The last time I saw E. Faye Butler she was starring as Rose in Gypsy for Porchlight Music Theatre. Her turn in The Nacirema Society as Grace DuBose Dunbar, the matriarch of quite a different family from the . . . , wait a second, do Rose and her kids even have last names in Gypsy? Unlike the real people upon whom those characters were based, I don’t think so.

Grace does.  It’s the prestigious one of an upper class family in Montgomery, Alabama in 1964, and one that she overbearingly, like Rose, wants her, in this case granddaughter, to do proud.

Instead of the part being a vehicle for Butler to highlight her substantial singing skills, it’s one for her to demonstrate her considerable comedic chops. There was great music, however, in the form of partial Motown recordings played during each scene change. I know at least one critic complained that it made the play too long. I liked it, couldn’t stop bobbing my head.

The first act brought a lot of setup and some laughs, but, more noticeable to me, were the many times that the audience reacted with something between an ooh and an oy when confronted with conversations featuring uncomfortable humor. This isn’t a criticism, just an observation of the presence of shock value. I liked it and everyone else seemed to also.

The second act brought the house down. One guffaw after another, and not just from the dialogue, as Shariba Rivers, in the role of Jessie, the maid, was given license to do a lot of upstaging, literally and figuratively, via comedic facial expressions and body language. I left with a smile on my face.