Moving vision

For some years, writer/director Lisa Lacy and composer Charles Cooper have refined Legacy, an annual community-based musical, which attempts nothing less than a summary of the African-American experience. This year’s version—not the “biggest,” but one of the best—moves from slavery through President Barack Obama’s election, with vignettes and choreography that touch on lynching, Jim Crow, minstrels, desegregation, church bombings, black power, etc. Cooper’s visionary, gospel-based score (with new tweaks) is energetic, moving and truly remarkable. Lacy’s provocative vignettes are sometimes painfully grim (as is history), but the core message is one of hope, progress and respect.

Legacy, 8 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays 3 p.m.; $15-$20. Images Theatre Company at the Guild Theater, 2828 35th Street in Oak Park; www.imagestheater.org; (916) 428-1441. Through February 21.