Missy (Sandra Richards) tries to comfort Lutiebelle (Carmen White) in Ty Tracy’s delightful version of Purlie.

Director Ty Tracy must have known he was on to a good thing. He pulled out all the stops, even enlarging the signature NORD "house band" of piano and drums to a sumptuous four-piece ensemble with a trombone and bass. This unheard-of extravagance has in no way diminished the delightful music-hall aura of the little auditorium.

  In fact, Purlie, a light-hearted ’60s Civil Rights musical (based on Purlie Victorious by Ossie Davis), shines with pointed satiric humor, utter nonsense and a down-home cheerfulness in equal measures. It’s a droll fable, chock-a-block with catchy tunes and exuberant performances.

  In another shift from his usual modus operandi, Tracy has cast the show almost naturalistically. It’s as though Tracy said to himself, "Oh hell, this time let’s ease off the pedagogy and raise the roof."

  NORD regular Leo Jones gives a winning and assured performance as Purlie, the exile who returns to Cap’n Cotchipee’s cotton plantation in Georgia after 20 years of wandering. Purlie had vowed revenge, after he was bull-whipped by the white-suited, Panama-hatted Patriarch, Cap’n Cotchipee.

  Cotchipee, the bigoted overlord of all he surveys, is, of course, the villain of the piece. It’s a part that almost begs to be overdone. One of the joys of this production is Bob Gault’s impeccable and detailed comic creation. He is flawless throughout, from his first number.

  Purlie has returned home with a scheme. A rich white lady left $500 to a cousin of his (since deceased). The Cap’n has been holding the money in the absence of a legatee. But Purlie has found a look-alike for his dead cousin, one Lutiebelle Jenkins. He wants her to impersonate the cousin and claim the money, so that he can reopen a long-closed church and rouse the congregation to self-improvement and self-assertion. Unfortunately, the cousin was a well-dressed, college-educated young lady, while Lutiebelle is a semiliterate country gal.

  This waif is played by Carmen White with a wonderful mixture of bewilderment and pluck. Naturally, she proves irresistible to Purlie. Her crow screech of a voice melts away whenever the band strikes up, and she transforms into a songbird of formidable charms.

  Another conspirator in the plot is Gitlow, a sly, pseudo-Uncle-Tom who has been appointed Deputy in Charge of the Coloreds. His loose-limbed, full-tilt "Skinnin’ a Cat" is great delight and becomes almost the anthem of the show. Though other upbeat subversive numbers like "New Kind of Preacher Man" by Purlie, "The Harder They Come" by Purlie and Lutiebelle, and "Great White Father" by the chorus of cotton pickers offer a similar mix of bouncy tunes and witty lyrics.

  Personable performances with some fine vocals are turned in by Sandra Richards (Missy) and Lawana Menendez (Idella). While Michael Santora creates an amiably maladroit Charlie, the Cap’n’s well-meaning son.

  The painted flats of the set have an "old-time melodrama" feel that works well with the broad fable-like story.

  Meanwhile, over at UNO, director Bert Pigg has put together a somber, minimalist Romeo and Juliet. Tragedy overshadows lyricism and romance in a dark, empty world, without props or music. What stands revealed in this barren setting is the darkness of the story.

  Each time one sees a play, particularly a classic, new aspects seem to surface. In this staging, I became aware, first, how peculiarly rash Juliet is. She agrees to marry the most unacceptable of suitors on a first meeting. But, later, considering the coldness of her mother and brutality of her father, her impulsiveness seems like a believable, if desperate, solution.

 While this is not a student production, it does rely on some youthful performers to carry the main roles. Justin Scalise is effective as Romeo, while Billy Slaughter gives us an imaginative Mercutio (they will be alternating the roles). Jennifer Carriere’s Juliet is believable and touching. Nancy Hammons (the nurse), Sean Stewart (Tybalt), John Hammons (Capulet); Sheila Shea Chimento (Lady Capulet), Michael Sullivan (Friar Laurence) and Eric Pollard (Montague/apothecary) help create a coherent world against which love plays out its sad, redemptive drama.