American Hwangap is a great play. I saw it a few years ago at The Lark and was blown away by its originality and heart. Now it gets the NYC production it deserves (with, I believe, much of the cast from The Lark). If you want to see a production of an “American family” play that embraces the diversity of what an “American family” really is, you have to check this out.
Then, of course, there’s this: Angela’s Mixtape. Eisa is, quite simply, one of the most important theatrical artists in the country right now. If you don’t go see this, we’re not friends.
I was going to post this Playbill article a few days ago and attempt to start a discussion about the politics of a white man directing an August Wilson play on Broadway.
The Pioneer Press did it for me. And they did it better, because they were able to get some actual quotes from real live theater folks:
“If this meant that everything was fair game —- if it meant that Marion (McClinton) would get to direct ‘Cherry Orchard’ at the Guthrie, that would be one thing,” [actor James Williams] said. “But that’s not what this means. This is another way of saying that the dominant culture knows more about us than we know about ourselves.”
Personally, I don’t think the question is whether or not Bartlett Sher can direct the play. He’s a talented director, and he’ll do his homework, and they’ll have top-notch actors. It should be pretty good, and it should be worth seeing. The issue, of course, is access — if Lincoln Center won’t hire a black director to direct an August Wilson play, what will they hire a black director to do? I get that Sher is the resident director, he’s on staff, he’s done big things for them before, and I get (and kind of think it’s great) that he’d want to direct a Great American Play to follow up his Great American Musical (South Pacific) — and it’s wonderful that Wilson’s work is considered to fill that role. But if the door doesn’t open for directors here, where does it open?
This all connects to another issue that I’ve avoided here, but I’ll bring up now: the first production by Lincoln Center’s new developmental arm (LCT3) was a hip-hop play — which is great. I’m all for hip-hop theater busting through to the big time. There are too many of us who have been banging away at this for almost a decade now to continue to be shut out of big-time houses. But it wasn’t Eisa Davis, or Full Circle, Bamuthi, or well, me: it was Matt Sax. Who happens to be white.
Now look. Many of the really exciting hip-hop theater artists out there are white (Baba Israel and, of course, Danny Hoch come straight to mind). And I’m only passingly familiar with Clay — I wasn’t able to get over and check it out. I’m not saying that it’s not a worthy play — it very well could be. I have no beef with Matt Sax. He’s a young artist working with hip-hop — it’s a good thing for his work to get done.
But.
This is hip-hop theater’s “big break?” And it’s not someone who has been part of the genre’s rise? And it’s not a person of color? LCT doesn’t have season “slots” really, but if we can’t get in with this slot, where do we get in?
That’s a bit of a digression, but it’s speaking to the same idea. The issue is access. If white folk want to direct August Wilson, that’s great. If white folks want to do hip-hop theater, that’s great. But there are tons of very talented directors (and writers and actors and…) of color who should be getting the chance to do Shakespeare or kitchen sink relationship shows or Tom Stoppard (and women doing plays by men, and…) — it’s got to go both ways.
For the record, we had another draft this Friday with additional teams and a less serious focus. I can’t believe I just wrote “a less serious focus” in reference to this. I will not be posting the results of that draft here. Yet.
ROUND SEVEN
19. Team SCS selects Bubbles, The Wire– and much like the Emmy Awards, the draft manages to ignore The Greatest Show in TV History for far too long. I am thrilled to get the best acting performance in recent memory with the 19th overall pick. (A note for those of you who have seen Passing Strange–the sister in this clip is played by none other than Eisa Davis.)
20. Team Kittredge selects Sayid Jarrah, Lost — Around this point, I start feeling like a complete pop culture ignoramus, because this is another show I have never seen. I take solace in Kitt’s admission that she’s making this pick as much to get an attractive male on her team as for any legitimate reason, making my Dark Angel pick that much less embarrassing . But still embarrassing.
21. Team Deeeluxe selects Stephen Colbert, The Colbert Report — At the beginning of the draft, we made it clear that Jon Stewart, as an example, was ineligible to be selected, because he’s a newsman, not a character. Barry Bonds made an excellent point here with Mr. Colbert, who was clearly eligible due to the fact that he is, indeed, a character played by an actor. This pick would open the door for quite possibly the greatest pick of the draft in the next round.
ROUND EIGHT
22. Team Deeluxe selects Frank Drebin, Police Squad! — Another “off-the-board” pick for the Deeeluxers, Frank Drebin brings not only a strong, historically impressive television career, but the undeniable added bonus of the Naked Gun flicks. Mr. Bonds likes to test the boundaries, as you can see.
23. Team Kittredge selects Heathcliff Huxtable, The Cosby Show – So I mean, if you’re doing this draft for real, and you really want to take the best possible first round pick, I think you’ve either got to go for Kermit or this man. For folks of our age to let Bill Effing Cosby slip to Round Eight is just inexcusable…by all rational standards. Barry Bonds and I (both Cosby Kids if there ever were any) could only applaud this American Girl’s selection. (And the clip? Best ending to a sitcom ever. Second best ending to a television show ever, after, of course, Six Feet Under. Second-best sitcom ending ever? I Married Dora, of course.)
24. Team SCS selects The Rock, WWE Smackdown/Raw — I had been stewing this pick over since the beginning of the draft, but didn’t think he’d be eligible. As soon as Colbert was selected, I knew the path was free for me to take the most electrifying man in sports entertainment. I know a lot of folks are biased against pro wrestling, and usually that’s not an unfounded bias, but the performances this guy put on when he was at the top of his game really can’t be topped anywhere on television.
