Word: gretha
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...this revue ain't nothin' but seven singers performing a history of the blues, from traditional African chants to Motown, with side glances at Hank Williams and Peggy Lee. The rotund Ron Taylor (one of five co-authors) is the show's soulful heart, while Eloise Laws and Gretha Boston have the most impressive vocal turns. So poor was Broadway's musical season that this minimally produced concert got four Tony nominations. Talk about the blues...
...Andy, the proprietor of the Cotton Blossom, and the wise slave Queenie in which the latter, in response to Andy's grumbling that the balcony seats aren't selling, asks him "What about colored folks?" and launches into a ballyhoo aimed exclusively at said "colored folks." However, both Gretha Boston, who won a Tony award for her performance as Queenie, and Andre Solomon-Glover as Queenie's husband Joe, establish considerable presence that prevents their characters from being altogether marginalized. Toward this end as well, Joe's (and the show's) signature song, "Ol' Man River," is repeated several times...
...this version of Show Boat does ring with excellent voices nevertheless: Mark Jacoby's charming but feckless Ravenal, Rebecca Luker's steely Magnolia, Gretha Boston's ebullient Queenie and Lonette McKee's glorious Julie. (As Joe, Michel Bell sports an impressive basso profundo, but spoils Ol' Man River with a needlessly mannered performance.) Still, it is a relative nonsinger, John McMartin as Cap'n Andy, who is the surprising hit of the show: his desperate reenactment of the interrupted play-within-a-play, The Parson's Bride, is a comic highlight that stays in the mind...
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