Michael Matthews' gospel drama, Who Can You Trust?, starred Brent Carter in the lead role of Joseph. Other well-known cast members include:

• BernNadette Stanis (TV's Thelma on Good Times, seated left). Also, see photo at right.

• Veteran actor Hawthorne James (“Big Red” from The Five Heartbeats; also appeared in Speed, Seven, Amistad, and others; seated next to Stanis).

• Vocalist Melba Moore (seated).

• Kene Holliday (TV's Tyler Hudson on Matlock, seated right).

• Bobby Law (host of BET's Comic View, standing far left).

• Ralph Tresvant, former lead vocalist of New Edition (to the left of the gentleman in the yellow headband).

There were more than 50 show dates in many U.S. cities from February through May 2002, including this appearance in Lexington, Kentucky:

Review:

Who Can You Trust? leaves humor
to bad guys, songs to capable voices

05/15/2002 By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News. Who Can You Trust? is a Christian melodrama punctuated by gospel songs. Its best moments, though, lie in its comic exaggerations. Michael Matthews' show opened at the Black Academy of Arts and Letters' Naomi Bruton Main Stage on Tuesday for a week's run. Like other plays of its kind, it relies on a simple opposition of the bad and the saved. But directors Kene Holliday and Hawthorne James have guided a strong cast into performances more telling than usual.

The hero, Joseph Powell (Brent Carter), is a modern Job who loses everything in a single day. His misfortunes come not from a divine negotiation but from his wife (BernNadette Stanis) and business partner, Richard (Theo Williamson), who clean out his house and his bank account for their own nefarious purposes. Mr. Williamson might as well be the Book of Job's Satan. He's bad, bad, bad.

The evening's headliner, Tony Award-winning actress Melba Moore, actually has very little to do. A momentary appearance in the first scene, complete with heavenly music, tips us off that she's an angel in disguise. Otherwise, she just keeps on appearing at odd moments holding her “blessed quilt.”

J. MARK KEGANS / Dallas Morning News

Brent Carter and Bernadette Stanis are a husband and wife with relationship trouble in Who Can You Trust?. Many of the show's funniest scenes come at serious moments, and no, they are not being botched. Mr. Matthews just allows his bad guys some good punch lines. Mr. James makes an appearance as a gangster who frightens Mr. Williamson. One of his threats is to turn Richard over to his henchman, Country (Dave Tolliver), for sexual purposes.

Gay jokes – as usual in this genre – also crop up in a lighter scene when the silly pimp Cleophus Brown (Bobby Law) turns up with a transvestite client (Ron Ramsey). Mr. Ramsey's costume alone is enough to set the audience atwitter.

The show seems to have been rewritten at some point recently. Whole scenes in a courtroom, as well as apparently important characters, have been omitted.

The songs, performed well though they are, sometimes seem an afterthought. Judy Peterson's number at the end of the first act enlivens the proceedings with some vocal fireworks. Three of the soloists are Dallas-area singers discovered by Kirk Franklin.

Naturally, the show isn't over until the Tony lady sings. Ms. Moore (see photo at right with Brent) dashes off her solo toward the end.

E-mail: ltaitte@dallasnews.com