“I’ve been doing a lot of research on great women in music,” says Roz White. “And what they had to deal with, as far as the industry was concerned, was only one small piece of it. Around them, their world was literally crashing and burning because of people’s hatred. And so, to still be able to sing, and to still be able to make people laugh or evoke happy emotion or hope, is a power I think we possess that we sometimes take for granted.”
White pays tribute to five persevering predecessors in a new cabaret presented as part of Signature Theatre’s annual “Sizzlin’ Summer” series. Resist: A Revolutionary Cabaret highlights Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Alberta Hunter, Abbey Lincoln, Roberta Flack, and Nina Simone. “I basically become each woman as I’m telling their story, and give you a little insight into their thinking during the time of their heyday.”
Over the past decade, White has done just that, often at Alexandria’s MetroStage. In 2008, she co-wrote and starred in that theater’s superb Pearl Bailey…By Request. “All of these women endured great hardships,” she says, “[and] each one was revolutionary in the music industry as well as just in pop culture in general.” Tharpe, for instance, was “basically kicked out of the church because she played the guitar and rock-and-roll,” and Lincoln rejected being a sex symbol by wearing “Afrocentric clothing and covering up more, to make people really listen to her music.”
White’s cabaret will also touch on progress made over the last century. “I want to show how women in the industry had to go from an image being imposed on us to taking control and empowering ourselves and creating our own image,” says White, adding that it’s a general lesson that the newer generation could stand to learn.
“We’ve got to teach younger people how to fight and how to resist. It’s not about throwing things and burning things and destroying things, it’s about building.” It’s also not relying on social media and technology to provide answers.
“Somebody doing a live feed [from] their living room saying, ‘Black Lives Matter’ is a huge difference [from the] effort that went into these women being able to have a voice. We didn’t have the technology. It was a lot more work, a lot more legwork, a lot more resist. We had to push through.” –Doug Rule
Roz White’s Resist: A Revolutionary Cabaret is Saturday, July 8, at 9 p.m., in Signature Theatre’s The Ark, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Tickets are $35, or $175 for an All-Access Pass to the Series, which starts Wednesday, July 5, and runs to Sunday, July 22. Call 703-820-9771 or visit sigtheatre.org for a full schedule.
Back in May, just after our 31st anniversary, I asked readers which of four classic cover interviews from our early years they'd like to see in print again: Greg Louganis (March 9, 1995), Sir Ian McKellen (Jan. 25, 1996), Camille Paglia (Feb. 1, 1996), or Eartha Kitt (Nov. 14, 1996). None of these conversations exist online, and they haven't been seen since their original print dates.
Out of more than 200 responses, 8% chose Paglia, 27% picked Louganis, 29% went for McKellen, and an impressive 36% cast their vote for Kitt.
Kitt, who passed away in December 2008, seemed a fitting choice to revisit. A pop culture icon for her turn as the second Catwoman (following Julie Newmar) on the late-1960s, camp-classic TV series Batman, she was slated to appear at Washington's legendary jazz nightclub Blues Alley when we spoke.
The marvelous cast of Signature's musical Play On! kick up their heels and sing up a storm in a vivacious new production staged by Lili-Anne Brown. Originally conceived by Sheldon Epps, with a book by Cheryl L. West, the three-time Tony-nominated musical employs a bevy of jazz and blues standards by D.C.'s own Duke Ellington, laced through a romantic comedy plot inspired by Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
Turns out, the Bard and the Duke complement each other well. Twelfth Night's tale of a cross-dressing waif embroiled in a convoluted matchmaking scheme cuts a fine figure upon which to hang Play On!'s 1940s backstage romance set amongst the all-Black cast and crew at Harlem's storied Cotton Club.
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