According to Genius.com, producer The Dream wrote that he recorded an entire, unreleased album with Beyonce prior to 2011 LP 4. “We did a whole Fela album that didn’t go up,” Terius Nash (his real name) wrote in a lengthy annotation to the lyrics of “End Of Time.” “It was right before we did 4. We did a whole different sounding thing, about twenty songs,” he continued. “[Beyonce] said she wanted to do something that sounds like Fela. That’s why there’s so much of that sound in the ‘End of Time’.”

Beyonce’s connection to the music is more than just as a casual fan; her husband, Jay-Z, was one of the producers of the musical, and former member of Destiny’s Child, Michelle Williams, was Sandra Isadore in the national tour.

A bit of backstory; Fela! is a musical with a book by Bill T. Jones and Jim Lewis, based on music and lyrics by the late Nigerian singer Fela Kuti, and is based on events in the life of groundbreaking Nigerian composer and activist Fela Anikulapo Kuti. It portrays Kuti in the days when he was the target of 1,000 government soldiers assigned to end his public performances at the legendary Lagos nightclub The Shrine.

In Fela!, according to producers, “audiences are welcomed into the extravagant, decadent and rebellious world of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Using his pioneering music (a blend of jazz, funk and African rhythm and harmonies), and explores Kuti’s controversial life as artist, political activist and revolutionary musician.”

The Broadway production received eleven 2010 Tony Award nominations and won Best Choreography, Best Costume Design of a Musical, and Best Sound Design of a Musical.

Watch a part of FELA! below. Also check out Beyonce’s Grown Woman video to see how some of the influences spilled over into the album that came after 4.

The post In The Vault: Beyonce’s FELA! Inspired Album appeared first on Broadway Black.

Raven Symone & Chester Gregory In Sister Act The Musical

In 2012, Symoné took on the role of lounge singer-turned-nun Deloris Van Cartier (famously played by Whoopi Goldberg in the film of the same name), who witnesses a murder and is put in protective custody in a convent.  Disguised as a nun, she finds herself at odds with both the rigid lifestyle and an uptight Mother Superior. Using her unique dance moves and singing talent to inspire the choir, Deloris breathes new life into the church and community, but in doing so blows her cover.

In the Broadway production, the role was originally played by Patina Miller, who earned a Tony Award nomination; Sister Act was also nominated for Best Musical and Best Featured Actress in a Musical.  In an interview with Huffington Post, Symoné said she fell in love with the musical the moment she saw it. “I was definitely one of the audience members dancing in the aisles.  I think it’s a wonderfully scored and directed and written musical. I’m very excited to be part of this.”  She concluded by saying, “I’m really not the kind of person who worries about every single review. My thing is my family’s going to watch, and I don’t want to look stupid on stage. So I’m going to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Sister Act ultimately ran for a little over a year on Broadway, to largely positive and enthusiastic reviews.

The post A Look Back: Raven-Symoné in Sister Act The Musical appeared first on Broadway Black.

Everyone thinks of The Wiz as an iconic production; the music, casting, and conceptualizing of The Wizard of Oz from a classic movie to an urban tale has been so successful that it’s storyline is practically woven into our collective consciousness. However, the Broadway production of The Wiz was nearly a disaster when it first opened.

A bit of background; in 1972 Ken Harper came up with the idea to modify the classic movie “The Wizard of Oz” to a black musical. Twentieth Century Fox became interested in the idea, and after Harper presented the idea, Fox signed on. In exchange for first option for film rights, publishing rights and album rights, they agreed to put up an ante of $650,000 with a 20 percent overcall. Shortly afterward, Harper brought on Geoffrey Holder as costume designer (who eventually became the director), 16 year old Stephanie Mills as Dorothy, and 18 year old Hinton Battle as the Scarecrow.

Once The Wiz opened in New York, the show only grossed $46,000 in previews (and the weekly production cost was $67,000); things were so bleak that on opening night a closing notice was posted backstage. The reviews after opening night were mostly negative, but Fox allowed the production to continue for another month, provided that ticket sales increased on weekends.

A radio and television booking blitz followed, and word of mouth started to build. The result? A week later, The Wiz sold out the Saturday matinee, and Fox decided to add $120,000 in advertising money. The decision was made to do a television commercial, which was a novelty at the time. The $30,000 commercial featured the song, “Ease On Down the Road,” and within another two weeks after the commercial aired, every performance sold out.

As we now know, The Wiz won seven Tony Awards, has been seen all over the world, and turned into a movie; later this year, there will be a live presentation on NBC, with Stephanie Mills playing the role of Aunt Em, and will be presented as a Broadway revival for the 2016-2017 season.

Ease On Down The Road and watch this video from the original Broadway musical below.

SOURCE

The post The Wiz: The Musical That Almost Wasn’t appeared first on Broadway Black.

John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) was a Florida born composer who is best known for his song Lift Every Voice and Sing which went on to be known as the “Black National Anthem”. His brother, James Weldon Johnson, penned the lyrics. The two brothers travelled to New York City in 1899 to pursue a life in show business where they met composer Bob Cole (1868-1911). Cole had already seen some success with the vaudeville group, Black Patti Troubadours, and with his first creative partner, Billy Johnson; but an end to that relationship saw Cole in need of a new collaborator.

Cole and the Johnson brothers created their own vaudeville act in 1901 in which they performed their original compositions and dances. These shows led to the wildly successful song, Under the Bamboo Tree. The royalties from their songs and vaudeville shows gave them the means to produce something on a larger scale. In 1906, The Shoo-Fly Regiment, an all-black operetta, debuted on Broadway. The two wrote, produced, and starred in the show, and did the same two years later in The Red Moon. Cole and Johnson collaborated on many more songs and projects until Cole’s death in 1911.

Johnson went on to star in more Broadway productions such as Porgy and Bess and Cabin In the Sky, as well as compose hundreds of spirituals and musical theater songs. These type of creative ventures were prevalent in the early age of Broadway, especially among the underrepresented in the theater. The work of Bob Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson inspired the Harlem Renaissance, the Golden Age of Broadway, and the appreciation of the theatrical tradition; for this, we celebrate them.

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