Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
#1Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Posted: 12/28/20 at 10:50amI just watched the film version of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" and was blown away. I did some googling and completely forgot that Whoopi played the role on Broadway in '03. Did anyone see the production? I'm especially interested to hear how Whoopi was
#2Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Posted: 12/28/20 at 10:57amI can’t believe that was almost 17 years ago. I remember liking Whoopi much more than a lot of other people did at the time and thought Dutton was phenomenal. I think I remember talk of the show being filmed but that never happened which disappointed a lot of people.
dramamama611
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/4/07
#3Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Posted: 12/28/20 at 11:29amI saw it, too...and my thoughts are similar to Jordan's, thoughts Whoopi was strong, but it was Dutton that impressed me more.
If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it?
These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.
#4Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Posted: 12/28/20 at 3:46pm
We recall Dutton as being really good, and Whoopie as being disappointing. But the whole show had pretty much faded from our memories. The only thing we actually remembered of the plot was Ma Rainey insisting her stuttering nephew get to be on the record, and her strong relationship with Dussie Mae that seemed toned down in the film
#5Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Posted: 12/28/20 at 10:58pm
I am surprised there is some love for Ma Whoopi. I really found it a dud performance.
tmdonahue
Understudy Joined: 2/15/18
#6Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Posted: 12/29/20 at 8:21am
I saw this revival. Hadn't seen the script earlier. I thought Whoopi was dull and seemed tired. (Perhaps she was tired on the day I saw it.) The scenes with all her musicians were the opposite: alive, observant, involving.
#7Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Posted: 12/29/20 at 10:47am
Whoopi certainly has the chops to deliver a great performance, but that didn't happen here. She played a heightened version of herself and winked to the audience. I thought Dutton, too, was mostly acting the memory of his earlier triumph. A shame, since on paper, the idea of an over-the-hill Levee is potentially compelling.
Whoopi called out often and her standby, Ebony Jo-Ann, was much better in the role.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
Owen22
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/24/11
#8Whoopi - "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".
Posted: 12/31/20 at 5:27am
HogansHero said: "I am surprised there is some love for MaWhoopi. I really found it a dud performance."
I completely agree. Although I didn't much like Theresa Merritt in the role either.
Videos