Inspired by Dr. Kings famous 1967 speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time To Break Silence” which was performed at Harlem’s Riverside Church, MLK Now featured historic speeches by many civil rights leaders performed by some of today’s hottest actors and Broadway Black stars — including Actor and Civil Rights Icon Harry Belafonte, Actor and Comedian Chris Rock, Oscar-Winner Octavia Spencer, Tony Award Winner Lin-Manuel Miranda, Actors Michael B. Jordan and Tessa Thompson, Tony Award Winner Anika Noni Rose, Andre Holland, Condola Rashad and Adepero Oduye.

It was said by the host, Ryan Coogler that the original artist of “Be Free,” J. Cole was unable to perform his own song because it was too painful. So, when Ryan Coogler introduced the performance and said that Anika Noni Rose would be singing the song, we fell out. Watch the entire performance below.

We will include more performances from this event as they become available.

Anika Noni Rose – Be Free

Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Beyond Vietnam” read by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Shirley Chisholm’s Presenditial Campaign Announcement of 1972 read by Condola Rashad

India.Arie – I Am Light

We’ve uploaded a few of our favorite performances & speeches but there is so much more to see & witness. Watch the entire event or skim thru it below! Don’t forget the great speech by Harry Belafonte at the 2:55:00 mark.

The post Anika Noni Rose Sings Be Free By J. Cole + #MLKNow Performances appeared first on Broadway Black.

This year is the 40th Anniversary of The Wiz and we are so thankful that NBC has been showing respect in so many great ways. The newest of ways is in the People.com web exlcusive. You’ll see Stephanie Mills & Shanice Williams along with Broadway musical director Zane Mark. As Mark plays the piano, the two amazing talents duet and sing “Home” with such ease and grace it will blow your mind. We also love that a “Sing, Shanice!” was thrown in there because we were saying the same thing on our end. This is just a piece of heaven.

Stephanie Mills, who was the original Dorothy in the Broadway production of The Wiz in 1975 and for the revival in 1984, will play Aunt Em in NBC’s live production of the musical December 3.

Watch Mills & Williams sing “Home” from The Wiz in intimate performance below. 

The post When Dorothy Meets Dorothy: Stephanie Mills & Shanice Williams Duet “Home” From The Wiz appeared first on Broadway Black.

We previously talked about a run of Head of Passes at Berkeley Repertory Theatre to rave reviews back in May starring Cheryl Lynn Bruce. So, we’re so excited that Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad has signed on and that this new mounting is a co-production with Berkley Rep. Joining her in the cast of the nine person play includes Alana Arenas (Cookie), Francois Battiste (Aubrey), Kyle Beltran (Crier), and J. Bernard Calloway (Spencer). This is something you do not want to miss. The show is being billed as follows:

Tarell Alvin McCraney, MacArthur Award-winning playwright of the acclaimed Brother/Sister Plays, has written a poetic and contemporary parable inspired by the Book of Job. At the mouth of the Mississippi River, Shelah’s family and friends have come to celebrate her birthday and save her from a leaking roof, but unexpected events turn the reunion into the ultimate test of faith and love. As her world seems to collapse around her, Shelah must fight to survive the rising flood of life’s greatest challenges. 

PHYLICIA RASHAD (Shelah) was last seen at The Public in The Story by Tracey Scott Wilson in 2003, as well as in Helen in 2002, and Everybody’s Rudy in 1999. She is a versatile performer who became a household name when she portrayed “Claire Huxtable” on “The Cosby Show,” a character whose appeal has earned numerous honors and awards for over two decades. While television was a catalyst in the rise of Rashad’s career, she has also been a force on the stage, appearing both on and off-Broadway, often in projects that showcase her musical talent such as Jelly’s Last Jam, Into The Woods, Dreamgirls, and The Wiz. As a dramatic actress, Rashad has appeared on Broadway in August Osage County, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (also West End), Gem Of The Ocean (Tony nomination), A Raisin in the Sun (Drama Desk and Tony Awards) and Cymbeline. She appeared in Tyler Perry’s Good Deeds, and starred in Perry’s highly acclaimed film version of Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When The Rainbow Is Enuf. She made her directorial debut at the Seattle Repertory Theater with August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean and has directed works at The Ebony Repertory, Kirk Douglas Theatre, Westport County Playhouse, Mark Taper, Longwharf Theatre, and the McCarter Theatre. Rashad has received numerous honorary doctorate degrees and awards for excellence both in theater and television.

