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REVIEW: “Respect” Offers Moving Insight and Homage to Aretha Franklin’s Faith, Artistry and Legacy

REVIEW: “Respect” Offers Moving Insight and Homage to Aretha Franklin’s Faith, Artistry and Legacy

By goodblacknews on August 13, 2021

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

Well, Aretha stans, the movie moment we’ve long been waiting for is finally –FINALLY– here. Today, just three days shy of the third anniversary of her passing, the MGM feature film about the one and only Queen of Soul, Respect, hits theaters nationwide.

As Editor-in-Chief of Good Black News (and not-so-undercover Aretha Franklin freak), I was able to attend a press screening of the movie a few weeks ago, as well as interview its writer Tracey Scott Wilson (The Americans) and original score composer Kris Bowers (The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Space Jam: A New Legacy, King Richard).

Directed by Tony Award nominee Liesl Tommy from a screenplay by Emmy Award nominee Wilson and starring Academy Award-winning vocal powerhouse Jennifer Hudson (who also executive produced), Respect is a treasure not only because it is a film about a Black woman made by Black women, but also because it satisfies on every level — visually, musically, and dramatically.

“Liesl wanted this to be a movie about and for and with and celebrating Black women because that’s what Aretha did her entire life,” writer Wilson said. “That was one of her missions in life, to honor Black women and put them front and center.”

The biopic covers a span of approximately 20 years in Franklin’s life, from her youthful choir solo singing in her father’s church to recording and producing Amazing Grace, a live double album of gospel music in the church of early teacher and friend Rev. James Cleveland (warmly and lovingly portrayed by Tituss Burgess).

Jennifer Hudson stars as Aretha Franklin and Forest Whitaker as her father C.L. Franklin in
RESPECT (Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert)

Performances across the board are top notch – Hudson not only understood the assignment, she embodied it and transcended it by capturing Aretha’s quiet and graceful exterior while navigating how to express the caldron of explosive feeling and creativity within.

Forest Whitaker‘s note-perfect performance as Aretha’s formidable, flawed, savvy and controlling preacher father C.L. Franklin again proves why he is a lauded master of the craft.

As Aretha’s first husband and manager Ted White, Marlon Wayans charms with his nuanced combination of sexiness, intelligence and manipulation that make the dynamic of White and Franklin’s relationship live so well in the gray areas of both real and fatal attraction, especially when it gets violent.

Although they had limited screen time, Audra McDonald has so much gravity and grace as Aretha’s mother Barbara Franklin, she is broken spirit personified and Mary J. Blige pops off the screen as Aretha’s mentor/menace/musical motivator Dinah Washington.

Actor Jennifer Hudson and director Liesl Tommy on the set of
RESPECT (Photo credit: Quantrell D. Colbert)

Tommy’s direction is as subtle as it is rich and powerful — the movie doesn’t feel like a movie if you know what I mean — but like an inside look into a lived experience. Franklin remains a mystery in many ways, which I found to be an insightful nod to Aretha’s own choice and agency to fiercely protect and guard her interior life.

Tommy and Wilson take what is known about the relationships and traumas in Franklin’s life and, like Franklin, let their fullest expression explode like dynamite through the music.

The way the music is presented within the storytelling (not to mention Hudson’s astounding vocals), from the expected highs like “Respect” or the emotional, fractured rehearsal of “Precious Memories,” is ambrosia for the ears, heart and soul.

The creation of “Ain’t No Way” in the movie plays as a grand glimpse into Aretha’s musicality and artistry as well as her connection with her sisters Erma and Carolyn (younger sister Carolyn Franklin wrote the song and is teaching it to Aretha in the scene) and this pivotal moment is a stand out.

According to Wilson, not only is that song a favorite of director Tommy, it also pays homage to rarely seen ABC news documentary footage of the same:

“It’s just them in rehearsal, and it’s Carolyn teaching her the song that she wrote. I must have watched that video like 100 times. Just seeing the dynamic between them — Ted White is standing there, the Muscle Shoals guys are standing there — and she’s just teaching her this song,” Wilson said.

“And Carolyn could read music and Aretha couldn’t, so she’s speaking to her not only in a way musically that Aretha can understand but she’s also speaking to her as a sister. And just seeing that I knew it had to be in the movie because it so encapsulates their relationship so well, it captures Carolyn’s brilliance, it captures their sisterly camaraderie and love, and also the dynamic of Ted who’s there who is clearly becoming just an appendage and not the main attraction anymore.”

