STAGE WEST: "Jaja's African Hair Braiding" at La Jolla Playhouse

Tiffany Renee Johnson (foreground) and Claudia Logan (to her left) in "Jaja's African Hair Braiding." Photo by Rich Soublet II

            With its warmth, wit and wonderful characters, Ghanaian American playwright Jocelyn Bioh’s “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” would make a promising, perhaps even enduring series on a streaming network like Hulu or Apple TV.
            But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, Bioh’s comedic play about West African immigrants working at a Harlem hair salon is in the midst of a co-production regional tour following its limited but well received run on Broadway in 2023. (“Jaja’s” earned six Tony nominations and won two.) Already staged at Berkeley Rep, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre and D.C.’s Arena Stage, “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” opened Thursday night at La Jolla Playhouse and will bow in the fall from L.A.’s Center Theatre Group at the Mark Taper Forum.
            “Jaja’s” is the opening production of the Playhouse’s 42nd season. Considering both the collective need to laugh during the frightening climate forged by the current administration and the urgency of countering its anti-immigrant machinations, this play couldn’t arrive at a better time. It’s celebratory of those willing to sacrifice all to be in America but also cautionary about the consequences forced upon so many of them.
            The 90-minute play covers a day in the life of the titular Jaja’s African Hair Braiding, though it’s not just any day. Senegalese owner/boss Jaja (Victoire Charles) is away from the salon, for a good reason  -- though her daughter and the shop’s employees don’t think so: She’s getting married that day to Steven, a white man, and in doing so will win her green card. (Jaja doesn’t appear onstage until later in the going, but when she does, dressed to the nines for the wedding, what an entrance!)
            In charge of Jaja’s for the day is her daughter Marie (Jordan Rice), a recent high school graduate who dreams of being a writer. Her mother’s dream is for her to go to a prestigious university and become something like a doctor. Young though she may be, Marie is tending to the braiding salon with calm and common sense.
            That’s not always easy. She’s surrounded by big personalities, the Jaja’s braiders who keep the business humming. Bea (Claudia Logan), from Ghana, had counted on being Jaja’s partner in the biz, if not operator of her own salon. As such, she’s testy and can be fiery too, like when she discovers that the shop newbie, Nigerian Ndidi (Aisha Sougou), has, in Bea’s suspicious mind, pilfered one of her regular customers. Bea’s ever on the verge of a blow-up.
            She also tangles at one point with Aminata (Tiffany Renee Johnson), from Senegal, who’s just as passionate and who doesn’t appreciate being judged out loud for her marriage to a charming no-good (Onye Eme-Akwari, in one of four roles).
            The “quiet one,” Miriam (Bisserat Tseggai) , turns out to be the most forthcoming, demonstrated in the ardent telling of a story to a journalist client (Mia Ellis) about her forbidden romance back home in Sierra Leone … and where it led.
            The back-and-forths with each other and with the eccentric parade of clients and vendors who pass in and out of Jaja’s during the day is lively paced by director Whitney White and super-charged by these top-performing actors. It’s just so much fun to watch and listen to them sparring, bantering and sharing. Bioh has said that she was inspired by her own visits over the years to New York braiding shops. It was in them that she picked up on conversations, got to know persons and personalities, and appreciated in them the hard work, devotion to craft and embrace of the so-called American Dream.
            Almost immediately after Jaja’s brief appearance and departure for the green card wedding, the story is rocked, as is Marie’s world, by what happens offstage and away from the salon. Will these remarkable women put their minor differences aside, come together, support each other?
            What do you think?
            Bioh has drawn with richness and forethought characters distinctive enough to stand out even in the brevity of a one-act play; their individualities are expressed and made fully believable by this ensemble cast.
            The braiding, too, is just as believable, with the women at their stations, clients in chairs, seeming to produce beautiful cornrows or micro braids and box braids before our eyes.
            David Zinn’s scenic design with its splashes of bold colors, shelves of hair products, overhanging TV sets and reminders of Jaja’s multicultural identity is as much playground as workplace, and for all these women a second home.
            Plaudits too for Dede Ayite’s costume design, Nikiya Mathis’ wigs and hair design, and Jiyoun Chang’s just-right lighting.
            Both Zinn and Ayite took home Tonys for their work on the “Jaja’s” Broadway production.
            Now. Back to the future. Is there enough in “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding,” the play’s climactic drama notwithstanding, to sustain an ongoing series in another medium? Who knows? But weekly or binge-worthy visits with these women, their clients and their friends would be a welcome addition to streaming world and a long-overdue showcase for the deeply rooted cultural identity of West African nations and their people.
            “Jaja’s African Hair Braiding” runs through June 15 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theatre, UCSD campus.