy” — talks about how his efforts to hook up with a beautiful woman at a party are potentially disrupted by a sudden and urgent need for the toilet. “If you have a falafel and a burrito, don’t go eating no shrimp canapé,” he advises of the experience.

In the second act, Van Peebles draws from his Tony-nominated show Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death in order to tell the tale of a convict facing electrocution who sings/narrates “Lily Dance the Zampoughi Everytime I Pulled Her Coattail,” which explains how and why he’s on Death Row. The telling is enhanced by dancer and vocalist Carmen Barika, who performs a hilarious yet sensual dance to a funky beat interspersed with an eerie, high-pitched vocalizing during other sections of the narrative.

In many ways, it’s the music — which draws from jazz, blues, funk, musical theater, and even opera — that drives this show. Many of the tunes can be found on Van Peebles’ previously released albums, with some of the highlights including “Same Old Raggedy Song,” “On 115,” and “Love Me Some Highway.” Several numbers are story-songs that seem complete in and of themselves, and while Van Peebles no longer has the strongest singing voice, he’s able to talk-sing his way through a large number of them, with both Barika and the show’s music director and guitarist, William “Spaceman” Patterson, supporting him on vocals.

Barika also gets to solo in a couple of numbers, and while her rendition of “Mother’s Prayer” feels forced and out of place within the show, she nails “You Cut Up the Clothes in the Closet of My Dreams,” from Van Peebles’ other Tony-nominated show, Don’t Play Us Cheap.

Unmitigated Truth even includes a couple of sing-alongs, ending with Van Peebles’ incredibly catchy homage to New York City, “Apple Stretching,” that is likely to have audience members humming the tune even after they leave the theater.