The Piano Lesson - Let's keep this August Wilson ball rolling!

by Nathaniel R

Netflix announced yesterday that the next adaptation from August Wilson's Century Cycle will be his second Pulitzer winner The Piano Lesson. For those who thought Ma Rainey was way too stagey... well, you're not in luck! It's way too early to know how this will pan out given the pandemic and Broadway having been closed so long but this one is sticking even closer to the stage in a sense. The current plan is for Samuel L Jackson,  Danielle Brooks (yay!!!) and John David Washington to play the central roles (and uncle and his niece and nephew) in the Broadway revival in 2022 and then go directly into filming the movie version when they're done. Having seen Danielle Brooks on stage in The Color Purple trust that Orange is the New Black barely scratched the surface of what she can do so this is exciting news for her fans.

The play, which centers on the theme of family legacies, is about a brother and sister in conflict over what to do about a family heirloom which has been connected to the family since the days when their great grandparents were slaves...

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Yes No Maybe So: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

by Nathaniel R

Chadwick heading for a posthumous Oscar nod?

How about them songs I give you?

Netflix is trying the shotgun approach this year by releasing one buzzy potential Oscar contender after another. Perhaps they felt emboldened by landing two (The Irishman, Marriage Story) of the nine Best Picture nods last year and coming close to a third with The Two Popes.  Of course no studio ever has only hits but they've already released Da 5 Bloods, i'm Thinking of Ending Things, The Boys in the Band, and Da 5 Bloods and still to come are The Prom, The Life Ahead, Pieces of a Woman, The Midnight Sky, Hillbilly Elegy, and tonight's topic: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom so they'll probably do well this year with an overall nomination tally. How many actual Best Picture contenders is a more difficult question.

About Ma Rainey...

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First Images: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom"

by Nathaniel R

Look, it's the first images from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, based on the August Wilson play of the same name. It's part of his Pittsburgh Cycle of 10 plays documenting the African American experience (with each of the ten plays set in different decades). Denzel Washington is planning to produce all 10 (2 down, 8 to go... how many more will Viola get to star in?). Ma Rainey's... is set in the 1920s and stars Viola Davis as the singer Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman as her trumpeter Levee (the two 'star' roles in the show) and involves a very heated recording session and fights therein. The costumes you see here are by the indefatigable four-time Oscar nominee Ann Roth, who is still doing great work regularly at 88 years of age...

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Is Viola in "Fences" a lead? Or is her "Rose" a supporting player by choice?

Scarlett & Viola won the supporting & lead actress Tonys in 2010. Now Viola is headed for a supporting trophy (for the same role) by Lynn Lee

If it’s Oscar season, there must be category fraud lurking somewhere.  This year most of the debate has centered around Viola Davis, whose barn-burner of a performance opposite Denzel Washington in Fences is a virtual lock ...for supporting actress gold.  There’s little doubt the decision to go supporting was driven by the perception that lead actress would be a much tougher road in an especially competitive year.  Still, it’s such a powerhouse turn that many Viola fans are justifiably frustrated by what looks like a cynical lack of faith in both her and the Academy.

And yet, having previously read the play and seen it performed on stage – though not the production that starred Viola and Denzel – I can’t help wondering if this is as open-and-shut a case of category fraud as it appears.  In terms of the weight and magnetism of Viola’s performance, it feels like a lead role.  But the way the role is written, as August Wilson conceived it, I think is a closer call...

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Washington's August Wilson Deal

Manuel here with some big Denzel Washington news. While talking at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, Washington revealed he has signed a deal with HBO to bring all ten of August Wilson’s plays to the screen. Yes, all ten!

More...

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