The post Phylicia Rashad Will Star In Tarell Alvin McCraney’s Head Of Passes at The Public Theater appeared first on Broadway Black.

For some, it was the 90’s cult classic Songs For A New World, a series of songs connected by the theme: “making a decision.” More specifically, Tony Award winner Billy Porter‘s character in the production gave hope to many Black men, instilling confidence that a voice like theirs can be heard on Broadway. He is the reason some fell in love with this art. Before he was Lola in Kinky Boots, Billy Porter was Man 1. And now, 20 years later, his voice can be heard on the original demo for the opening number.

Porter, known for skillfully marrying the likes of soul and belt, was part of this special project from the beginning. Porter was unable to record the Songs for a New World cast album because of contractual obligations and was replaced by Ty Taylor. For the first time, Brown has released the original demo for the opening number from the show that features Billy Porter along with Andrea Burns and Brian d’Arcy James.

Deservedly so, Tony Award-winning composer and lyricist, Jason Robert Brown (The Bridges of Madison County) is celebrating 20 years of transforming many into lovers of this beautiful art we call musical theatre. 20 years ago, Songs for A New World opened off-Broadway. Brown released a note on his blog talking about Songs for a New World, the relationships he made from the show and how they’ve transformed over the 20 years.

Twenty years is a long time, and it feels like it, actually. I saw Andréa, Brooks, Billy and Jessica just four days ago at a reading of Prince of Broadway and we are all profoundly different than we were back then, and yet we are still connected, bound by this marvelous mad adventure we had. Songs for a New World was my first professional show. And it was glorious.

“I’ve posted (for the first time) the original demo recording of the opening sequence of the show – all twelve minutes of it! – featuring four amazing singers who did so much to shape the sound of the show. Andréa Burns and I had known each other since summer camp in the 80s, and Billy Porter sang during my shifts in the piano bar at Don’t Tell Mama when he would finish his performances in Miss Saigon” – Jason Robert Brown

Here’s a bonus recording. 3 years ago Jason Robert Brown released a demo of Billy Porter Singing “The Steam Train”

“Billy is one of the greatest singers in the world; I say that with no hyperbole intended. From the first time I heard him (when he came into Don’t Tell Mama’s on a night I was working the piano bar), I knew that he was a rare and magnificent creature, a phenomenal musical imagination couple with an extraordinary instrument. And he is a formidable actor as well, intensely emotional and committed and funny and just generally wonderful. What’s he is not, however, is a basketball player from the projects. The staging originally included some rudimentary dribbling and shooting – that was cut very quickly. When we handed Billy the basketball in rehearsal, he held it like it was a wet schnauzer.

But, for all of its ludicrousness, I can’t help loving it. Here’s my fake “street” song about a sport I never watch sung by someone who looked as much like Michael Jordan as I look like Chris Hemsworth. And all of that notwithstanding, I still think it’s awesome.”

Listen to The Steam Train below. Read the entire backstory here 

The post Songs For A New World Demo with Billy Porter Released appeared first on Broadway Black.

Wayne Brady is no stranger to the stage. He is probably best known for his role on the improv comedy series “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” but he appeared in the hit musical Chicago as Billy Flynn back in 2004. He later played Collins in a Neil Patrick Harris directed production of RENT at the Hollywood Bowl in 2010. He also starred in a production of Kiss Me Kate at the Pasadena Playhouse last year. So he’s pretty well equipped for the challenge that is “Lola,” it seems.

