The second production of the Signature Theatre Features 2021 season and the fifth installment of his performance series, The Jam: Only Child is a unique and unmissable show written and performed “seul en scène” by Daniel J. Watts.  “It's for the it crowd and the other folks and the theater nerds - it's good as hell -  somewhere between Sammy Davis, Dave Chapelle, Leguizamo and Lin Manuel”,  raps/declaims Watts in a rhyme self-introduction.

Best known for his Tony-nominated performance as Ike Turner in Tina: The Tina Turner Musical and for playing Henry in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel series, this talented actor-writer-dancer delivers a 90-minutes layered musical play-on-words, bringing his spectacular sense of storytelling to the stage. As painful as it may be, he relives his experiences through his words and then his body as a gesture extension of his words, as only the great theatre performers know how to communicate.

As sweet as a jam’s spoon, he remembers his afternoons alone as a latchkey kid; not doing homework but enjoying treats and a particular Inigo Montoya’s moment. His imperturbable mother uses salt to extinguish a growing fire he’d set whilst testing flammable rubber cement. His “you’re like my brother” phase with girls and his evolution from a child to a grown-up was where Watts’ particularly well-thought stage costume of dungarees serves the show’s evolution. 

With Watts going further down his memory road, comes the rawness part of the jam. The atmosphere follows Watts’ mood with a hypnotic tap dance, where he seems to almost lose his balance. Here come heart-breaking moments, a meditation-introspection on loneliness, vulnerability, justice and inner clarity. He delivers to the audience what he reveals to himself and talks about painful topics such as sexual consent, how to forgive yourself, and how to deal with the revealing truth when you’re a black man in the United States.

The series’ namesake comes from his grandmother's method of creating jam, sharing to other people what she could not use herself. Watts’ own Jam, in a performance sense,  seems almost spontaneous, with high-energy musical flow. He never hesitates to go from joyful memories to more difficult ones and invites the audience along in his journey, metaphorically sharing to strangers what he learns about himself through his therapeutic path in “the attic of his mind”. 

Behind the show’s specific atmosphere is sound designer DJ Duggz, who is positioned onstage with Watts throughout the show. He provides music and sound effects and emphatically interacts with Watts by interludes in story shifts, particular bantering moments and dance sequences. They complement each other very well and show not only a perfect symbiosis between them, but between the words and the music in Watts' life. The lighting by Adam Honoré works perfectly, surrounding Watts with a diverse palette of colour and effects, accompanied by concert-style lighting. 

As much as we would love to stand physically in the audience, the production team demonstrate fantastic triple camera work bringing the show’s atmosphere with it. This also allows the audience to see Watts’ performance gift, charisma, interpretive verve, mastering sense of shifting between meanings and directed by a talented production team, led by director Lileana Blain-Cruz .

“Let it sticky, if it gets sticky let it stick with you, if you need to laugh, let it uplift you, if you need to cry go and get a tissue”. Funny, intense, tragic moments from The Jam: Only Child will certainly stick with us a long time after seeing the show.

***** Five stars

Reviewed by: Alexia Irene

Daniel J Watts’ The Jam: Only Child is available to stream until 7 May 2021 here.