ROUND NINE
25. Team SCS selects Dwayne Wayne, A Different World — I knew someone would go for Cosby or one of the Cosby kids, and I promised that I’d grab somone from A Different World in the round immediately after. This is one of the most important shows I ever watched — people of color in college, and a wide variety of backgrounds and personality types — this might be the most progressive sitcom I’ve ever seen. Dwayne was the nerd who grew up and won, even if he didn’t end up with a Huxtable. (It’s hard to find A Different World clips online, so I went instead with my other favorite Kadeem Hardison acting performance.)
26. Team Kittredge selects Jem, Jem – And here’s Kitt’s Dark Angel pick. Kind of. I’ve got to say, reading the Wikipedia entry for this show makes it sound a lot more interesting than I would have imagined.
27. Team Deeeluxe selects Barney Stimpson, How I Met Your Mother — I’ve head great things about Neil Patrick Harris on this show, and Barry forced the first season DVDs into my hands when I mentioned I had only seen bits and pieces of the series. You gotta love getting Doogie Howser into the draft without having to actually pick Doogie Howser.
Next post, we start to move into the SPECIAL CATEGORY ROUNDS!!!
I just woke up from a little impromptu nap, and I check my e-mail, and I’ve got this message from my buddy and sometimes semi-idol Eisa Davis (links added by me):
This is sad, but not unpredictable news. Passing Strange never found its audience, struggling with a title and some marketing materials that didn’t really represent the show perfectly or highlight its strengths. It was also a tough sell on Broadway, a black rock musical that didn’t have an obvious hook for the suburban moms and tourists who make up your major ticket-purchasing block on the Rialto (look at me, getting my Variety on). The Tony Awards seemed to be the show’s big chance, but timing was a problem there, as In The Heights became sort of destined for Best Musical, and Lin-Manuel’s performance in that show may have split the Best Featured Actor vote with Stew (just a theory), leaving that award to Paulo Szot, not that I think anything other than Best Musical would have made a huge difference anyway. The fact that this show made it from Joe’s Pub to the Public to Broadway, and lasted as long as it did (185 performances including previews) qualifies as a huge success in my mind, even with the certain financial hit the producers have taken.
I was describing the show in an e-mail just now, and I said it was the most interesting “hip” young black show since Noise/Funk, and I was struck by the comparison–both were shows that came out of The Public, yeah, both were somewhat overshadowed and eclipsed by other shows that they were linked with in articles about the new cultural zeitgeist of their given time period (Heights now, Rent, of course, then), and both, from some kind of objective standard at least, were better shows then their counterparts. I say “objective standard” because Rent and Heights are two shows with great personal value to me, although I think both are kind of messy and not as consistently strong as the Public shows. The other thing with that is that both Strange and Noise/Funk are untraditional musicals at heart, turning away from what a regular Broadway show tends to do, and ultimately, that’s the commercial downfall of these pieces. But these aren’t commercial shows–just shows that happened to have some success commercially (and certainly did better critically than commercially, especially Strange).
Screenwriter William Goldman has said that he is amazed that a good movie ever gets made in the Hollywood system, because there is so much that could go wrong at any given moment. I tend to think the same thing about great Broadway shows–the odds are against a production going really well, against a show capturing some kind of great moment or aesthetic or thought and making it all the way to the Great White Way with its integrity and heart still attached. There are just too many places where it could go wrong. Passing Strange got almost everything right; the downfall, sadly, was in the most critical area for keeping the show running: the audience.
But still, I celebrate this show, this cast, this creative team, this man named Stew. If you have a chance, go see this show this week. (If you want to buy your favorite blogger a ticket to the Spike Lee shows or even the closing, I wouldn’t turn them down.) You’ll have to film version of this to remember it by, but you’re going to want to have the actual memory too.
This is an e-mail I got from my homegirl Eisa Davis, who stars in Passing Strange (far right in the picture below). I’ve mentioned it a million times, but this show needs your support. Spike Lee digs it. So should you (ignore that he also digs the Knicks). Go see this show. Now. In The Heights will be there later.
Spike Lee is going to Broadway. The Oscar-nominated writer/director will be spending part of his July filming the Tony-winning production Passing Strange. Lee will film the musical by singer/songwriter Stew over the course of a weekend, shooting two shows with audiences and then a third one without. (He did a similar thing with his 2000 concert film The Original Kings of Comedy.) Passing Strange’s producers are financing the production, and while no distribution deal has been set, sources believe it will air on cable television upon completion. The musical centers on a young black musician who sets off on a journey to find “the real” after being raised in a church-going middle-class Los Angeles neighborhood. It was originally developed at the Sundance Institute Theatre Lab. http://hollywoodinsider.ew.com/2008/07/spike-lee.html
So you hate Broadway? You’ll love this show. It’s black and it rocks. Hard. From its punk roots in South Central, to the hash bars of Amsterdam, to the anarcho-socialist-performance artist squats of Berlin, it’s the story that’s never been told on the Great White Way. Yeah, it’s the best reviewed musical in years, and it’s won a Tony and a couple Obies and some other awards. Even though they like it, you NEED to see it. It’s about identity and the masks we wear, about making art and how art makes you. It’s a concert and a play, a riot and a heartbreaker. It’s PASSING STRANGE, and it was made for you.
Already seen it? See it again. And bring your whole crew.
Posted by Kristoffer 
Posted by Kristoffer 
Posted by Kristoffer 
