Six Angels Singing the ‘Blues’
The Harlem-set “Blues for an Alabama Sky” finally arrives in New York, with a juicy role that has attracted African-American actresses across the country.
By Kelundra Smith
Pearl Cleage’s drama “Blues for an Alabama Sky” drops the audience into the world of Harlem Renaissance artists after the Champagne has stopped flowing.
They include the tantalizing lounge singer Angel Allen and her roommate, Guy, a confident gay costume designer. Leland, an Alabama transplant, comes to be part of their dysfunctional family of artists, who are grappling with poverty, pregnancy, homophobia and how to create in desperate times.
First presented by Atlanta’s Alliance Theater in 1995, “Blues” has been consistently produced regionally and at universities since, but Keen Company is staging the first major New York production beginning Feb. 4, directed by LA Williams. The show is slated to run through March 14 Off Broadway, at Theater Row.
“These characters have been moving around in New York,” Cleage said by phone recently. “Now they are in New York.”
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