Twelve Ways to Die starring Ghostface Killah at the Gramercy Theatre

On albums, Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah has assumed personas from flashy playboy Pretty Toney to Ghostdini, a “wizard of poetry” who raps sweet nothings to his pregnant wife and unborn child. Now, in the midst of the Wu-Tang Clan's reunion tour, Ghostface Killah found the time to resume the role of Tony Starks and record and perform live Adrian Yonge’s Twelve Reasons to Die, a hip hop horror opera and comic book that takes place in an internecine mafia war in 1968 Italy. Starks, an aspiring young and ruthless black member of the white Deluca crime family, falls in love with the kingpin's daughter, then betrays the DeLuca family and forms his own syndicate. The family murders Starks, and his remains are melted in vinyl and pressed into a dozen record albums that, when played, resurrect him as the Ghostface Killah, a force for bloody revenge incarnate. The debut issue of the Twelve Reasons to Die comic will hit stores May 29 as the first in a six-issue monthly series, and new music and remixes will coincide with the release of each issue.

Live at the Gramercy Theatre tonight, Younge and his strong band and vocalists, Venice Dawn, opened the live performance of Twelve Reasons to Die with rhythm and blues singers backed by thunderous rock. At least a half hour into the performance, Ghostface Killah, along with Wu Tang Clan affiliate Killah Priest, took to the stage. From there, on the program became less conceptual and more of a concert. This is where the production began to lose its focus. Ghostface came out wearing bland Cincinnati Reds souvenir merchandise instead of believable 1960s Italian gangster clothing. Ghostface rapped the Wu-tang Clan’s hits, and he rapped well, sharing the microphone with Killah Priest and mentor William Hart (of the late 1960s’ crooning Delfonics), even inviting on stage a random member of the audience to help him rap Wu-Tang Clan’s debut hit from 1993, “Protect Ya Neck.” Ghostface Killah gave the audience the rap concert that it came for, but by not building on the initial drama, somehow cheated himself of doing something extraordinary and unique.