Underpinning the emotional storytelling of Aretha’s narrative is the impactful and moving score, which composer Bowers, who was befriended by Aretha in 2011 when he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition, crafted with thoughtful intention and care:

“Liesl had in mind that the score was going to handle a lot of her trauma in the story and that was going to be the focal point of the score. And the other thing that I started to feel was revealing itself in the story… is how much she’s finding her way back to God and her faith and church and also in a lot of ways this pure connection she had with her mother.”

The score itself, Bowers said, was loosely inspired by the sound of the church, which, as Aretha’s life and career highs and lows unfold, is calling her back to it.

“A lot of the textures are organ sounds… and I just kind of stretched them out and did different things to them to create more of a texture and layers on top of the score.”

“The theme itself not only was meant to feel somewhat like a hymn but her trauma theme is actually her mother’s theme in reverse. A lot of [the score] is trying to find ways to create some sort of throughline to that so it can continue to pull her toward that calling of God and her faith.”

As a bonus, the film’s final moments close with the actual footage of Aretha’s unparalleled Kennedy Center Honors performance of “Natural Woman” from 2015. It’s such an outstanding narrative choice, it brought tears to the eyes of this Aretha devotee.

Although the film passes quickly through Aretha’s Columbia records output and ends well before her transition to her Clive Davis and Arista years, it’s an impressive exploration of, to paraphrase Wilson, “the woman with the greatest voice in the world finding her own voice.”

_________________________________________________________________

FROM METRO GOLDWYN MAYER PICTURES, IN ASSOCIATION WITH BRON CREATIVE AND ONE COMMUNITY

RESPECT, in theaters nationwide August 13, rated PG-13

DIRECTOR: Liesl Tommy

SCREENPLAY BY: Tracey Scott Wilson

STORY BY: Callie Khouri and Tracey Scott Wilson

CAST: Jennifer Hudson, Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Marc Maron, Tituss Burgess, Kimberly Scott, Saycon Sengbloh, Hailey Kilgore, Heather Headley, Skye Dakota Turner, Tate Donovan and Mary J. Blige

PRODUCERS: Harvey Mason Jr., Scott Bernstein, p.g.a., Jonathan Glickman, Stacey Sher

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Jennifer Hudson, Liesl Tommy, Sue Baden-Powell, Aaron L. Gilbert, Jason Cloth

#AAMAM: “The Great Black Way” – Celebrating African Americans on Broadway (LISTEN)

#AAMAM: “The Great Black Way” – Celebrating African Americans on Broadway (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on June 12, 2020

by Teddy Tenenbaum (@teddyt)

We talk about how African Americans invented rock and roll. We talk about the great musicians Scott Joplin and W.C. Handy, the giant of ragtime and the “Father of the Blues.” Before rock and roll was a gleam in Chuck Berry’s mother’s eye, Jazz was the great American music form, a creation of Black artists.

And of course, rap and R&B rule the Billboard charts in the 21st century. And a century before Lil Nas X reimagined country music, the genre was born with the help of the banjo, a descendent of the West African lute brought to America by Africans who were enslaved, and with inspiration from early forms of Black music, such as spirituals and “field tunes.”

But there’s one more great American musical tradition, one where the contributions of Black people is sometimes forgotten, often under-appreciated. Maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that African Americans are often ignored when the discussion turns to the history of the Broadway musical, when Broadway itself is known as the “Great White Way.”

Broadway has never been an easy world for an outsider to break in, even when that outsider is White, wealthy, and part of the New York establishment. Mounting a Broadway show costs a small fortune, and there’s no cheap or easy way to distribute it. It’s a medium for people with powerful connections or large assets.

But African-American artists have made a tremendous impact, primarily as writers and performers, but also as creators of source material for Broadway shows and music. I don’t profess to be a historian of Broadway or African-American music, but I will do my best to take you on a fan’s journey through the long, storied history of African Americans and Broadway.

Savion Glover in “Bring In ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk”

To limit the scope a bit, this playlist is focused on Broadway shows only, ignoring the contributions made to Hollywood musicals, Off-Broadway, regional theater and West End theater in London. And even though I could add another hundred amazing cuts (thanks to Hamilton, Dreamgirls, Jelly’s Last Jam, etc.), I’ve limited the playlist to one crucial number from each show… with two notable exceptions (and for good reason).

These liner notes contain a short intro for every cut, but you don’t need them to enjoy the music. So without further ado, curtains up on the historic African-American tradition on Broadway, aka the Great Black Way.

