Jag-Tig
Member
A kaleidoscope is the best way to describe HBO's "Lackawanna Blues," the pulsating
new film executive produced by Halle Berry and adapted from Ruben Santiago-Hudson's 2001 play about his 1950s upbringing in a New York boarding house.
***** "As I got older, I realized how special it was," says Santiago-Hudson, who
based the original play on his childhood spent in the Lackawanna, New York boarding
house run by Rachel "Nanny" Crosby, who took him in as a toddler when his wayward
parents proved too unstable. "As a child, you get taunted a lot. You live in a room in a house with a bunch of crazy people, you get taunted. So I didn't realize how special it was. And Nanny always told me as a child, 'You're special. You're going to
be something. You can be something.' Everybody in that house, the little bit of
themselves was the best [thing] they gave to me."
***** Santiago-Hudson's coming-of-age journey anchors the film's wide-ranging
portrait of a golden age gone by.* But when the era's rich music is added to the mix,
the movie rockets to another level, offering viewers ? well ? a kaleidoscope of
characters, music and history that has rarely been celebrated on the small screen.
***** S. Epatha Merkerson takes on the pivotal role of Nanny, a welcome departure from the Broadway vet's long-running character on NBC's "Law & Order" as the no-nonsense Lieutenant Anita Van Buren.
***** "There are certain things Van Buren does every week. It's constant and
consistent," says Merkerson. "And every now and then, you get to see a little quirk
in her, a little sense of humor. But basically, she tells the guys what to do, they
go do it, and if they come back wrong and it pisses her off, she goes after them.
Basic. ["Lackawanna"] * was the opportunity of my career. At 51, with hot flashes, I
got to play this part. It was absolutely liberating to laugh and to cry and to really
think about what a person is doing, and, on top of that, to do that justice.* It was
a grand opportunity. And you know, you will never see Van Buren dancing like Nanny.
It just won't happen."
***** The colorful cast of drifters, dreamers, eccentrics and lost souls who pass in
and out of the boarding house offer the film loads of unbridled energy. Among the
film's talented cast is Delroy Lindo as Mr. Luscious, who recounts to Ruben how he
lost his left arm by defending a woman's honor after being insulted by a white man;
Louis Gossett Jr. as Lem Taylor, a one-legged castoff plucked out of a psychiatric
hospital; Rosie Perez as Bertha, Nanny's fiery hairdresser; Mos Def as a charismatic
bandleader; and Jeffrey Wright as reclusive tenant Small Paul. Liev Schreiber and
Kathleen Chalfant also star as two white social workers who visit the boarding house
to evaluate whether Jr. should continue to live with Nanny.
***** "A lot of the actors in the movie I've worked with either as a director
directly or as a producer at the Public Theater," says the film's director George C.
Wolfe. "Jeffrey, Mos, Adina Porter, Rosie Perez ? I've worked with Liev Schreiber,
Kathleen Chalfant in "Angels in America" on stage. A lot of them were my friends and
a lot of them were Ruben's friends."
***** In fact, it was one of Ruben's good friends who was instrumental in bringing
the adapted project to HBO.
***** "Halle [came] in early on with me trying to place this film someplace to get
people's attention to watch it," he says. "People didn't know Ruben Santiago-Hudson
in the wide realm, I guess, so I needed a voice and I needed a champion.* And that's
when Halle came in and said, 'Well let me get the people to see it. If they see it,
it will be done' And she's the one that put me in the forefront to have the powers
that be see it. * And from then on in, I said once you turn that over to me, I'll
bring in the director and I'll flip it over to him and then we roll."
***** Once the project was flipped to Wolfe, there was the matter of Ruben letting go
of his baby, so to speak. The story he had written, produced and portrayed alone on
the stage would now be in Wolfe's hands.
***** "When I knew that George would direct it, it was easy to turn it over to him
and trust him, because the same sensibility as I have, the same integrity I have
about my community and my people, he [has]," said Santiago-Hudson. "And anything I
respect him. He brings dignity and nobility to it.* So I felt very comfortable and
very safe."
***** With a score by Grammy Award winner Meshell Ndegeocello, the music of
"Lackawanna Blues" serves as another character in the cast. Its importance to
Santiago-Hudson's childhood in the boarding house is reflected in the soundtrack,
which includes Mos Def singing rousing renditions of "Caldonia" and "Destination
Love," will be available in stores Feb. 8 via Vanguard.
***** "Mos Def called and said, 'I want to be in the movie,'" recalls Wolfe with a
smile. "I said, 'Well, can you sing?' He said, 'Yes, I can sing.' I said, 'Well go
get "Caldonia" and you'll have to sing it.' So I came home from scourting locations
and I had three messages. And one was Mos [singing], 'Caldonia! Caldonia!' He sang
the song on my cell phone. I said, 'Okay, you got the role.'"
***** "In the stage show there's a lot of music, most of it blues, but it spans the
realm of African-American culture," notes Santiago-Hudson. "We have gospel. We have
jazz. We have rhythm and blues. We have blues.* The research was there in my life in
that rooming house on the jukebox and in listening to Mr. Tom Wright and Natchez
McClatchett and the people in that rooming house."
***** Halle Berry hopes her role as an executive producer on the project will bring
in fans who would've otherwise passed on tuning in tomorrow night.
