Film: Playwright August Wilson began his chronicle of the African-American experience throughout the 20th century, one decade at a time, with 1984’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a fictional look at the so-called “Mother of the Blues” in a tension-filled recording session at a Chicago race label in 1927. Now director George C. Wolfe has brought the tale to the screen, with a pair … [Read more...]
Postcard from Broadway No. 8: Harrowing ‘The Father,’ sprawling ‘Shuffle Along’
The cast of Shuffle Along performs “Broadway Blues.” (Photo by Julieta Cervantes) My New York trip is starting to wind down. Saturday, was my last two-show day, beginning with the dramatic immersion into the world of dementia, The Father, by French playwright Florian Zeller. In the evening I saw a new musical based on a 1921 show called Shuffle Along. But this was no mere … [Read more...]