Shackled to a clunky story, 'Pearl' gets an occasional chance to sing
Seeing E. Faye Butler — a Chicago musical-theater diva of the first and most ebullient rank — walk out on stage in prison stripes and headscarf, with a ball and chain around her ankles, is quite the jarring sight. And although Frank Higgins' "Black Pearl Sings" is a play with music, Butler is required not to raise the roof of the Northlight Theatre (a feat she could complete before breakfast) but to free …