Black musical dissed by CBS racism
By Monica Moorehead
At the annual Tony ceremony where awards are presented to
the best shows on Broadway, it is standard policy to show
segments from the five new musicals nominat ed. This year,
however, there was one glaring omission.
At 10:45 p.m. on June 6, the all-Black cast of the
critically acclaimed musical "Ain't Nothin' But the Blues" were
told by CBS producers that the program's time limit was about
to expire. Millions of viewers were prevented from seeing their
four-minute musical number.
Live award shows like the Oscars and Tonys have a history of
exceeding their time allotments, but that has never stopped
them from going overtime. Why the exception this time?
The producers and performers of "Blues" were understandably
angered and disturbed by such a blatant act of insensitivity on
the part of CBS's white producers. The producers should have
had the foresight to make sure the "Blues" segment was
presented as a highlight of the show, not as a potential
victim--especially because of the musical's subject matter.
"Blues" explores the roots of blues as an important
expression of the African American musical art form. Another
nominated musical, "The Civil War," presented actors singing
and parading the racist Confederate flag. Three of the
nominated musicals, including "The Civil War," are scheduled to
be closed.
Ron Taylor, a producer and Tony-nominated performer of
"Blues," announced that CBS will be the focus of a six-figure
lawsuit. Part of the lawsuit will demand that "Blues" producers
be reimbursed for the six-figure amount that each musical pays
to CBS in order to appear on the Tony Awards. As a "gesture"
toward the "Blues" omission, CBS scheduled the "Blues" segment
on the June 9 "Late Show with David Letterman." This did very
little to ease the pain of the "Blues" producers.
Eric Krebs, another "Blues" producer, said: "In a year of
problematic musicals, clearly we would have had a major boost
from national exposure. Much of our strategy as to how to
promote the show was based on this national broadcast reaching
audiences interested in the musical theater."
"Blues" is barely breaking even at the box office because it
takes millions of dollars to produce a musical. The fact that
"Blues" has Black producers as well as actors makes generating
funding that much harder. Unlike big-budget and highly
publicized musicals like "Annie Get Your Gun" and "Fosse,"
"Blues" has to rely on a lot of word-of-mouth promotion.
Irene Gandy, the only Black female publicist in the
Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers, told the
New York Amsterdam News: "It is blatant racism. They did it to
Smokey Joe's Café and Rollin' on the TOBA"--two other
Black musicals.
Likening the snub of "Blues" to the police brutality cases
of Abner Louima and Amadou Diallo, Gandy went on to remark:
"It's no different. They put a plunger in Black creativity and
gave us 41 reasons why Blacks should not be seen on prime
time."
Another example of the Tony show's racism was the lack of
Black actors, female and male, as presenters.
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