The Hollywood Reporter has hailed the “lyrical writing and indelible performances” of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, playwright August Wilson’s classic that debuted this month at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. First staged on Broadway in 1984, the play explores the career of Ma Rainey, the 1920s-era black blues singer who shattered racial barriers in the recording industry.
Though set in Chicago, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is one of Wilson’s ten-play Pittsburgh Cycle of works that bring to the stage the African American experience of the twentieth century.
Reel Urban News was honored to speak with director Phylicia Rashad and several members of the talented cast before opening night. Rashad, who directed Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at the Taper in 2013, has enormous respect for the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright.
“It is wonderful, it’s great. Every time I direct one of the plays, I say this is my favorite. My favorite keeps changing with every play that I work on.”
While Rainey’s character is the play’s focal point, the members of her four-piece band drive the storyline. Rashad assembled the award-winning cast from among the finest African American stage actors. “I selected these actors because they’re the best.”
“It’s a wonderful experience to play in and to bear witness to the scope of Ma Rainey,” says Keith David, who stars as bass player Slow Drag. The stage veteran, a colleague and friend of Wilson, also appeared in Joe Turner. David says that despite its time period, Ma Rainey also depicts race relations in 21st century America.
“When you see the play and when you hear the conversation of the men, and you see the experience of Ma Rainey coming into the studio and dealing with her manager, this play could have been written yesterday about today. The conversation about the black man’s experience in America is absolutely reflective of what’s happening in America today.”
In a bravura performance, Lillias White brings the musical voice and message of Ma Rainey to life. A veteran of stage and screen, White has studied the blues singer’s career. “Ma Rainey was a real champion of music, art and the people. She gave the people what they wanted. She served the people with her music.”
White explains that Ma Rainey’s importance extends beyond her music. “It’s really wonderful to play her and to express all the things we go through emotionally as black people through this blues music.”
Glynn Turman, who was also in Joe Turner, stars as Toledo, Rainey’s piano player. Turman appreciates the significance of Wilson’s play as well as Rashad’s talent in bringing this version to life.
“First of all there is August Wilson, who is our iconic writer of all time. To be asked to be a part of another one of Wilson’s wonderful works is a heartfelt honor. Then to be asked by Phylicia Rashad – one of the most beautiful and talented ladies we have in the American theater today – she has a way of getting the people that she asked to be a part of her production to work in ways they didn’t know that they could. That’s another exciting component of what we’re talking about.”
Actor and trombonist Damon Gupton heads the band as Cutler, who insists on playing Rainey’s music in its original style.
“I’m the band leader, the member Ma Rainey trusts the most to get stuff done. Cutler is a religious man but a bit of a rascal. It’s really a treat to play him.”
