Review: Paula Dione Ingram Shines Brightly Celebrating 'Black Broadway' in New York Cabaret Debut at Feinstein's/54 Below

By now, everyone is aware 2016 is one of Broadway's most diverse seasons, so much so it spawned a Twitter trending hashtag #TonysSoDiverse following the nominations for this past weekend's awards ceremony. Going into the night, the two shows up for the most nominations are Hamilton and Shuffle Along, or, the Making of the Musical Sensation of 1921 and All That Followed, and 12 Black and non-Black actors of color were nominated for a Tony Award. For the first time in the Tonys' history, all four musical acting categories were won by Black actors, with Leslie Odom, Jr. (Hamilton), Cynthia Erivo (The Color Purple), Daveed Diggs (Hamilton) and Renée Elise Goldsberry (Hamilton) taking home the statues.

Soprano Paula Dione Ingram (above) is especially aware. In visiting New York, she and her children visited the Theatre District and walked down 45th Street to see "Black Broadway," where Eclipsed, The Color Purple and Shuffle Along, as well as The Lion King, lead by a predominantly Black cast, are all within a block of each other, lighting up the Great White Way.

It's a laudable moment in a theatre history that has not always been so and still continues to have a long way to go, the subject of Ingram's Dark Legacy: Bright Lights of Black Broadway, her debut show at Feinstein's/54 Below on June 4. Directed by Barry Kleinbort (Broadway and the Bard, Big City Rhythm), Dark Legacy is a thoughtful tour that takes you through that "rich and many times dark" history of early Black composers, lyricists, performers and shows on Broadway.

With music from Scott Joplin, Eubie Blake, Noble Sissie and Eddie Green, as well as George Gershwin and Oscar Hammerstein, just to name a few, her set covers the songs that have both made it into the Great American Songbook--songs from Porgy & Bess, Ain't Misbehavin' and Hairspray that get applauded instantly upon recognition--and the songs that have sadly faded into obscurity alike. The unjust fact that so many of these should-be iconic songs from these composers have been lost to time and prejudice mirrors the reception that early Black performers on stage received (and still receive), "adulation on stage versus Jim Crow treatment off-stage," as Ingram describes. But, even if just for this one night, the playing field is equal in her show. Passionate and deliberate, she treats each song with respect, setting the stage, sometimes with an anecdote, sometimes with a history lesson, and putting it on showcase.

Together, Ingram, Kleinbort, and musical director Alex Rybeck have put together a show as smart, sharp and engaging as the star herself. From the first notes of Joplin's "The Entertainer" with Rybeck at the keys, the audience is on board. When Ingram takes the stage with "At The Ball, That's All" from J. Leubrie Hill's My Friend From Kentucky, her stage presence is undeniable and unfaltering. By the instrumental break, the crowd is already completely on her side, snapping their fingers and smiling.

Ingram is no stranger to the stage. She made her London West End debut in Hammerstein's Carmen Jones, a World War II-era update of Georges Bizet's Carmen, in 1991. Her "That's Love", a rewrite of Carmen's most well known aria "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle," makes your regret you missed her performance and was likely worth the price of admission alone. She is a natural and infectious performer, inviting and charming, with a full, bright operatic style. For the upbeat, theatrical songs in the set, she's delightfully flirtatious, directing certain verses throughout her set at men in the audience ("Your kisses are worth waitin' for"), and delivers not personal interpretations but instead full-on performances of each song that couldn't be more thorough if she travelled with full set and costume. Her version of "Nobody" from Bert Williams and George Walker's Abyssinia came complete with white gloves and a top hat in classic tribute to the vaudevillian pair.

And when she shifts into the more melodic, emotional songs, such as St. Louis Woman's "I Had Myself A True Love" and Porgy & Bess's "Summertime," she doesn't lose that character. The latter lullaby, she says, reminds her of singing her own children to sleep and it shows in her rendition, soft and sweet and full of heart.

It would be to nobody's surprise if Ingram has, throughout her career, been influenced at least a little bit by Audra McDonald, or if, at the very least, McDonald rubbed off on her a bit when Ingram attended of Shuffle Along last month. Her delivery and range, particularly when she shifts into her operatic upper register, is often a spot-on imitation of the six-time Tony winner. Her rendition of Shuffle Along's "Love Will Find A Way," where McDonald currently stars, is an exact match, right down to her expressions and gestures.

Her only difference, however, is that she is, unfortunately, not without her pitch issues, typically on the opposite ends of her range. It's most prevalent on her own "You Are My Friend," a sweet but simple song sung for her late father. Where some of the greatest moments of Ingram's set were those like the final notes of her Carmen Jones number and throughout Ragtime's "New Music," those where her upper register has been full and open, she is unfortunately pinched and restrained her, as well as at other times she switches styles, like she's uncertain of what the next note is despite having penned it herself.

But highs versus lows, upbeat versus melodic, Paula Dione Ingram refuses to let you forget the message. She answers the question, "What's in a legacy?" with rightful reverence, pride and indignation, simultaneously, balanced perfectly. If it's the first time you've heard names like Shelton Brooks and Kurt Weill, she makes sure it's not the last, all while taking jabs at White writers like Gershwin and Hammerstein's forays into "the Black experience" and rightfully calling out the blackface performances of Sophie Tucker and so many others as "the darkest brick in the legacy," prior to launching into her own rendition of "Some Of These Days."

Like Shuffle Along coming full circle and making it back to Broadway, or Cabin in the Sky getting its most complete concert adaptation in the past few months at New York City Center, having this collection of songs showcased in one form or another, no matter how brief a run, is a much welcomed delight. In one of her personal anecdotes weaved into her set, Ingram discusses how, singing at church, she realized how important and universal music is because of the way it makes you feel on the inside, having the ability to transcend cultures and bridge gaps. Dark Legacy is the perfect embodiment of that sentiment with Ingram as its beacon.

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