“I’m thrilled to join the Kinky Boots family and unleash my inner Lola,” says Brady. “It’s the role of a lifetime! Billy and his prodigious talent have left some pretty big red boots for me to fill. Starring in a Broadway show of this caliber has been my dream since I started performing at age 16. I’m ready to jump in with both feet!”

“Wayne Brady is a wonderful triple threat. I first had the pleasure of working with Wayne on a Disney film and have been a fan ever since,” adds Kinky Boots director Jerry Mitchell. “Like Lola, he has the sass, the voice and the heart and we cannot wait to see him strut his stuff when he joins the Kinky Boots family!”

Kinky Boots is a British film turned Broadway smash hit about Charlie Price who is the owner of a failing shoe factory. However, he soon finds that Lola, a sassy drag queen, has the answer to save his factory. It’s a wonderful musical, truly enjoyed by the whole family.  This is a great role for Brady. Like he said, he’s got some big boots to fill. The musical score was created by Cyndi Lauper and the book by Harvey Fierstein.

This photo is credited to Joan Marcus and was first seen on Vanity Fair. Accompanying the photo was a article that discussed several things, including Wayne Brady’s drag name. Her name is Cinnamon de Bergerac and she will be appearing in L.A. really really soon, he says. Brady wants to try out the alter ego before heading to Broadway. In the interview he also says:

“I’ll really be going in, and making something of it. After we did our photo shoot, I saw some of the proof pictures. And I’ve gotta say, while I won’t be winning any beauty contests, I definitely think that I’m a very attractive Lola—and you don’t see any of Wayne Brady there, you definitely see Lola.”

Read the entire article HERE

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Perhaps that was a bit of foreshadowing of what was to come. It’s absolutely fitting that Brady teamed up with the one and only Wilkie Ferguson, the superbly talented pianist and mastermind behind the wildly popular HipHopMusicals web series. The description of the series on the official Twitter page keeps it short and sweet,

We take your favorite Hip Hop songs and redo them in a way you never imagined!

Ferguson, whom we previously wrote about as a musical theatre composer to watch for, has collaborated with the likes of Broadway performer and American Idol contestant Frenchie Davis and stage, film and television actor Thomas Hobson for his creative reworkings of current Hip Hop chart toppers. 

So just what happens when you put Wayne Brady and Wilkie Ferguson together? A hilariously groovy and soulful rendition of Rihanna’s epic bad girl rant BBHMM.

Ferguson has been getting all kind of buzz for his remixes and we cannot get enough!

Woo! RT @hiphopmusicals: Hiphopmusicals has been praised by USA Today and now Billboard Magazine! #hiphopmusicals http://t.co/eUIKENZT6G

— Thomas Hobson (@TommyHobson) July 16, 2015

The Hip Hop Musical series is certainly worth a subscription and we can’t wait to see what Ferguson comes up with next! With whom would you like to see him collaborate?

The post Wayne Brady & Hip Hop Musicals Bring Us #BBHMM by Rihanna appeared first on Broadway Black.

Now, we say that it’s surprising because if you haven’t been closely watching George’s career then you would have no idea that he is no stranger to the theatre. Like, at all. He has actually done some great works that include a range from Shakespeare to Suzan Lori-Parks. Need more details? Yeah. We did, too. It’s actually quite impressive but we’ll hold out to see his work in January before we make any judgements. Below you’ll find his bio. (Oh, & FYI George is also the husband of Taj George who is known as 1/3 of hit R&B group SWV)

