A vivid, impressionistic portrait of legendary jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton, the original 1992 Broadway production of Jelly’s Last Jam secured national recognition for writer/director George C. Wolfe (Shuffle Along, Angels in America), as well as nine Tony nominations, three wins, and a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book.
Now, visionary director Robert O’Hara (A Raisin in the Sun) takes up the mantle of this wildly imaginative show that interrogates the self-declared “inventor of jazz” in a purgatorial afterlife, accusing him of denying and denigrating his cultural legacy. With showstopping numbers like “That’s How You Jazz” crafted by lyricist Susan Birkenhead (Working) and composer Luther Henderson from Morton’s own music, Jelly’s Last Jam captures the profound contradictions behind the artist’s explosive talent. Brilliantly utilizing two of this country’s most potent forms of storytelling—jazz and musical theater—Jelly’s Last Jam weaves a complex fable of American history, legacy, and truth.
Playing the bejeweled angel, Porter is, well, Porter: flamboyant, loud and often downright obnoxious. In the beginning, he nearly wipes the stage with Christopher, who enters with his back to the audience and doesn’t seem to know that he’s being radically upstaged. Fortunately, there’s genius in that approach to playing Morton, who never seems to care what we think of him. Porter demands our attention, Christopher earns it in a slow-burn performance that ends in Morton’s grand self-immolation.
The book has unsolvable problems, but then so do most musicals, until they are solved — or bulldozed. Even then, few give you a first act like this one, or a subject — the creation of American music in the furious cauldron of race — as hot. I mean hot as entertainment, of course, but also, even hotter, as history.
1985 | New York |
Workshop New York |
1991 | Regional (US) |
World Premiere Regional (US) |
1992 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2006 |
Alliance Theatre Production |
|
2024 | Off-Broadway |
Encores! Concert Revival Production Off-Broadway |
Videos