Unmade Black Projects

The following black experience-related film and stage projects proposed by black entertainers were mentioned in the press but so far they have not been made:

1. Spike Lee (director)--A biopic about the 1938 boxing rematch between Joe Louis and Max Schmeling; A film adaptation of Porgy and Bess.

2. Barry Jenkins (director)--A biopic about the choreographer Alvin Ailey.

3. Jon Batiste (musician/composer)--A Broadway musical based on the life of the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat.

4. Alicia Keys (singer/pianist)--A biopic about the biracial piano prodigy Philippa Schuyler, whose father was the Harlem Renaissance writer and critic George Schuyler.

5. Jesse L. Martin (actor)--A biopic about the R & B singer Marvin Gaye.

Carol Channing's Secret Racial Heritage

"In her 2002 autobiography, 'Just Lucky I Guess,' Ms. [Carol] Channing," wrote the New York Times,"revealed that when she was 16 her mother told her that her father was part black;she kept her racial heritage a secret, she wrote, for fear that it would be bad for her career."(Carol Channing, who died recently at age 97, was a Broadway musical star. She is best known for her role as Dolly Levi in Hello, Dolly.)

I wonder if  Carol Channing had ever been approached by professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. to appear on his public television series Finding Your Roots to discover more about her father's side of the family.

Carol Channing Entered A Look-Alike Contest

Film critic Jeffrey Lyons, on WCBS News Radio Eight-Eighty in New York, told the story of the time Broadway star Carol Channing, who recently died at age 97, entered a drag queen Carol Channing look-alike contest and won third place.

Rod Serling's Rejected Teleplay

Rod Serling's daughter, Anne, wrote a foreword to Mark Dawidziak's Everything I Need to Know I Learned in the Twilight Zone (Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin's Press). It's a fascinating self-help book that reveals the life lessons to be learned in various episodes of The Twilight Zone, Serling's iconic science-fiction/fantasy television series that ran on CBS from 1959 to 1964.

Ms. Serling writes that the 1955 murder of  the Chicago teenager Emmett Till in Mississippi "profoundly affected my father." So much so that he wrote a television script called Noon on Doomsday, "his first attempt," she further writes, "to tell the story and it was turned down by the sponsors who were afraid it might offend their southern customers."

Lately there have been live telecasts on network TV of musicals such as Peter Pan and Hairspray. Wouldn't it be wonderful if one of the networks decided to air a live telecast of Rod Serling's rejected teleplay? It's probably as relevant today as it was back then.

Should "Hidden Figures" Be Turned Into A Broadway Musical?

 It came as no surprise when I read via the Los Angeles Times website (January 24, 2017) that Allison Schroeder, the co-screenwriter of Hidden Figures, is "eager to turn [the film] into a musical." Something told me that would be the next version presented to the public.

 I can see the film as a stage play or as a graphic book. But as a story told through singing and dancing, that's hard for me to picture. To me that would degrade and trivialize the monumental achievements and sacrifices of the African American female mathematicians who worked at NASA.

Alex Haley's Proposed Musical

In Alex Haley and the Books That Changed A Nation (St. Martin's Press, 2015), Robert J. Norrell has written that during the time Haley (1921-1992) was preparing The Autobiography of Malcolm X for publication, he "had an idea for a musical about black life, which he called 'The Way.' In 1961," continued Norrell,"Haley had gotten to know Lena Horne, who had starred in Cabin in the Sky, and Haley's musical bore some similarities to that film. Haley's musical would be set in a cosmetics factory run  by a black executive who was surrounded by several stereotyped characters, including a hipster, a white racist, and a black racist. Alternating black and white choruses would sing 'Camptown Races,' with the black group performing spirituals in black dialect. [Paul] Reynolds [Haley's literary agent] called the idea 'very, very interesting.'"

How long before some Broadway producer will learn of Haley's proposed musical and want to put it on the stage? And what will the public and the critics say about it once that happens? Will black audiences see it as an embarrassing minstrel show or a hard-hitting and insightful lampooning of race relations in America? Stay tuned.

Talking (Briefly) To The Uncola Man

I heard about actor/choreographer Geoffrey Holder's death at the age of 84 during a radio newscast. (I think it was NPR.) Listening to his Paul Robeson-like deep voice (with a Caribbean flavor) as an excerpt from one of his 7-Up "Uncola" commercials was played, reminded me of the only time I got a chance to speak to him. It was at a Broadway revival of  The Wiz (which he choreographed). This would be about thirty years ago. As I headed for my seat, I told him that I wanted to interview him. His odd response was, "Yes, but not right now." I never got to do the interview.

A few years later, I saw Holder and his wife, dancer Carmen de Lavallade, getting out of a car in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan. Our eyes met, but I kept on walking.

An Unpublished Interview With Ben Bagley

I have an interview I did with the late record producer Ben Bagley at WBAI-FM in New York. It was recorded in 1977 and was never broadcast. I hope to transcribe the interview for publication in this blog and/or in one of the New York-based newspapers or magazines. Bagley (1933-1998) produced several record albums of music by Broadway composers such as Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, and Cole Porter. These recordings were released on his Painted Smiles label.

Turning Movies Into Broadway Musicals

Broadway has turned several movies into musicals: Rocky, The Bridges of Madison County, La Cage Aux Folles, Bullets Over Broadway, The Color Purple, etc. I'm waiting to hear the news that Spike Lee's 1989 movie, Do the Right Thing will be turned into a musical.

A Peek Behind The Broadway Curtain

The "[r]atings for [NBC's Smash] writes New York Daily News TV critic Richard Huff, " are not smashing" but nevertheless it's "a neat little drama." I totally agree. I learned of the series about the making of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe in an interview featuring playwright Theresa Rebeck on WNET/Channel 13's Theater Talk.

While discussing Rebeck's play Seminar, co-host Michael Riedel of the New York Post mentioned that she created Smash. I decided to check out the show and became instantly a fan.

Amid a plethora of shows about cops, lawyers, and doctors, Smash is a welcome relief.

There's plenty of sex (gay and straight), backstabbing, professional setbacks, prima donna moments,etc. And the show is filmed on location in New York City, which is a big plus for me.There's no doubt the show is a hit with at least one demographic--gay theatre buffs. Although I haven't been to the theatre in years, I'm still intrigued by all of the backstage goings-on.

Despite its disappointing ratings, I'm hoping the show will last another season. If it does, it will have a better chance of appearing in reruns on Logo or some other gay-oriented channel.