LACKAWANNA BLUES

BY: PROVOKR Editors

Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s new Broadway play, LACKAWANNA BLUES, is the rarest of all events: a feel-good night out with soul. Never saccharine, always specific, Santiago-Hudson’s one-man show also never has a dull moment in its tight 90 minute run time. Watching Santiago-Hudson reenact all twenty or so roles in the play by himself is watching a storyteller at the height of his powers unravel the kind of world that can seem impossibly out of reach these days: a world where kindness, loyalty, and generosity rule the day, and where being a good person matters more than anything else life can throw at you. 

LACKAWANNA BLUES is not a new story, per se. For one, it’s the true retelling of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s own childhood. Santiago-Hudson’s play recounts his time growing up under the firm but tender care of Miss Rachel, or Nanny, as she’s called, the proprietress of a local boarding house. The play illustrates Nanny’s strength of self and goodness, not only to Santiago-Hudson, but also to an extensive cast of characters whom she takes in, often when no one else will. The drifters, hustlers, and lost souls who populate Nanny’s boarding house are treated with care and respect by Santiago-Hudson, but it’s not a somber piece by any means. Instead, the 1956 steel town is allowed to be as joyful, tender, steamy, and teeming with life as it could possibly be. 

 

The play is also not a new story in that it’s already been adapted as an HBO film back in 2005. That film, which boasts a 91% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, was directed by George C. Wolfe, with Halle Berry as one of the executive producers. The film features an excellent blues soundtrack with contributions from the likes of Etta Baker, T-Bone Walker, and Macy Gray, but live music plays an even more important role onstage. 

While theater fans will rejoice to be back in a Broadway house, fans of blues music will likely enjoy the evening out just as much, if not even more so. The stage version of LACKAWANNA BLUES prominently features original music throughout, composed by the late Bill Sims Jr. The music is deftly performed by Grammy nominated guitarist Junior Mack, who was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 2011. Mack is accompanied by Santiago-Hudson himself on the harmonica. Some of the most moving moments of the play are rooted in the blues tradition as well as Mack and Santiago-Hudson’s skilled performances, which feel entirely organic to the world of Lackawanna, NY. 

 

Finally, the set and lighting design both must be praised for the gravitas that they bring to the piece. Set designer Michael Carnahan’s elegantly textured boarding house brick is the perfect backdrop for the nearly otherworldly beauty that is Jen Schriever’s lighting design. The use of color and shadow (including at one jaw-dropping moment of the play) mines for magic in the mundane. Schriever’s design bathes the gritty world of the boarding house in rich blues, sullen purples, and warm golds that have to be seen live to be believed. 

LACKAWANNA BLUES opens October 7th at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Tickets are available via Manhattan Theatre Club. For those outside of New York City, a special playlist curated by the playwright featuring the blues that inspired the mood of the show is available here.