By Nelson Pressley
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday, July 18, 2006

It wasn't exactly a teenybopper crowd that went wild at GALA Hispanic Theatre on Saturday night for the rapso group 3canal, the indisputable stars of the music and poetry show "Caribeana Imperia." Diplomats waved their arms in the air and women almost old enough to be the performers' mothers danced with abandon and cooed about what one dubbed the three "delicious" young men from Trinidad and Tobago and their fiery, danceable music.

Clearly some of the audience at the "Caribeana" opening was already hip to 3canal and its calypso-driven rap. The rest found out fast, or as fast as this peculiar hybrid show allows. The largely English-language "Caribeana" is half staged poetry, half concert -- and to paraphrase Woody Allen, here's hoping you get the half that sings.

Not that Martin Carter's poetry is bad; it's just a tad precious as recited and danced to by the six actors playing Caribbean archetypes -- the Poems Man, the Grande Dame, the Warrior, etc. It's like a knockoff of a choreopoem (see Ntozake Shange's "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf"). Island figures lyrically announce their concerns and travails while moving in moody patterns up and down the ramps and platforms of Eric Grims's three-level set.

But once Wendell Manwarren, Roger Roberts and Stanton Kewley -- 3canal -- begin stalking the stage, the party is on. It's buoyant music -- embattled, for sure, with a litany of complaints about the ways of the world but leavened with uplifting pleas that are sometimes rapped and sometimes sung, often in harmony. Melodic hooks are the attractive veneer for songs propelled by lyrics and irresistible rhythms (the reggae beat pops up once or twice).

The guys aren't great singers, but they're a passionate, unified front and rather charming. Despite militant trappings that include the righteous sarcasm of "Talk Yuh Talk" (with nadie escucha , or "nobody listens," projected on one of the backdrops) and T-shirts emblazoned "Revolution" as they sing the same and wave a red star flag, it's clear that their mission is to galvanize, not polarize.

That's driven home in a few bland songs of encouragement ("Now Is the Time," "Build") near the end of what had blossomed into a fairly cogent second act. No sooner does 3canal send the energy through the roof with a medley climaxing with "Talk Yuh Talk" than Carter's protest poetry matches that fervor, and the link between the music and poetry finally becomes not just intellectual but also visceral.

Directors Manwarren and GALA's Hugo Medrano haven't quite figured out how to make a reliable virtue of the show's stop-and-go nature, but every now and then they catch a bit of lightning in a bottle. It's a roller coaster -- periods of grinding uphill, with thrills guaranteed on the other side.

Caribeana Imperia, songs by 3canal, poetry by Martin Carter, translated by Salvador Ortiz-Carboneres. Directed by Wendell Manwarren and Hugo Medrano. Choreography, Dave Williams; lighting design, Ayun Fedorcha; costume design, Alessandra D'Ovidio. With Michael Cherrie, Diann Marshall, Marlon Anthony Russ, Paige Hernandez, Abby Charles and Samuel Encarnacion. Approximately 2 hours 15 minutes. Through July 30 at GALA Hispanic Theatre, 3333 14th St. NW. Call 800-494-TIXS or visit http://www.galatheatre.org .