Coming-of-age stories have been around almost as long as humans have been coming of age. But with “Choir Boy,” playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney takes a familiar genre and turns it into a 100-minute emotional rollercoaster, every devastating dip and giddy rise delivered through a filter of a cappella music that takes the audience from glory to despair and back.
McCraney won an Oscar for penning the screenplay to “Moonlight,” which collected 2017’s best picture trophy. The depth and the empathy that defined the film is also the signature of the Tony Award-nominated “Choir Boy,” which runs through July 24 at the Steppenwolf Theatre. Directed by Kent Gash and set at an elite prep school for young Black men, the production is engrossing from lights up to curtain call.