Personal note: This playlist is dedicated to Good Black News’ Lori Lakin Hutcherson (who suggested and inspired it, and who has always inspired me), and musicologist Chris Molanphy, whose Slate columns on music and podcast Hit Parade feed the hungry amateur music historian in me.

  1. “I’m Just Wild About Harry” (1921)

Even though Shuffle Along was not the first Broadway musical featuring a Black cast in a Broadway theater (that distinction belongs to In Dahomey in 1903), it was the first Broadway musical written, composed and performed entirely by Black artists. Previous to the opening of Shuffle Along, there hadn’t been a successful “Black musical” on Broadway in 12 years, which made it particularly hard to mount the production. (Not to mention the fact that just a couple of decades before, African-Americans were prohibited from performing for White audiences, unless in – believe it or not – blackface). But Black vaudevillians Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles teamed with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle (who wrote the music and lyrics) and put every nickel they could find into creating this musical comedy. It paid off; Shuffle Along was a huge success. Shuffle Along deserves note for a few other reasons. It was the first production where a White audience witnessed two Black people on stage romancing and touching each other. It also helped launch the careers of two legends – Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker.    

  1. Ol’ Man River” (1927)

Six years before Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II wrote Showboat, a musical about a Mississippi River showboat, Paul Robeson was making his powerful baritone heard in Shuffle Along. His star only grew from there, and Hammerstein and Kern specifically wrote the crucial Showboat role of Joe for Robeson. Sadly, he wasn’t available for the original production, but took over the role in the 1932 revival and the film adaptation. Because one can’t think of Ol’ Man River without thinking of Robeson, his is the version I’ve included on this playlist. When Hammerstein and Kern adapted the Edna Ferber novel that among other things deals with prejudice in the South, they changed Broadway forever. It is generally considered the first successful musical to bring a serious topic to the genre, which was a revelation after years of vaudeville, revues, and musical comedies. It was also the first well-known racially integrated musical and the first musical to deal with the issue of interracial marriage. And it also has its share of controversy due to the stereotypical use of vernacular and its outdated stereotypes. But it was another milestone for African-Americans on Broadway.

  1. “Summertime” (1935)

So much has been written about Porgy and Bess and its treatment of African-American characters, both bad and good. Porgy and Bess has its detractors and supporters. It is a troubling artifact of American culture’s history of the depiction of African Americans. But no one can deny the impact the show has had on American pop culture. In fact, “Summertime” is one of the most covered songs in history (over 25,000 times)! Which is why, instead of featuring the original version, I decided to include one of the most famous covers, by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. This is also to make the point that just as Broadway has used African-American artists, African-American artists have used Broadway music to great advantage. In fact, Louis Armstrong makes one more appearance on this playlist, in a similar historical role.

Born on This Day in 1915: Legendary Jazz and Blues Singer Billie Holiday (LISTEN)

Born on This Day in 1915: Legendary Jazz and Blues Singer Billie Holiday (LISTEN)

By goodblacknews on April 7, 2020

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

GBN delights in the opportunity to commemorate the birth of Billie Holiday, one of America’s most talented singing artists, on what would have been her 105th birthday.

Born Eleanora Fagan on April 7, 1915 and raised primarily in Baltimore, MD, Holiday is best known for her signature songs “God Bless The Child,” which she co-wrote with Arthur Herzog, Jr. and “Strange Fruit,” the anti-lynching protest song she first recorded in 1939.

Holiday is also well-regarded by musicians and music enthusiasts alike as a masterful interpreter of jazz and pop standards with instrumentalist-like phrasing, and was a major influence on popular singers such as Carmen McRae, Frank Sinatra, and Joni Mitchell.

Although Holiday’s music had its heyday in the 1930s and 1940s, current generations got a chance to connect with Holiday’s genius and story through Audra McDonald‘s Tony-winning portrayal of her in the 2014 Broadway musical Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.

Slightly older generations may have become acquainted with Holiday through the 1972 film Lady Sings The Blues, which garnered Diana Ross an Academy Award nomination for the title role.

Billie Holiday Statue (photo via flikr.com)

A statue of Holiday by sculptor James Earl Reid was erected in her hometown of Baltimore in 1985 and rededicated in 2009 on a majestic granite pedestal to better capture the significance of her stature.

To read more about Billie Holiday’s life and music, there are fortunately several choices, such as her 1956 autobiography Lady Sings The Blues (as told to William Dufty), Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday by Robert O’Meally, With Billie by Julia Blackburn, Billie Holiday: Wishing on the Moon by Donald Clarke and Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, And An Early Cry For Civil Rights by David Margolick.

