SAN FRANCISCO BAY GUARDIAN 
March 2000
by Brad Rosenstein

Michael Gene Sullivan, "Passionate Times call for overacting" is one of many funny, insightful pronouncements gracing his solo show Did Anyone Ever Tell You - You Look like Huey P. Newton? That particular observation was prompted by one of William Shatner's classic turns on Star Trek, a show that was, like Sullivan, a product of the '60s. The original Star Trek, Sullivan notes, took the social turmoil of the times to heart in both content and form, and its actors demonstrated a justified lack- of restraint unknown to the cool, technofogged Next Generation.

Lack of passion is not a problem for Sullivan, whose supercharged comic performances have long been a mainstay of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. His yearnings for social justice were stoked early in his leftist African American family: the show begins with the memory of five-year old Michael joining his parents, siblings, and even the family bunny at an anti-L.B.J. rally that was brutally suppressed by the police. It's an authoritarian pattern Sullivan sees repeated continually as he matures, particularly in his ongoing harassment by police for no offense other than his skin color.

Through it all he cherishes the picture of Huey P. Newton: minister of defense of the Black Panther Party the charismatic and fiercely militant messiah who once seemed to assure the fulfillment of the American dream with the promise of revolution. Sullivan was thrilled when strangers began noting his physical resemblance to Newton and invariably shared their memories of the man himself. Under Velina Brown's simple, fluent direction, this multi-character piece flips through time and space, as Sullivan's consciousness is forged under the watchful eyes of his hero.

Sullivan is a terrific actor whose energy and joy are electric, and he's got a gift for detailed movement that instantly creates a character, an environment, an atmosphere. For all its serious intent, the show's tone is surprisingly playful. Things only get dark as the stories Sullivan hears turn nasty, depicting Newton at the end of his life as a drug abuser and rapist, a seeming betrayer of every value he once exemplified. This key turning point is abruptly rendered in the script, and it is one of the few hollow notes in Sullivan's performance: he seems to be straining to do justice to his overwhelming outrage, It's only in the resulting episode that the true dimensions and pain are fully and honestly, revealed, fittingly enough, through the make believe prism of theater itself. When the actor is cast to portray Newton in a play, his fury at his ill-prepared colleapies reveal the ultimate truth to Sullivan: that he really is Huey, Newton, as is everyone the flawed but inspirational leader touched. "Can you listen to the message," Sullivan asks, and let the messenger be human?"

Did Anyone Ever Tell You is a rich, candid, and often delightful appraisal of the lasting legacies of the '60s and '70s - a subject that remains strangely under explored in Bay Area theater. It's an encouraging sign that this first production of the "new" Eureka Theatre now under the co artistic direction of Andrea Gordon, Lane Nishikawa, and Benny Sato Ambush, should showcase new work by, of, and about this community. What's even more encouraging is that it's good.