You may recall back in October when Burnt Sugar did a two-night run of this look at James Brown’s life and music up at the Apollo. Those were two sold-out shows and an amazing experience overall. Think of it as the James Brown version of Fela in that there’s music, dancing, multimedia projections and acting. In fact, it’s Tony Award nominee Brandon Victor Dixon (who will soon star as Ray Charles on Broadway) in the titular role. When I saw him perform, I assumed that he was lip syncing, so convincing were his renditions of James’ songs! But, no, that was Brandon all the way. Talk about inhabiting a role!
What was also cool was that the show didn’t entirely depend on one person. Greg Tate judiciously drew from the Burnt Sugar ranks for a variety of performers to add their own interpretations of James’s iconic songs, including vocalists such as Luqman Brown, Imani Uzuri, Shelley Nicole and Karma Mayet Johnson. In fact, Karma now owns completely “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World”. Hopefully, you’ll get to see her do it again.
Anyway, tix are $15 in advance, $20 at the door and $25 for limited premium seating.
More info here at the Le Poisson Rouge site.
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