Above you can watch Lady Day in 1957 on CBS’ The Sound of Jazz performing “Fine and Mellow,” the blues standard she wrote and first recorded in 1939, with Jazz All Stars such as Lester “Prez” Young, Ben Webster, Roy Eldridge, Gerry Mulligan, Milt Hinton and Mal Waldron.

Below you can experience a comprehensive compilation of Billie Holiday’s recordings in a Spotify playlist called Loving Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday. Click through to follow and/or download. Enjoy!

 

Aretha Franklin Announces Her Upcoming Biopic

By goodblacknews on April 17, 2016

Aretha Franklin
Aretha Franklin

article by Toni Akindele via essence.com
The Queen of Soul has a lot to celebrate. During the festivities of her 74th birthday at New York City’s Ritz Carlton Hotel, Aretha Franklin announced that her biopic, which faced several delays due to negotiations, has finally been given the green-light.
“I’m in the last of the negotiations, because we have agreed on the key things and the most important things,” Franklin told Huffington Post. “It’s some of the people that were involved in ‘Straight Outta Compton,’ and this is going to be ‘Straight Outta Detroit.”
And who has she casted to play herself? Well, Aretha can’t spill all the tea, but we do know she initially considered Halle Berry and then later named Audra McDonald and Jennifer Hudson as two potential Arethas.
“It’s been a long, long haul, but I think we’re right at it now,” Franklin said. “I spoke to the young lady about a week ago — I won’t say which one of the two it was — but I spoke to her, and she’s ready. We’re going to go forward with it.”
Denzel Washington is also rumored to play Franklin’s father in the film, but all will be revealed in due time.
The film will be based on the singer’s upbringing and legendary career while also shedding light on her personal relationships, including her abusive marriage to Ted White. Plans for this project have been in play since 2011 and Franklin is excited to have been given creative control.

HBO Drops Teaser for 'Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill' Starring Audra McDonald (VIDEO)

By goodblacknews on January 17, 2016
"Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill"
Audra McDonald as Billie Holiday in HBO’s “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” (photo via blogs.indiewire.com)

Audra McDonald brings her acclaimed portrayal of Billie Holiday in the Broadway smash “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” to HBO, with the exclusive presentation scheduled to debut Saturday, March 12, 2016.
Filmed before a live audience at Cafe Brasil in New Orleans, the special features McDonald in her history-making, tour de force performance as the jazz icon.
Originally written for off-Broadway by Lanie Roberston in 1987, the production tells Holiday’s life story through the songs that made her famous, including “God Bless the Child,” “What a Little Moonlight Can Do,” “Strange Fruit” and “Taint Nobody’s Biz-ness.”
McDonald made history and became Broadway’s most decorated performer when she won her sixth Tony Award, for “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,” in 2014. In addition to setting the record for most competitive wins by an actor, she also became the first person to receive awards in all four acting categories. The show’s run at the Circle in the Square Theatre on Broadway was extended four times due to high demand.
“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill” is directed by Lonny Price, who also directed the Broadway production, and produced by Allen Newman and Two Hands Entertainment. It was originally produced on Broadway by Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Jessica Genick and Will Trice.
The special will also be available on HBO NOW and HBO GO.
The network has released a first teaser which is embedded below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llZRcLoV5Ag&w=560&h=315]
article by Tambay A. Obenson via Shadow and Act

Tony Winner Audra McDonald Announces Broadway Return Alongside George C. Wolfe and Savion Glover for 2016 Musical "Shuffle Along"

By goodblacknews on March 13, 2015

Audra McDonald will return to Broadway in 2016, in collaboration with George C. Wolfe and Savion Glover.
Audra McDonald will return to Broadway in 2016, in collaboration with George C. Wolfe and Savion Glover. (© David Gordon)

Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will return to Broadway in spring 2016 in a new collaboration with Tony-winning director George C. Wolfe and Tony-winning choreographer Savion Glover. The collaboration is called Shuffle Along, or, The Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Follows. The production begins previews March 14, 2016, at the Music Box Theatre, with opening night set for April 21.
McDonald will play Lottie Gee, the 1920s performer who appeared in the cast of Shuffle Along. This 1921 musical by Flournoy Miller, Aubrey Lyles, Eubie Blake, and Noble Sissle altered the face of Broadway in giving several black performers their first Broadway credits. The show helped launch the careers of Josephine Baker, Florence Mills, and Paul Robeson, among many others.
Ninety-five years later, this backstage musical will explore the creation of this now-forgotten show. Wolfe directs and pens the book, while Glover choreographs. It marks their first collaboration since their 1996 hit Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk. The production will have music supervision, arrangements, and orchestrations by Daryl Waters, scenic design by Santo Loquasto, costume design by Ann Roth, and lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer. Scott Rudin serves as producer.
Additional information about the production will be revealed in the coming months.
article by David Gordon via theatermania.com

