The Mountaintop

Capital Stage presents Katori Hall’s play about Martin Luther King Jr.’s final night on Earth. Here, as directed by Anthony D’Juan, the civil-rights leader battles himself and fate as a beautiful angel ushers him into the special light. Beethovan Oden takes on the part of King and depicts him majestically, as ZZ Moor plays the cussin’, drinkin’ angel Camae. Both have moments of extreme passion, something the script offers well. The play falls flat, however, as it seems to set out to say that King was a man and would have been scared to accept his inevitable death. But in doing so, it casts him as a cog in a divine plan, when in reality, he was murdered in cold blood by a hatemonger. Th, F, Sa 8pm; Su 2 & 7pm. Through 4/21. $22-$35. Capital Stage, 2215 J St.; (916) 995-5464; www.capstage.org.