A Blackout on Broadway

Everybody knows that Denzel Washington won a best actor Tony Award this weekend for his role in August Wilson’s play Fences which is a huge accomplishment for a movie actor to pull off.

What’s even more impressive is the number of Tony winners that involved blacks.

Let’s run them down:

• Fences won 3 Tonys including Denzel’s best actor and Viola Davis’ best actress awards.
• Memphis, whose cast is half black, won 4 Tonys including best musical.
• Fela won 3 Tonys.

That’s 10 Tonys in a single award ceremony. That’s got to be a record. Color Purple received 11 nominations but as great as that play was it only walked away with best actress in 2006.

How many of you are getting up to Broadway this summer? I must admit that cost is certainly a factor. An average Broadway ticket is about $80 (on a good day) and when you consider transportation and a meal, you can easily be spending well over $300 for a single night under the lights with your boo.

But as a black theater lover, there may never be a better time than now to check out some great plays. 

Personally, Fences wouldn’t be a play I’d see on Broadway despite the Denzel factor. If I’m spending that kind of money, you gotta sing and dance for me. In other words, I like the big productions; the musicals. I save the dramas for the local theater houses which Philadelphia has quite a few.

I did see Fela which was an incredible performance. I understand why it won best choreograhpy and best sound design but best constume design was a suprising win. I think of Cats or Lion King when I think great costumes and in Fela they basically wore period clothing from the 60s and 70s along with some native Nigerian wear. But, who am I to judge.

After Fela, we had dinner and the poster for Memphis was right outside the window. I kept saying to myself that I wanted to see it if I came back to New York but never made it. It looks llike my hunch was right. Memphis as best musical is right up my alley.

If you can swing it, take a trip to Broadway before these great plays leave. It’s worth it.

Click below to read my review on Fela from the February 2010 Chester Spotlight.

FELA!

Will Smith and Jay-Z saw the play and were so impressed that they now own the production rights of this fascinating story of a Nigerian musician that was so popular that over one million people attended his funeral in 1997.

I caught the train to NYC to see a mid-day matinee of FELA! (Fay-la) last week and it was the most spectacular two and a half hours I’ve ever spent in a play house.

The experience went something like this...

The activity in front of the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on 49th and Broadway was almost chaotic with lines stretching over half a block and limos and cabs dropping off more astonished folks wondering if they would get in on time.

Once inside and settled in the seat, I immediately sensed that something strange was going on. I was 20 minutes early and there was a band on stage jammin’. At first I thought they were just warming up but they went from one song to the next getting me in the party mood. As I looked around the theater, every wall from front to back had some type of album cover or Black activist image – Marcus Garvey, Nina Simone, Martin Luther King, Curtis Mayfield, and more.

Next thing you know, strolling down the aisle were a couple brothers who took the stage and started talking to each other. A couple more band members showed up. A few ladies came from back stage and then all of a sudden out came this guy dancing, flanked by six others who broke into song, and the party never stopped from there on.

As an audience member, you are a part of Shrine, a Lagos night club, where Fela Kuti is the main attraction. It’s sort of a one man play where Fela tells his story, mostly through song, of his rise as a superstar musician and political activist. The band plays a steady, hard hitting, Afro Cuban beat and the dancing and costumes are phenomenal. And yes, he has you singing and dancing just like you were at a club.

When you go, I recommend that you sit in the upper level so you can experience the unique multi-media presentation that goes along with the play. I doubt if peo- ple downstairs, especially in the front, could see all that was going on on the walls throughout the theater. And, I never thought someone could come up with closed caption in a theater, but they did.

The New York Times says that Broadway has never seen anything like FELA! Go see why.