Paradise Blue
Dominique Morisseau heads to the Signature Theatre!
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This new play is perhaps the finest new play of the year, certainly of the summer thus far, and probably just the best of the season.
The Berkshire Edge, 2015 world premiere review
Dominique Morisseau heads to the Signature Theatre!
Dominique Morisseau heads to the Signature Theatre!
Playwright Dominique Morisseau makes her Signature Residency debut in spring 2018, with a period drama that examines the hidden, and human cost of urban gentrification in Detroit, marking the latest part of her cycle of plays about the city. First premiering at the Williamstown Theatre Festival in 2015, Morisseau's jazz-infused drama was helmed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who returns to directing duties for this Signature engagement and starred Blair Underwood as the trumpeter lead, Blue, who dreams of a better life.
Taking place in 1949, the city of Detroit is on the verge of transformation. Known for its deep roots in jazz music, the old clubs are closing up shop and moving away, leaving the area free for regeneration. The hero of the story, Blue, is a gifted trumpeter and owner of the Paradise jazz club, a now-failing establishment. Choiced with selling up and rebuilding his life elsewhere, or staying put and hoping for change, he finds that his lover, Pumpkin has her own dreams to fulfill, and that the resident band will have nowhere to go.
But then the arrival of a glamorous and mysterious woman on the scene throws everything into chaos; for Blue, and for everybody else. Will this stranger with the walk that won't quit be a blessing, or a curse for the neighbourhood?
Francois Battiste
Kristolyn Lloyd
Simone Missick
J. Alphonse Nicholson
Keith Randolph Smith
Written by Dominique Morisseau
Directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
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