In Ntozake Shange's powerful mid-'70s "choreo-poem," a group of African-Americans dramatizes the struggles and journey toward self respect experienced by black women in America.
Director and choreographer Camille A. Brown and her cast of seven female singer-dancer-actors breathe life and vitality into Ntozake Shange's still-potent mid-1970s touchstone for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf. Opening tonight at the Booth Theatre on Broadway, Shange's fantasia of poetry, dance and stories of confession, defiance, sisterhood and, above all, perseverance, holds a power that's not been weakened either by decades or the loss of a once startling newness.
This first Broadway revival, at the same Booth Theatre in which it premiered half a century ago, is nominally a transfer from the Public Theatre's excellent 2019 production. In losing Leah C. Gardiner as its director and having choreographer Camille A. Brown step up for double duty, however, it also loses the simple conversational spark that made their collaboration such an electrifying, sanctified experience.
1976 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
1976 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
1976 | Broadway |
Broadway Transfer Broadway |
1979 | West End |
London Production West End |
1980 | Regional (US) |
Regional Revival Regional (US) |
2000 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
2000 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2019 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
2022 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
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