This season there is a wealth of African-American actors
returning to the boards (they are all stage veterans) in a variety of works. S. Epatha Merkeson recently faced the challenge of reviving Shirley Booth’s most celebrated vehicle, Come Back Little Sheba, a task that no one has dared in the 50+ years since its première. That she made the role her own would be an understatement based on the rave reviews she received. In spite of her regular, long running role on TV’s Law and Order, Ms. Merkeson makes regular returns to the stage.
Two famous melodramas from the 50’s are returning this season with movie star laden casts. Clifford Odets’ The Country Girl stars Morgan Freeman, Frances McDormond and Peter Gallagher. This was Mr. Odets’ most successful work, and best known due to the film version which starred Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and William Holden. Ms. Kelly won an Oscar for her performance over others including Dorothy Dandridge.
Mr. Freeman is no stranger to Broadway. Few know that he began as a dancer in Broadway choruses, moved up to playing juvenile leads, most notably opposite Pearl Bailey in Hello Dolly (1967), then on to other roles, most recently returning to star in Taming of the Shrew opposite Tracy Ullman.
Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has proven to be his most popular work. Either on stage or film (TV) it has been performed by Natalie Wood, Jessica Lange, Ashley Judd, and Kathleen Turner. This season’s version is directed by Debbie Allen and stars Terrence Howard, James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad and Anika Noki Rose. Although, as usual, this is a limited engagement, this production has been playing to near capacity audiences.
One of the final entries of this season is Thurgood, a new, original work by George Stevens Jr. This 90 minute, one-man production stars Laurence Fishburne. Fishburne has reported that his inspiration for this production was the production of Paul Robeson that James Earl Jones starred in on Broadway and later toured in, during the late 70s. This production made Fishburne aware of Robeson, his accomplishments and his importance, for the first time.
It has been written that the popularity of Cat is noteworthy for attracting Black audiences into the theatre. And, perhaps, while there are not busloads of Black patrons attending Patrick Stewart’s revival of Macbeth at the Lyceum, Black attendance for Gotham productions, on and off Broadway, is not a new phenomenon. I can cite Pearl Bailey’s long run in Hello Dolly in the mid-60’s, Melvin Van Pebbles two musicals in the 70’s, August Wilson’s works in the 80s and 90’s, Mama I Want to Sing, a show which ran over 1000 performances, toured most successfully and has just been filmed, as well as others that are examples of productions supported by the Black community.
And what of Purlie, Ain’t Misbehavin’ and Dreamgirls to name a few? All are acclaimed award-winning productions that had robust runs. Certainly they were well attended by the Black community. However, no one thought to point out that there were Blacks attending in numbers large or small.
And too, interracial casting or all Black casts of traditionally Caucasian shows on Broadway isn’t rare either. There was the all Black revival of Guys and Dolls in the 80’s that later toured with Richard Roundtree and Leslie Uggams; I Love My Wife with Laurence Hilton-Jacobs and Hattie Winston (1979). There were plans to have an all-black 42nd St, starring Marilyn McCoo and Lou Rawls in 1989, but the production closed before it occurred. And too, there was the very recent revival of On Golden Pond with James Earl Jones and Leslie Uggams. Going back apiece, Rodgers and Hammerstein hired African-American actress Juanita Hall to play Asian women in the original casts and screen versions of South Pacific (1949) and Flower Drum Song (1958). And in the latter production, Diahann Carroll was to play the female lead but was unable to as the amount of makeup she needed to wear left her unable to move her mouth.
True, Oprah’s Color Purple was a hit (just a hit, not a smash) and a financial, but not critical, success but it didn’t draw African-Americans to Broadway in any notable way as was so widely reported—it is just that African Americans are more likely to have more of an interest in and be more aware of Purple than say Mamma Mia or Rent despite the fact that these have been running for centuries and are higher profile productions.
Ironically, all these productions mentioned that are currently running (as of May 2008) are all limited engagements and all have steep prices. In order to have a profitable run from a very limited run, discounts and lower priced seats are non-existent. A top seat at Cat would run about $135 and the cheapest seat is about half that. Is it worth that? That’s up to the buyer. But it is expensive enough to make many think twice before buying a ticket.
Marvin Pittman is a film and theater critic living in the Baltimore-Washington, D.C. area.