Description: Conversation sings and swings, bends and bounces and hits heaven smack in the clouds, in the glorious new production of August Wilson’s “Jitney,” In Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s vital revival of a 1982 play only now making its Broadway debut, words take on the shimmer of molten-gold notes from the trumpets of Louis and Miles. How sweet the sound. And how sorrowful and jubilant, as life in a storefront taxi company in an African-American neighborhood in Pittsburgh comes to feel like a free-form urban concerto, shaped by the quick-witted, improvisatory spirit that makes jazz soar. Acted by an impeccably tuned ensemble, this early work from an American master makes you realize how much the New York theater has missed the voice of Wilson, who died in 2005. Their back stories emerge through sly asides, testy debate and those ravishing, aria-like soliloquies for which Wilson is famous. Very little that’s spoken, though, feels merely expository or interpolated. Storytelling is the default mode of speech here; it gives form, substance and almost ceremonial style to existences that might otherwise feel all too tangential. Conversation becomes performance art, and part of the pleasure of watching this peerless cast is the delight its characters take in listening to the others riffing. What they say is often sad and hilarious, angry and resigned in a single breath. And though there’s not a white person in the show — and very little polemical speechifying — you come to see this emotional complexity as a specific response to a white man’s world that thwarts these men at every turn. The play won the 2017 Tony award for Best Revival of a play. This playbill was signed by Harvy Blanks (Shealy), Anthony Chisholm (Fielding), Brandon J. Dirden (Booster), André Holland (Youngblood), Carra Patterson (Rena), Michael Potts (Turnbo), Keith Randolph Smith (Doub), Ray Anthony Thomas (Philmore) and John Douglas Thompson (Becker). This was staged by the Manhattan Theater Club at the Samuel Friedman Theater from December 28, 2016 up to March 12, 2017.
Price: 19.99 USD
Location: New York, New York
End Time: 2025-01-19T02:32:24.000Z
Shipping Cost: 5 USD
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Original/Reproduction: Original
