Broadway in 2021 will ‘have so many Black voices.’ Theatergoers, pros say it’s about time – NorthJersey.com

Celeste Bateman highlights Black theatre performances for Broadway audiences

Celeste Bateman continues the legacy of Elmart Theatre Service founded in 1969, by connecting Broadway fans with shows supporting Black theatre.

NorthJersey.com

A time-out can be good discipline.

Broadway like achild sent to its room hashad a lot of time over the past 15 months to ponder its bad behavior. Especially inthe matter ofinclusion.

Now, after a long lockdown, and a "Black Lives Matter" movement that has stirred the conscience of a nation, the New York stage is reopening in a thoughtful mood. It's not just new health protocols you'll be seeing in theaters this fall. It's new marching orders.

Trouble in Mind, Thoughts of a Colored Man, Paradise Square, Lackawanna Blues, Caroline, or Change, To Kill a Mockingbird, Pass Over, "Skeleton Crew" are just some of the shows that, in various ways, address our current moment of racial crisis and alsoattempt to adjust an imbalance that is as old as the aptly named Great White Way.

And thats not counting the purely escapist shows centered aroundAfrican-Americans: MJ, Tina, Ainttoo Proud "Freestyle Love Supreme." Ortraditional shows that have been "reimagined" with multi-racial casts, like "1776"an all-female production, to boot. Orlong runs resuming their record-breaking careers, like "The Lion King" (back Sept. 14 at the Minskoff) and "Hamilton" (back at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, also starting Sept. 14).

None of these shows, in itself, is remarkable. But the sheer number of them is something new, says Celeste Bateman, director of Newark's ElmartTheatreService.

She knows. She's been keeping tabs for 50 years.

"It seems like everyone woke up in this last year of pandemic and discovered Black people," Bateman said. "This is major. This has got to be an all-time record for Broadway shows."

The business Bateman runs and which she inherited from her mother, who co-founded it in 1969 is a "theater party" service.

These are the chartered buses that bring groups of as many as 55 pervehicle to New York, to see Broadway plays at group-discount rates. It's one of the backbones of the theater business. "We're the theater party ladies, and we come to all the matinees," sang a group of grannies in the1979 off-Broadway revue, "Scrambled Feet."

But Bateman's company is different in onerespect. It is aimed at Black theatergoers. Which are as numerous as any other kind only Broadway producersand publicists tend not torecognizethis.Or, when they do, don't know how to reach out to them.

"We've always known the audience is there, and it's only grown over the years,"said Montclair playwright Richard Wesley, who has written for Broadway ("The Mighty Gents"), movies ("Uptown Saturday Night," "Let's Do It Again") and for that uniqueinstitution, the Black regional theater, subject of his latest book, "It's Always Loud In The Balcony" (Applause Books).

Over the years, theElmarttrips became an event. Box lunches, prepared by a caterer, would be served to the ticket-holders, before they boarded the bus in Newark and headed to the city for the big show. They had no trouble finding customers."They could take as many as three busloads at a time, easily," Bateman said (she now usually just does one bus).

The belatedrecognition of this audience may be one reason Broadway has pivoted.

Another is Broadway actors and backstage folksthemselves. They've beencalling foul.

Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Anna Deavere Smith, Vanessa Williams, Billy Porter and Wendell Pierce are among the stars aligned with Black Theatre United, a coalition that has called for a "new deal" for inclusion on Broadway. Another group, We See You W.A.T. W.A.T. being "White American Theatre" has a whole list of demands. "As the global majority, we demand a bare minimum of 50% BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) representation in programming and personnel, both on and off the stage."

"These are Black theater artists who were veterans of Broadway, and theater in general," Wesley said. "They were upset that, after all these years, after all this time, and in the midst of all this tumult going on in the wake of George Floyd's death, we're still waiting for some kind of representation on Broadway beyond the occasional all-Black show, beyond the occasional role here and there."

Time, they are saying, that the people on the stage looked like the people in the audience.

"How can we have a country we perceive as multi-ethnic, and yet we still have shows and still make assumptions about an overwhelmingly white audience, that is only interested in seeing shows by white authors?" Wesley said.

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As for thatwhite audience subject of the baleful stare of the "We See You" activists it is showing some appetite to engage with the current moment of racial reckoning. But at varied levels of comfort.

Musicals, or course, are usually safe. Especially that variety known as the "juxebox musical" familiar songs rendered newly flavorsome by energetic young performers, spectacular dancing and singing,and lots of "production value."

For instance,"Tina: The Tina Turner Musical," which reopens at the Lunt-Fontanne on Oct. 8. Or" Aint Too Proud The Life and Times ofthe Temptations," which will be back at the Imperial Theatre starting Oct. 16.

True, "MJ: The Musical," starring Myles Frost as the King of Pop the previously announcedEphraim Sykes has left the cast does skirt some potentially explosive issues. But word is that the book, by Pulitzer Prize-winnerLynn Nottage, steers clear of most of them,focusing on the backstage drama during a singletour, in 1992. ItopensFeb 1 at the Neil Simon Theatre, with previews beginning Dec. 6.

In a different category is"Freestyle Love Supreme," an improvisational rap musical playing a limited run at the Booth Theatre from Oct. 7 to Jan. 2. The big name here is not somesuperannuated pop star, but Broadway royalty.Lin-Manuel Miranda not in person, but as co-creator is the draw for this show, even as his other one, "Hamilton," prepares to resume its spectacular career at the Richard Rodgers.

As far as less escapist fare, among the lesschallenging is"To Kill a Mockingbird," the Aaron Sorkin adaptation of the beloved Harper Lee novel about a courageous white lawyer (Jeff Daniels through Jan. 2) in the1930s Alabama defending a Black man falsely accused of rape.

