Following a screening of DAVID WOJNAROWICZ—A CONVERSATION WITH SYLVÈRE LOTRINGER AND MARION SCEMAMA, Lotringer and AmyScholder will join Hedi ElKholti for a conversation about Scemama’s film and Wojnarowicz’s life and work.*
The film intercuts footage from Lotringer‘s extensive 1989 interview with Wojnarowicz—itself filmed by Scemama—with documents from the artist’s estate and papers, and Scemama’s personal archives.
By the mid-1950s, Nat “King” Cole was one of the biggest singing stars in the world and the most prominent African-American, by far, to host his own television variety show. The Nat King ColeShow aired for just over a year during NBC’s 1956–1957 season and drew only one national sponsor—the makers of Arrid deodorant bought a few months of airtime. The slack was taken up by a number of local alcoholic beverage companies—Rheingold in New York, Regal beer in New Orleans, rotgut Thunderbird in Chicago—who didn’t seem to share Madison Avenue’s fear of a boycott once eyes in the South got a look at Cole sharing the stage with such white, female stars as June Christy, Margaret Whiting, Peggy Lee, Gogi Grant, and the raw and raucous Betty Hutton. (Heads must have exploded across the country when mixed-race couple PearlBailey and Louis Bellson appeared as Cole’s guests in July 1957.)
This is the story from which playwright and actor Colman Domingo and writer-director Patricia McGregor have crafted LIGHTS OUT: NAT “KING” COLE, their short and bracing blend of show-stopping entertainment, social activism, and American Grand Guignol, set on December 17, 1957, the final night of the broadcast.
The drama begins with Cole (DuléHill, a picture of grace under pressure) sitting at his dressing-room table, contemplating his future and enduring the indignity of the studio’s make-up artist (Mary-Pat Green) reluctantly lightening his skin with powder. Visited by memories, hallucinations, and nightmares, Cole is confronted with the question: Will he call out the racism and abuse that were/are a part of everyday life for black men and women in this country, no matter how successful, or will he remain the singer white America loved to listen to, but not share a meal with—smooth, dignified, reserved Nat Cole?*
The angel-devil on Cole’s shoulder pushing him to break out of his shell is the triple-threat Rat Packer Sammy Davis, Jr., played by Daniel J. Watts as a delight of motor-mouth megalomania. Singing, swinging, mugging, telling jokes, imitating Cole, and—midway through the show—joining the headliner in a cathartic tap-dance duel that brought down the house, Davis is Cole’s conscience, a release valve for his eleventh-hour breakdown.
About the showstoppers: In addition to the tap number, the vocalists ZonyaLove (as Cole’s mother) and Ruby Lewis (as Betty Hutton, singing Frank Loesser’s “I Wish I Didn’t Love You So”) nail their big numbers and school the audience in Fifties-style professionalism, and Gisela Adisa brilliantly captures the erotic cheek and wonderful feline absurdity of Eartha Kitt.
Edgar Godineaux is the show’s choreographer, and tap and additional choreography are by Jared Grimes. The tight music and vocal arrangements and orchestrations by John McDaniel live up to those by the legendary Nelson Riddle, portrayed upstage with his live band led by David Witham.**
*Six months before the premiere of his television show, Cole was attacked and beaten on stage in Birmingham, Alabama.
**In addition to Witham on keyboards, Greg Porée plays guitar, Edwin Livingston is the bassist, and Brian Miller handles drums and percussion.
From top: Dulé Hill as Nat “King” Cole in Lights Out—Nat “King” Cole, Geffen Playhouse, 2019; Hill and Daniel J. Watts as Sammy Davis, Jr.; Gisela Adisa as Eartha Kitt; Ruby Lewis as Betty Hutton and Hill; Watts and Hill; Hill. Photographs by JeffLorch.
Join Rafa Esparza and Ron Athey as the two legendary performance artists talk about their work and whatever else comes up on the opening day of Frieze Los Angeles.
From top: Ron Athey in Acephalous Monster, 2018, photograph by Rachel Papo, courtesy Performance Space, New York; participants in Rafa Esparza’s De la Calle parade in downtown Los Angeles, 2018, photograph by Carolina A.Miranda; Esparza, Mas caras y mas gestos performance, July 8, 2016, Made in L.A. 2016, Hammer Museum, photograph by Barbara Katz, courtesy Esparza and the Hammer; Esparza (left) and Athey at Frieze Los Angeles, February 15, 2019, courtesy the artists and Frieze.
Join Glenn Ligon and Hamza Walker for a conversation at Regen Projects, where Ligon’s show UNTITLED (AMERICA)/DEBRIS FIELD/SYNECDOCHE/NOTES FOR A POEM ON THE THIRD WORLD will be up through Sunday.
The exhibition includes the large neon Notes for a Poem on the Third World, which is based on a tracing of the artist’s hands, and the first in a series of works inspired by an unrealized film project by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
From top: Glenn Ligon, photograph courtesy the artist; Glenn Ligon, Notes for a Poem on theThird World (chapter one), 2018, neon and paint; Glenn Ligon, Debris Field (Red) #3, 2018, etching ink and acrylic on canvas; Hamza Walker, courtesy the Renaissance Society, Chicago; Glenn Ligon, Synecdoche (For Byron Kim), 2018, neon. Artwork images courtesy the artist and Regen Projects.
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok
