"Trapped in the Closet," chapters 18-20
By Saul Austerlitz
Globe Correspondent
CHAPTER 18
We went to a soap opera, and a gospel show broke out. "Trapped in the Closet" makes a sudden U-turn in chapter 18, veering into oncoming traffic and making its way back to the very beginning.
Rufus, wayward husband of Cathy (the woman in whose closet R. Kelly’s Sylvester had been caught), is reclining in the seat of honor at his church, onstage with the Reverend Mosley James Evans, when his cellphone begins to tweet. The Reverend -- with his garish brown suit, heavy black-framed glasses, and curly, graying mop of hair -- is actually Mr. Kelly embracing his inner Dave Chappelle, leading the choir and enjoining the crowd like, well, like an R&B singer whose Sunday engagement is with the Lord.
As the Rev. calls up Pimp Lucius from the crowd to be saved, Rufus sneaks off to answer his phone and confronts his lover, Chuck, who suspects the worst. Rufus's mind is indeed elsewhere, his eyes lovingly caressing a photo of his amour as he whispers into his cell, but this one’s a woman and is none other than his wife, Cathy.
Seemingly "cured" of his gayness (perhaps by the reverend’s healing touch?), Rufus wants nothing more than to break things off for good, but Chuck has another surprise in store for Rufus: He’s in a hospital, looking like he may be HIV-positive. His plaintive calls of Rufus’s name as his boyfriend coldly jettisons him marks Chuck as one of the more affecting characters in the entire “Trapped” saga. And it leaves us sympathetic to both Chuck and Cathy, each mistreated by the unfeeling, mercurial Rufus.
CHAPTER 19
Sellers in "Dr. Strangelove." Murphy in "The Nutty Professor." Kelly in “Trapped in the Closet”? One does not generally think of R. Kelly as being in the first rank of comic actors, but chapter 19 has Kelly paying homage to those greats with his multi-character turn as both the Reverend and Pimp Lucius.
The Reverend, calling on his co-performers and congregation like James Brown in high dudgeon, summons Pimp Lucius to the stage, informing him that God wants him to change his ways. "You can do it, Pimp Lucius," the choir sings, but the stuttering, unbowed panderer has other plans: "The only thing a pimp done caught up in here is the ho-ly Ghost."
Shushing his interlocutor Bishop Craig like he was Dr. Evil in "Austin Powers," Pimp Lucius beckons toward his stable of women and exits: “Now come on, Bishop Craig, let’s go get this m-m-money.” Kelly pits the two sides of his personality against each other here, church facing street like Jerry Lewis’s Nutty Professor taking on Buddy Love. Unwilling, or unable, to choose sides, Kelly lets both have their turn on stage, and figuring that God will sort it all out eventually.
CHAPTER 20
The line between parody and stereotype is a thin one, and of all the numerous characters who populate "Trapped in the Closet," Rosie the nosy neighbor and her husband, Randolph, are perhaps the most stereotypical.
Sitting in her chair and reading the Bible before dashing to the window for another sneak peek, shouting "Praise the Lord!" when her husband provides her with a juicy piece of gossip, Rosie is a boilerplate version of that old comic standby: the not-quite-angelic church lady. Randolph’s humphing and secret nipping at his flask make him the embodiment of another, equally hoary stock character: the long-suffering, henpecked husband. Rosie and Randolph lack the comic charm or multifacetedness of the saga's other, younger characters, and their presence here, so near the end of these 10 new chapters, smacks of indulgence.
In fact, the entirety of “Trapped in the Closet” part deux is reminiscent in some ways of that season of “The Sopranos” when secondary characters came to the fore, at the expense of the protagonists. R. Kelly should make like David Chase and get back to our originally scheduled programming.
Saul Austerlitz's daily updates on "Trapped in the Closet" will be running on Sound Effects for the next two days.
