Bryson Battle (center) leads the company of New York Theatre Workshop’s Saturday Church.
The new stage musical Saturday Church traces a Black teenager’s search for belonging through the glittering rhythms of ballroom culture and queer self-expression. Based loosely on Damon Cardasis’s 2017 indie film, the musical unites Cardasis and James Ijames’s book with songs from Sia’s catalogue, as well as Honey Dijon’s music.
B Noel Thomas is Ebony (left), the erstwhile matriarch of Saturday Church, and Caleb Quezon portrays her friend, Dijon, who helps her run the LGBTQ+ youth group.
Saturday Church’s narrative at times feels wedged between musical numbers, but it still tugs at the heart. At its center is Ulysses (Bryson Battle), a New York teenager mourning his father’s death and yearning to join the church choir led by his protective, stern Aunt Rose (Joaquina Kalukango), who thinks Ulysses is too “flouncy” for the choir. With his mother Amara (Kristolyn Lloyd) working double shifts at the hospital and rarely home, Ulysses—devoted to both family and faith—longs for something more: true self-fulfillment. That desire bursts forth in song during a subway ride, where he pleads:
Wishing and hoping to sing
My voice is my only good thing
If she’d let me shine, I’d light the world up
Don’t keep me from what I love.
His sterling pipes attract the attention of a fellow train passenger, Raymond (Jackson Kanawha Perry), a homeless youth who shares his phone number and invites Ulysses to Saturday Church, a haven for LGBTQ+ teens. There, Ulysses is embraced by a chosen family led by Heaven (Anania), Dijon (Caleb Quezon), and especially Ebony (B Noel Thomas), the group’s matriarch, who carries her own recent heartbreak with quiet strength.
J. Harrison Ghee, here wearing one of Dhairius Thomas’s eye-popping wigs for his role as Black Jesus, also plays the conservative Pastor Lewis.
While Saturday Church, under Whitney White’s direction, hooks the audience with its heartfelt story and dazzling musical numbers, its dramatic power wanes as the two-plus-hour runtime stretches toward the finale. The songs are undeniably catchy, yet too often blur into a club-like sameness, leaving the score without a standout signature. Ultimately, the show longs for a stronger anchor to hold its ambitious vision of inclusion firmly in place.
What powers the musical is its outstanding cast, led by Bryson Battle (NBC’s The Voice) as the aptly named Ulysses. With a multi-octave voice that soars in solos, duets, and ensemble numbers, Battle proves himself a vocal powerhouse—but his acting is every bit as compelling. He brings warmth and vulnerability to a teenager wrestling with his sexuality, then channels steely resolve as Ulysses finds the courage to embrace his truth. One of the most searing moments comes when Aunt Rose learns he has a boyfriend, Raymond, and attempts to shame him into silence. This time, however, Ulysses pushes back with unflinching honesty:
Rose: I won’t let you … blow up your life. You can’t live this way, Ulysses.
Ulysses: This is who I am, Aunt Rose!
Rose: No. No, it’s not. It’s gotten twisted. My brother would be so disappointed.
Ulysses: My father would be disappointed that his sister is treating his son like shit!
If Battle grounds the show as Ulysses, J. Harrison Ghee (Tony Award winner for Some Like It Hot) lifts it higher with their dynamic turns as Black Jesus and Pastor Lewis. Ghee has the rare gift of vanishing into a role—even when embodying God—and bringing unexpected depth and wit. And if surprise is the lifeblood of theater, Ghee supplies it in Act II, when, as Black Jesus, they launch into a cartwheel from a raised platform to the stage floor—perfectly timed with Ulysses and Raymond’s first kiss on the pier during the song “Die 4 U.”
Joaquina Kalukango inhabits the devout Aunt Rose, who becomes Ulysses’s stern guardian following the death of his father. Photographs by Marc J. Franklin.
The 18-member cast deserves credit for the collective energy they pour into Saturday Church. The buoyant opening number, “Angels Together Overture,” fuses gospel and house, while that same spirit peaks in the show-stopping anthem “Are There Any Queens in the House?,” performed by the company with flair. The climactic ballroom scene, complete with vogueing and Adam Honoré’s flashing lighting design, dazzles with its pyrotechnics and underscores Ulysses’s self-liberation within the LGBTQ+ youth center. Yet it’s the quieter moments—sharing meals, trading stories, forging community—that form the musical’s true heartbeat.
Significantly, Saturday Church is based on the real-life experiences of Cardasis as a volunteer for the program at St. Luke in the Fields Church in New York City. And, fittingly, the musical’s underlying message is one of community and acceptance.
Saturday Church may falter at times under the weight of its length and repetitive rhythms, but its spirit of inclusion and celebration of queer identity shine through. Anchored by Bryson Battle’s heartfelt performance and uplifted by the ensemble’s collective energy, the musical ultimately offers a moving portrait of a young man’s journey toward self-acceptance—and of the chosen family who help him find his voice.
Saturday Church plays through Oct. 19 at New York Theatre Workshop (79 E 4th St.). Performance dates and times are somewhat irregular and may be viewed, along with other information, at nytw.org.
Book & Additional Lyrics: Damon Cardasis & James Ijames
Music & Lyrics: Sia
Additional Music: Honey Dijon
Direction: Whitney White
Scenic Design: David Zinn
Lighting Design: Adam Honoré
Sound Design: Gareth Owen
Costume Design: Queen Jean
Choreography: Darrell Moultrie