"A Raisin In The Sun" Earns Three Tony Awards; Audra McDonald Makes History

By goodblacknews on June 8, 2014

Raisin_650
Although the Denzel Washington-headlined revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play did not garner its lead an award tonight, “A Raisin in the Sun” fared quite well in several other categories, winning three Tonys overall, for Best Director (Kenny Leon), Best Featured Actress in a Play (Sophie Okonedo) and Best Revival of a Play.
Audra McDonaldAlso of major note was Audra McDonald‘s Best Lead Actress in a Play win for “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.” Not only did she earn her record sixth Tony (surpassing Angela Lansberry and Julie Harris at five each), she also became the only actor to ever win a Tony in all four acting categories.
To see a full list of winners, click here.
article by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

THEATER REVIEW: "Raisin in the Sun" Brings Denzel Washington Back to Broadway

By goodblacknews on April 4, 2014
From left, Sophie Okonedo, Mr. Washington, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Bryce Clyde Jenkins and Anika Noni Rose play members of a family pondering whether to move to a suburb. (Credit: Sara Krulwich/The New York Times)

The spark of rebellion, the kind that makes a man stand up and fight, has almost been extinguished in Walter Lee Younger. As portrayed by Denzel Washington in Kenny Leon’s disarmingly relaxed revival of Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun — which opened on Thursday night at the Ethel Barrymore Theater — Walter appears worn down, worn out and about ready to crawl into bed for good. Frankly, he looks a whole lot older than you probably remember him.

That’s partly because, at 59, Mr. Washington, the much laureled movie star, is about a quarter of a century older than the character he is playing, at least as written. (This production bumps Walter’s age up to 40 from 35.) But it’s also because, as this production of Raisin makes clearer than any I’ve seen before, Walter inhabits a world that ages men like him fast.

Listen to how his mama, Lena (LaTanya Richardson Jackson), describes her late husband’s existence: “I seen him, night after night, come in, and look at that rug, and then look at me, the red showing in his eyes, the veins moving in his head. I seen him grow thin and old before he was 40, working and working like somebody’s horse.”

In this engrossingly acted version of Hansberry’s epochal 1959 portrait of an African-American family, Walter is all too clearly his father’s son. Lena may tell him, shaking her head, that he is “something new, boy.” But you know that her great fear is that he is not. Small wonder she shows such smothering protectiveness to Walter’s 11-year-old son, Travis (Bryce Clyde Jenkins).

A claustrophobic fatigue pervades the cramped, South Side Chicago apartment in which A Raisin in the Sun is set. And despite its often easygoing tone, a happy ending feels far from guaranteed. As designed by Mark Thompson, the Youngers’ living room cum kitchen is a narrow corridor that keeps its three generations of inhabitants in close, erosive proximity.

The production begins with a searing vision of bone-weariness. Ruth Younger (Sophie Okonedo), Walter’s wife, stands frozen center stage in a bathrobe, amid sallow morning light. Her face is harrowed, and her arms are braced against the kitchen counter in what is almost a crucifix position. She is trying to find the strength to get through another day.

Mr. Leon relaxes that initial tautness for the scene that follows, in which the Youngers — who also include Walter’s sister, Beneatha (a first-rate Anika Noni Rose), a pre-med student — go through their usual morning rituals. And the play as a whole has a genial, conversational quality; it always holds you, but without trying to shake you.

Still, that opening scene strikes a note that will resonate. Exhaustion is pulling at the Youngers like a dangerous force of gravity. As Hansberry puts it in her stage directions, “Weariness has, in fact, won in this room.”

Audra McDonald to Play Billie Holiday on Broadway

By goodblacknews on February 25, 2014

Audra McDonald will be spending a lot of time on Broadway over the next couple of years. Weeks after announcing she will star in a revival of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Night, Mother opposite Oprah Winfrey, McDonald is set to play Billie Holiday in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill.  The four-time Tony Award-winning actress will play the late jazz icon in the show, which is set in 1959 in a seedy Philadelphia bar, and relives Billie Holiday’s last performance, taking place only four months before her death at age 44.
Lady Day is set to go in front of audiences later this year, making it McDonald’s next turn on the stage. Night, Mother will debut in the 2015-2016 season.

article by Evelyn Diaz via bet.com