In April 1984, you could see the world premiere of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom at Yale Rep, get dessert afterward at the Brass Button and fly round-trip to New York from Tweed for $39—provided you brought three friends.
We’ve been reading the ads.
With Ma Rainey back at the Rep 42 years later, we opened the original program. There were Theresa Merritt and Charles S. Dutton, playing the formidable blues singer and her ambitious trumpeter, Levee. There was Chicago in 1927, where a recording session becomes a struggle over music, money and who gets the final say.
And then there was also New Haven circa 1984 staring right at us—offering theatergoers something to eat, beautiful things to buy and somewhere to go late into the night.
Advertisements from the 1984 Yale Rep program for
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom:
Ma Rainey, meanwhile, had a future to attend to. From Yale Rep, it moved to Broadway in October 1984, earning three Tony nominations and winning the New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Play. The 2020 film adaptation, starring Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, collected two Oscars. Now, 42 years after its premiere, the play is back where it all began.
Directed by Timothy Douglas, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom runs through October 24 at University Theatre, 222 York Street. Find performance times and tickets here.
Written by Daily Nutmeg Staff. All images are the property of their respective rights holders.