It recalls a day when African-Americansand progressive whites were in theory, anyway comrades-in-armsin the civil rights struggle,with pats on the backall around. It will resume performances at the Schubert Theatre(it was shuttered by COVID in March) starting Oct. 5.

Other dramas ofracial conflict feature different ethnicities mixing it up thus giving white audiences a"way in."

"Paradise Square," the musical about relations betweenAfrican-Americans and Irish at a Five Points bar in the 1860s period of the New York draft riots,will open onSunday, March 20(previews begin Feb. 22) at theEthel Barrymore Theatre. "Caroline, or Change," a revival of the musical by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori last seen on Broadway in 2004 about the evolving relationship between a Jewish Louisiana family, their maid, and her family, set during the Kennedy years, will be at Studio 54 Oct. 27 (previews begin Oct. 8).

"Trouble in Mind," the 1955 drama by trailblazing African-American writerAlice Childress, about an actress of color (LaChanze) confronting the white creative team of her latest play about lynching, no less willopen atRoundabout Theatre Company's American Airlines Theatre on Nov. 18 (previews begin Oct. 29).

The BLM zeitgeist can also be detected,directly or indirectly, in many other shows some of them new, some of them older pieces that happened to seemon-point.

"Thoughts of a Colored Man," a "slam poetry" meditation on the inner lives of Black men by Keenan Scott II, beginsOct. 31 (previews start Oct. 1) at the John Golden Theatre."Lackawanna Blues," the Broadway debut offRuben Santiago-Hudson's one-man reminiscence (it launched at the Public Theater in 2001) about the strong woman who raised him, opensSept. 28 (previews start Sept 14) at theSamuel J. Friedman Theatre. "Skeleton Crew," starring Phylicia Rashad inDominique Morisseaus play about Detroit auto workers facing the 2008 recession, follows at theSamuel J. Friedman TheatrestartingJan.12 (previews begin Dec. 21).

One playthatmay speakmore directly to the era of George Floydis"Pass Over."The 2015 Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu drama, which riffson "Waiting for Godot" and "Exodus," isabout two Black men on astreet corner, ponderinga no-way-out world of police violence and existential dread.

The show, which had an off-Broadway run in 2018 and was filmed by Spike Lee for Amazon Prime,makes it Broadway debutat the August Wilson Theatre, Lincoln Center on Sept. 12, with previews startingAug. 4. This is Broadway's ribbon-cutting: the show that launches the season (if you don't count "Springsteen on Broadway," the solo show that began June 26).

"It's that idea of existential crisis, of not being able to go anywhere, feeling stuck," said Namir Smallwood, the Newark-born actor who will be reprising his off-Broadway role ofKitch.

"It's about where do these people find hope," hesaid. "In president Obama's first election, the tenor was hope. And then, four years later, eight years later, everybody's losing hope. More Black people are being killed by the police just because of fear. The terror on both sides, the victim and the victimizer. And you couple that with the the pandemic, which essentially is a plague. We are living in plague right now. California is burning.This could be a time where we and our society are purging."

These shows range in approach, appeal, and it's fair to say quality. Butthey have have one notable thing in common.People of color:In front of the scenes, and behind the scenes.

"It's admirable that this upcoming Broadway season is going to have so many Black voices as part of it, Black artists," said Caseen Gaines, a Hackensack cultural historian. "But I think what people are really looking for is a lasting, systematic change, that allows these artists to frequently have opportunities to perform on the greatest sages of the world."

This year marks the 100th anniversary of "Shuffle Along," the first Broadway hit written and performed by African-Americans.

Gaines has written a new book, "Footnotes," about this famous 1921 show by Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle, which gave the world the classic tune "I'm Just Wild About Harry." The signals appeared toturned green, then, for African-American performers.It seems they have done so again.But will it last?

"We have seen throughout the last century these moments where the floodgates open up and there are a lot of Black productions, and increased representation on Broadway," he said. "Sometimes these moments are very fleeting."

Such moments have been very precious to Black theatergoers. During years when African-Americanswere nearly invisible inTV and movies, the occasional glimpse of a non-white face on Broadway was an Event."There was such a hunger for Black theater in those days, because it was such a rare commodity," Bateman said.

Only problem was, producershad no idea how to tap into that audience."They market through the New York Times," Wesley said."Black audiences really do a lot of their communicating through word-of-mouth."

So audiences took matters into their own hands. A 1969 New York revival of "A Raisin in the Sun" was the first field trip organized byElmart named for Elma Bateman, Celeste's mother,and Arthur Wilson, both theater buffs and parishioners ofQueen of Angels, an historically Black Catholic church in Newark.

Church, in fact, has beena key channel for audience outreach in the Black community, as producers of "The Wiz" (1975)and "Dreamgirls"(1981) discovered.

"'The Wiz' was a classic case," Wesley said."It got a great review in The New York Times, but that wasn't what got Black audiences to see it. They came out because someone was wise enough to invite church groups."

After 50 years, and mostly slim pickings, Bateman has plenty to choose from in the coming year. "MJ" is first show, post-pandemic, in Elmart's books: Jan. 5.

Hopefully there will be more, in the years to come.

"What we ideally would be looking for is that the next Broadway season would also have a lot of spaces for creators of color," Gaines said.

Jim Beckerman is an entertainment and culture reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access tohis insightfulreports about how you spend your leisure time,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:beckerman@northjersey.com

Twitter:@jimbeckerman1

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Broadway in 2021 will 'have so many Black voices.' Theatergoers, pros say it's about time - NorthJersey.com