Eddie George makes his Broadway debut in Chicago following stage appearances in such works as Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man (Nashville Repertory Theatre), Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog(Amun Ra Theatre) and in the title roles of both Othello and Julius Caesar at the Nashville Shakespeare Festival. His transition to the stage completes the journey that he began following the conclusion of his NFL playing career, which saw him providing commentary and analysis for the Tennessee Titans and FOX’’s college football coverage. George won screen time in such TV series as NBC’’s “American Dream Builders” and in such films as “Best Man Holiday” and “The Game Plan.” Since then, George has worked to refine his craft onstage, including not only the credits indicated above, but also work with his Nashville-based theatrical troupe, Actors By George, which he founded in 2012. Eddie George won the Heisman Trophy in 1995 while playing for the Ohio State University. That honor served as the prelude to a nine-year career in the NFL, which saw him lead the Tennessee Titans to Super Bowl XXXIV and selected to the Pro Bowl for four consecutive years, finishing his career with the Dallas Cowboys under legendary coach Bill Parcells. Since the conclusion of his playing career, George has additionally received his MBA from Northwestern University and founded Edward George Wealth Management Group. He resides in Nashville with his wife of 11 years, Tamara Johnson, and his family. He is on the board of the Tennessee Performing Arts Center in Nashville.

We previously reported that reality television star NeNe Leakes would be joining the show as well. However, she will join as “Matron ‘Mama’ Morton” and will complete her run before George joins in January. So, it’s a good reason to see the show at the end of the year and at the beginning, it seems.

With a legendary book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb, Chicago is now the #1 longest-running American musical in Broadway history. The winner of six 1997 Tony Awards including Best Musical Revival and the Grammy Award for Best Musical Cast Recording. Set amidst the razzle-dazzle decadence of the 1920s, Chicago is the story of Roxie Hart, a housewife and nightclub dancer who murders her on-the-side lover after he threatens to walk out on her. Desperate to avoid conviction, she dupes the public, the media and her rival cellmate, Velma Kelly, by hiring Chicago’s slickest criminal lawyer to transform her malicious crime into a barrage of sensational headlines, the likes of which might just as easily be ripped from today’s tabloids.

The post NFL Legend Eddie George Will Join Chicago Musical In January appeared first on Broadway Black.

Joining them in the middle of rehearsal, Winfrey greeted stars Cynthia Erivo and Danielle Brooks before joyfully joining the beaming cast to sing the title song around the piano.  Once the song was over, the group instantly erupted in cheers and applause, having professionally waited to finish singing before giving in to their fandom. Watch the clips HERE:

@oprah just surprised our cast at #rehearsal! #OWN #Broadway #Theater #TheColorPurple

A video posted by The Color Purple (@bwaycolorpurple) on Oct 15, 2015 at 12:04pm PDT

@Oprah joins in on the song! #OWN #TheColorPurple #Theater #Broadway @daniebb3 @iamjhud @cynthiaerivo A video posted by The Color Purple (@bwaycolorpurple) on Oct 15, 2015 at 12:35pm PDT

Cheers erupt as our cast finishing rehearsing with @oprah. #OWN #Broadway #TheColorPurple #Oprah #Theater

A video posted by The Color Purple (@bwaycolorpurple) on Oct 15, 2015 at 1:59pm PDT

Unexpected blessings!! @bwaycolorpurple Mother O!

A photo posted by Danielle Brooks (@daniebb3) on Oct 16, 2015 at 9:31am PDT

“The Color Purple has long been a part of my life. From the first time I read it over 20 years ago until now, I’ve always wanted as many people as possible to experience this story.” – Oprah

The company is merely a month away from previews with opening night set for December 10.  Following rave reviews in London, American fans of the original production are eager to experience director John Doyle’s stripped down revival of The Color Purple as it makes its way to the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre. Joining Erivo as “Celie” and Brooks as “Sophia” are previously announced Jennifer Hudson as “Shug Avery,” Isaiah Johnson as “Mister,” Joaquina Kalukango as “Nettie,” and Kyle Scatliffe as “Harpo.” Rounding out the ensemble are Phoenix Best, Dwayne Clark, Lawrence Clayton, Carrie Compere, Patrice Covington, Adrianna Hicks, Bre Jackson, Grasan Kingsberry, Kevyn Morrow, Ken Robinson, Antoine L. Smith, Carla R. Stewart, Akron Watson and Rema Webb. 

