''Me and Bessie'' is a

musical revue ''Musical Revue'' is a live album featuring Prince Far I and Suns of Arqa released on ROIR Europe in 1988. The album was produced by Phil Rainford and features a live recording of Prince Far I with Suns of Arqa at Band on the Wall in Mancheste ...

about the life and career of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

singer

Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1892 – September 26, 1937) was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was t ...

. The basically one-woman show, conceived and written by

Will Holt Will Holt (April 30, 1929 – May 31, 2015) was an American singer, songwriter, librettist and lyricist. He was known first and primarily as a folk performer during the 1950s, when he made early and influential recordings of such songs as " Sinn ...

and

Linda Hopkins Linda Hopkins (born Melinda Helen Matthews; December 14, 1924 – April 10, 2017) was an American actress and blues and gospel singer. She recorded classic, traditional, and urban blues, and performed R&B and soul, jazz, and show tunes. ...

and performed by Hopkins, features songs by

Lil Green Lil Green (probably born Lillie May Johnson; December 22, 1901 (some sources give 1905, 1910 or 1919) – April 14, 1954) was an American classic female blues singer and songwriter. She was among the leading female rhythm and blues singers of th ...

, Clarence Williams,

Henry Creamer Henry Sterling Creamer (June 21, 1879 – October 14, 1930) was a popular song lyricist and theater producer. He was born in Richmond, Virginia, and died in New York. He co-wrote many popular songs in the years from 1900 to 1929, often collaborat ...

Andy Razaf Andy Razaf (born Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo; December 16, 1895 – February 3, 1973) was the American lyricist of such well-known songs as " Ain't Misbehavin'" and " Honeysuckle Rose". He was also a composer, poet and vocalist. Biograph ...

, and

Jimmy Cox James Cox (July 28, 1882 – March 3, 1925) was an American vaudeville performer, and songwriter famous for his Jazz Age hit, " Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out", written in 1923 in the wake of the 1920–1921 economic depression. Jimmy ...

, among others. It originally was presented at

Ford's Theatre Ford's Theatre is a theater located in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1863. The theater is best known for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box where ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

from November 1–17, 1974, then produced by the

Center Theatre Group Center Theatre Group is a non-profit arts organization located in Los Angeles, California. It is one of the largest theatre companies in the nation, programming subscription seasons year-round at the Mark Taper Forum, the Ahmanson Theatre and th ...

and staged by

Robert Greenwald Robert Greenwald (born August 28, 1945) is an American filmmaker, and the founder of Brave New Films, a nonprofit film and advocacy organization whose work is distributed for free in concert with nonprofit partners and movements in order to educ ...

at the

Mark Taper Forum The Mark Taper Forum is a 739-seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center designed by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles. Named for real estate developer Mark Taper, the Forum, the neighborin ...

from April 4 through May 3, 1975. The

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

production was directed by Greenwald, with special dance sequences choreographed by Lester Wilson for two characters, identified only as Man and Woman (Lester Wilson and Gerri Dean). Howlett Smith and

Lenny Hambro Leonard William Hambro, known as Lenny Hambro (October 16, 1923 – September 26, 1995), was a journeyman jazz musician who played woodwinds, primarily alto saxophone, with a host of bands, orchestras, and jazz notables from the early 1940s thro ...

were co-Musical Directors. Donald Harris was responsible for scenic design. Following two previews, it opened at the Ambassador Theatre on October 22, 1975. It transferred to the Edison Theatre on December 3, 1975 and remained there until December 5, 1976, running for a total of 453 performances. Between September 24 and its closing, it ran in

repertory A repertory theatre, also called repertory, rep, true rep or stock, which are also called producing theatres, is a theatre in which a resident company presents works from a specified repertoire, usually in alternation or rotation. United Kingdom ...

with ''

Oh! Calcutta! ''Oh! Calcutta!'' is an avant-garde, risqué theatrical revue created by British drama critic Kenneth Tynan. The show, consisting of sketches on sex-related topics, debuted Off-Broadway in 1969 and then in the West End in 1970. It ran in ...

'' ''In and Around Town'', a weekly critical guide for entertainment in ''

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

'', included a capsule review for ''Me and Bessie'' that read, "The raw fervor of Linda Hopkins's blues singing is all that matters here, and it's enough. Unfortunately, the show is also burdened with a silly script by Will Holt, which consists mostly of having Miss Hopkins disavow the fact that she's Bessie Smith with all the fervor of a Kennedy disavowing politics." However, in 2011, Backstage magazine remembered Hopkin's performance as Smith: "It's been 36 years since I saw her in it at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, but she's stayed with me as the definitive Bessie Smith, and of course the cast album plays even more powerfully than Smith's original." Linda Hopkins was nominated for the

Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience The Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience is an annual award presented by Drama Desk in recognition of achievements in theatre across collective Broadway, off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway productions in New York City. The category w ...

but lost to ''

The Norman Conquests ''The Norman Conquests'' is a trilogy of plays written in 1973 by Alan Ayckbourn. Each of the plays depicts the same six characters over the same weekend in a different part of a house. ''Table Manners'' is set in the dining room, ''Living Tog ...

''. The production held the record for the longest-running one-woman show in Broadway history until ''

Golda's Balcony ''Golda's Balcony'' is a play by William Gibson. It follows the trajectory of the life of Golda Meir from Russian immigrant to American schoolteacher to a leader of international politics as the fourth Prime Minister of Israel. Much of its foc ...

'', starring

Tovah Feldshuh Terri Sue "Tovah" Feldshuh (born December 27, 1948) is an American actress, singer, and playwright. She has been a Broadway star for fifty years, earning four Tony Award nominations. She has also received two Emmy Award nominations for ''Holoca ...

, surpassed it by forty performances.

Song list

;Act 1 * "I Feel Good" * "God Shall Wipe All Tears Away" * "Moan You Mourners" * "New Orleans Hop Scop Blues" * "Romance in the Dark" * "Preach Them Blues" * "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" * " T'Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do" * "

Gimme a Pigfoot (And a Bottle of Beer) "Gimme a Pigfoot" is a 1933 song written by Wesley Wilson, probably with Coot Grant, his wife, though she is not usually credited on record labels. It was first recorded by Bessie Smith, and versions have been released by many other artists. ...

" * "Put It Right Here" * "You've Been a Good Ole Wagon" * "Trombone Cholly" * "Jazzbo Brown" * "After You've Gone" ;Act 2 * "

There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight "A Hot Time in the Old Town", also titled as "There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight", is an American popular music, American popular song, copyrighted and perhaps composed in 1896 by Theodore August Metz with lyrics by Joe Hayden. Metz ...

" * "Empty Bed Blues" * "Kitchen Man" * "Mama Don't Low" * "Do Your Duty" * "Fare Thee Well" * "

Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out "Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out" is a blues standard written by pianist Jimmie Cox in 1923 and originally performed in a Vaudeville-blues style in the aftermath of the 1920–1921 U.S. economic depression. A later 1929 recording b ...

" * "Trouble" * "The Man's All Right"

References

External links

{{ibdb title, id=3761 1974 musicals Broadway musicals Plays for one performer Monodrama Cultural depictions of blues musicians Biographical musicals about musicians