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Posts tagged as ““Porgy and Bess””

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

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.

R.I.P. Diahann Carroll, 84, Groundbreaking Actress and Tony Award Winner

 

Diahann Carroll (photo via commons.wikipedia.org)

According to the Los Angeles Times, Diahann Carroll, star of stage and screen who changed the course of television history as the first African American woman to star in a TV series (1968’s ground-breaking sitcom “Julia”) and to win a lead actress Tony Award, has passed away. She was 84.

The Oscar-nominated actress and breast cancer survivor, who also starred in “Paris Blues” with Sidney Poitier, Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, primetime soap “Dynasty” and “White Collar,” died of cancer, her daughter Suzanne Kay said Friday.

Born Carol Diahann Johnson in 1935 in the Bronx, Carroll moved to Harlem with her parents at a young age. With their support, she enrolled in dance, singing and modeling classes and attended Music and Art High School with Billy Dee Williams, who would later costar with her in “Dynasty.” By 15, Carroll was modeling for Ebony, and by 18 she got her big singing break after winning the televised talent show “Chance of a Lifetime” in 1954.

Carroll debuted as an actress in 1954’s Oscar-nominated adaptation of “Carmen Jones,” a retelling of the Bizet opera with an all-black cast alongside Dorothy Dandridge, Harry Belafonte and Pearl Bailey. In 1959, she headlined the musical “Porgy and Bess” with Dandridge, Sidney Poitier and Sammy Davis Jr.

Carroll was nominated for a lead-actress Oscar for her turn as a single mother in the 1974 comedy “Claudine” opposite James Earl Jones, and earned a Tony Award in 1962 for Richard Rodgers’ “No Strings.”

In the late 1960s, Carroll was cast in “Julia,” the enormously successful NBC sitcom that featured her as a war-widowed nurse raising a son.

Carroll won a Golden Globe for female TV star and a nomination for best TV show, among other nods. She also earned a lead actress in a comedy Emmy nomination in 1969. Because the show was sponsored by toymaker Mattel, she served as the model for one of the first black Barbie dolls and found her likeness plastered on a variety of merchandise, including lunch boxes and coloring books.

To read more: https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2019-10-04/diahann-carroll-dead

 

NY Metropolitan Opera to Hire All-Black Chorus for Fall Revival of “Porgy And Bess”

“Porgy and Bess” leads Eric Owens and Angel Blue (via metopera.org)

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

According to washingtonpost.com, The Metropolitan Opera in New York plans to hire an all-Black outside chorus for its first presentation in nearly thirty years of ”Porgy and Bess,” which opens the Met’s season on September 23.

Performances of “Porgy and Bess,” which premiered in 1935, are licensed by the Gershwin family, which specifies an all-black cast. Written by George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin, and DuBose Heyward and Dorothy Heyward, “Porgy” depicts a man living in Catfish Row, a poor, Black community in Charleston, South Carolina.

When the Met originally presented “Porgy” in 1985, it hired an outside chorus then too. At that time, there were three only Black members of the Met’s regular chorus of 81. That number today is six Black members in a group of approximately the same total now, the Met said.

“I think the Met is regarded as an institution that is colorblind when it comes to casting,” Met general manager Peter Gelb said. “We have many African-Americans and other black artists who are appearing on our stage in major roles.”

The Hungarian State Opera created controversy last year when it presented an unauthorized production with a largely white cast.

Performers Eric Owens and Angel Blue (pictured above) head the opening-night cast, which will be conducted by David Robertson and includes Denyce Graves, Latonia Moore, Golda Schultz and Ryan Speedo Green.

To see video of Owens and Blue talking about the upcoming production, click here.