Visit our partner TiqIQ to purchase tickets.

 

Sing, Mama O! @bwaycolorpurple! @oprah in rehearsals! #WeAreBroadwayBlack

 

A photo posted by BroadwayBlack (@broadwayblack) on Oct 15, 2015 at 4:24pm PDT

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It’s no secret that the hit musical Hamilton was inspired by the 1969 Tony-winning musical 1776, he quotes the musical in his hit show, but when it comes to casting the roles have been reversed. In a posted audition notice for the upcoming 2016 Encores concert series, 1776 has specific casting notices citing that “this will be a completely multi-ethnic production.”

The show originally premiered on Broadway in 1969 with an all-white cast, led by William Daniels reflecting the actual ethnic makeup of the “Founding Fathers.” Hamilton did something extraordinary with their take on the founding fathers by choosing to cast primarily actors of color to bring forth this history for modern audiences. Because unlike 1776, in 2015 we’re experiencing diversity like we’ve never seen before. Why can’t our Broadway shows reflect that? And so far it’s working for Hamilton, as it’s easily the hottest new musical of the season.

In the Encores! season announcement, Jack Viertel, Encores! Artistic Director, said in a statement, “1776 is a show we’ve long contemplated doing, but wanted to wait a sufficient amount of time after its successful 1997 revival. This season, with Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton opening on Broadway and dealing with many of the same story elements in a completely different way, we felt it would be an especially enjoyable moment to look at this wonderful show. It may also start a few conversations, which, in the theatre, we always hope to do.”

This new Encores! 1776, which will be directed by Garry Hynes, and music directed by Rob Berman is ready to follow suit with their own multi-ethnic casting. Rehearsals are scheduled to begin March 16, 2016 with previews starting March 30 and opening night set for April 3 at the City Center in New York City.

1776 is set in the halls of Congress, as the founding fathers battle out the question of independence and draft the declaration that will sever their ties to England and give birth to a new nation. John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and their cohorts argue and grandstand through speeches and songs such as “Sit Down, John,” “Cool, Cool, Considerate Men,” and “He Plays the Violin.” 1776 features music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards and a book by Peter Stone.

So what do you guys think? Anybody else excited like I am? Sound off in the comments below!

The post Encores 1776 Takes A Cue From Hamilton With Diverse Casting appeared first on Broadway Black.

According to the creative team, Polkadots: the Cool Kids Musical follows 8-year-old Lily Polkadot who  just moved to the “Squares Only” small town of Rockaway. As the first Polkadot in an all Square school, Lily faces an almost impossible task of gaining acceptance from her peers. After constant bullying from mean girl Penelope, Lily’s quest seems hopeless until she meets Sky, a shy Square boy whose curiosity for her unique polkadot skin blooms into an unexpected friendship. Inspired by the events of The Little Rock 9, Polkadots: the Cool Kids Musical serves as a colorful history lesson, reminding us all that our individual differences make us awesome, not outcasts.

The song, “Sticks & Stones,” is performed by Brittney Johnson (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), who appeared as Lily Polkadot in the industry reading in August 2015. Directed by Amy Anders Corcoran, the cast also featured  Gerard Canonico (Spring Awakening) as Sky Square,  Talia Thiesfield (HBO’s “Veep”) as Penelope Square and Sara King (Hair) as Mrs. Square/Mama Square. Creator Douglas Lyons (Five Points: An American Musical) is the show’s lyricist and co-composed the score alongside Greg Borowsky (Sony ATV). The book is by Melvin Tunstall III (BlooM! the Musical).

Check out a clip of the amazing song below and make sure to download the full thing for yourself on Monday. It will be available via Soundcloud!

UPDATE: It’s HERE!

@sunnybrittney recording “Sticks & Stones” from our demo session today! pic.twitter.com/DEmv2EBjfg

— Polkadots Musical! (@Polkadotmusical) September 9, 2015

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