“That’s what’s the matter with you all, you satisfied sitting in one place. You got to move on down the road from where you sitting.”
Chicago 1927. The city where you keep out of Al Capone’s way while you listen to Louis Armstrong. While Prohibition-era speakeasies dispense illicit hooch and rip-roaring jazz, a bunch of musicians sit around a recording studio, chewing the fat while they await the arrival of Blues legend, Ma Rainey. What do they talk about? Just the usual stuff: family histories, racism, love, the meaning of life. And, in wildcat trumpeter Levee’s case, the burning desire to change the world with his music.
Company
Cast Alan Cooke, Barry McCormick, Chipo Chung, Cornelius Macarthy, Ewin Cummins, Louis Emerick, Melanie La Barrie, Nicholas Beveney, Paul Regan & Vincent Marzello
Director Gemma Bodinetz
Musical Director Akintayo Akinbode
Designer Bruce Macadie
Lighting Designer Natasha Chivers
Sound Designer John Leonard
Voice and Dialect Coach Terry Besson
Fight Director Paul Benzing
Costume Supervisor Brian D Hanlon
Writer August Wilson
Reviews
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
“Melanie La Barrie as Ma sings gloriously (and provides a storming acting performance)”
Daily Post
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
★★★★
"Gemma Bodinetz’s evocative, handsomely acted revival"
The Guardian
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
"Gemma Bodinetz allows the story to tell itself, her understated production switching convincingly between the two worlds, straddling the divide between the money-making bosses and the music making workers”