BLACK NATIVITY (Kasi Lemmons). 93 minutes. Now playing. For venues and times, see listings.
Black Nativity frequently tips its hat to Langston Hughes but doesn’t do his work any justice. The holiday musical inspired by the Harlem Renaissance poet’s gospel play never exhibits the sort of verbal wit or carefully composed anger that marked Hughes’s writing, except of course when it quotes him directly.
A stiff Jacob Latimore plays Langston (yep, he’s named after the poet), a troublesome youg Baltimore native who’s shipped off by his penniless mother (Jennifer Hudson) to spend Christmas in Harlem with his estranged, well-to-do grandparents (Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett, veterans who make Latimore and Hudson look bad).
While tangling with the old folks and their churchgoing ways, Langston is on the prowl for the secrets that caused a rift in his family. The bare-bones plot, propped up by redundant R&B tunes, hinges on revelations so obvious, you won’t need a prophet to call them out.
Apart from a rousing take on Silent Night called Hush Child, the musical numbers fail to live up to the promise of all the talent on board – not just Hudson but also Mary J. Blige and Nas, whose meagre collaboration will disappoint fans.
