The Mountaintop

Katori Hall's new play The Mountaintop—now at the Jacobs Theatre on Broadway—takes place at the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee on the night of April 3, 1968. A note in the press kit asks reviewers not to reveal any of the plot twists that occur, but since the historical record is clear that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel the following afternoon, it's not giving anything away to tell you that The Mountaintop is about what might have happened to Dr. King on his last night on earth. Hall imagines a long conversation between Dr. King and a hotel maid named Camae. Given the gravity of the situation, one imagines that either the audience or Dr. King will learn something as a result of this discussion, but sadlyThe Mountaintop fails to deliver on either count.