***** "Maybe through their association with me, many of them might get introduced to
George Wolfe for the first time because they are not that versed in theater and they
don't realize the icon that he is.* Just because they don't know about this town and
they don't know about this music and they don't know about a woman like Nanny and a
rooming house that a man like Ruben could grow up in, I think it makes me feel good
to take them to a place that they've never been."
** "Lackawanna Blues" debuts Saturday at 8 p.m.* Other HBO playdates: Feb. 15 at 9
p.m.; Feb. 20 at 10:30 p.m.; Mar 5 at 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.; Mar 8 at 3:30 p.m. and
midnight. * HBO2 will rerun the film on Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 27 at 12:30 p.m.
and 8 p.m.
new film executive produced by Halle Berry and adapted from Ruben Santiago-Hudson's 2001 play about his 1950s upbringing in a New York boarding house.
***** "As I got older, I realized how special it was," says Santiago-Hudson, who
based the original play on his childhood spent in the Lackawanna, New York boarding
house run by Rachel "Nanny" Crosby, who took him in as a toddler when his wayward
parents proved too unstable. "As a child, you get taunted a lot. You live in a room in a house with a bunch of crazy people, you get taunted. So I didn't realize how special it was. And Nanny always told me as a child, 'You're special. You're going to
be something. You can be something.' Everybody in that house, the little bit of
themselves was the best [thing] they gave to me."
***** Santiago-Hudson's coming-of-age journey anchors the film's wide-ranging
portrait of a golden age gone by.* But when the era's rich music is added to the mix,
the movie rockets to another level, offering viewers ? well ? a kaleidoscope of
characters, music and history that has rarely been celebrated on the small screen.
***** S. Epatha Merkerson takes on the pivotal role of Nanny, a welcome departure from the Broadway vet's long-running character on NBC's "Law & Order" as the no-nonsense Lieutenant Anita Van Buren.
***** "There are certain things Van Buren does every week. It's constant and
consistent," says Merkerson. "And every now and then, you get to see a little quirk
in her, a little sense of humor. But basically, she tells the guys what to do, they
go do it, and if they come back wrong and it pisses her off, she goes after them.
Basic. ["Lackawanna"] * was the opportunity of my career. At 51, with hot flashes, I
got to play this part. It was absolutely liberating to laugh and to cry and to really
think about what a person is doing, and, on top of that, to do that justice.* It was
a grand opportunity. And you know, you will never see Van Buren dancing like Nanny.
It just won't happen."
***** The colorful cast of drifters, dreamers, eccentrics and lost souls who pass in
and out of the boarding house offer the film loads of unbridled energy. Among the
film's talented cast is Delroy Lindo as Mr. Luscious, who recounts to Ruben how he
lost his left arm by defending a woman's honor after being insulted by a white man;
Louis Gossett Jr. as Lem Taylor, a one-legged castoff plucked out of a psychiatric
hospital; Rosie Perez as Bertha, Nanny's fiery hairdresser; Mos Def as a charismatic
bandleader; and Jeffrey Wright as reclusive tenant Small Paul. Liev Schreiber and
Kathleen Chalfant also star as two white social workers who visit the boarding house
to evaluate whether Jr. should continue to live with Nanny.
***** "A lot of the actors in the movie I've worked with either as a director
directly or as a producer at the Public Theater," says the film's director George C.
Wolfe. "Jeffrey, Mos, Adina Porter, Rosie Perez ? I've worked with Liev Schreiber,
Kathleen Chalfant in "Angels in America" on stage. A lot of them were my friends and
a lot of them were Ruben's friends."
***** In fact, it was one of Ruben's good friends who was instrumental in bringing
the adapted project to HBO.
***** "Halle [came] in early on with me trying to place this film someplace to get
people's attention to watch it," he says. "People didn't know Ruben Santiago-Hudson
in the wide realm, I guess, so I needed a voice and I needed a champion.* And that's
when Halle came in and said, 'Well let me get the people to see it. If they see it,
it will be done' And she's the one that put me in the forefront to have the powers
that be see it. * And from then on in, I said once you turn that over to me, I'll
bring in the director and I'll flip it over to him and then we roll."
***** Once the project was flipped to Wolfe, there was the matter of Ruben letting go
of his baby, so to speak. The story he had written, produced and portrayed alone on
the stage would now be in Wolfe's hands.
***** "When I knew that George would direct it, it was easy to turn it over to him
and trust him, because the same sensibility as I have, the same integrity I have
about my community and my people, he [has]," said Santiago-Hudson. "And anything I
respect him. He brings dignity and nobility to it.* So I felt very comfortable and
very safe."
***** With a score by Grammy Award winner Meshell Ndegeocello, the music of
"Lackawanna Blues" serves as another character in the cast. Its importance to
Santiago-Hudson's childhood in the boarding house is reflected in the soundtrack,
which includes Mos Def singing rousing renditions of "Caldonia" and "Destination
Love," will be available in stores Feb. 8 via Vanguard.
***** "Mos Def called and said, 'I want to be in the movie,'" recalls Wolfe with a
smile. "I said, 'Well, can you sing?' He said, 'Yes, I can sing.' I said, 'Well go
get "Caldonia" and you'll have to sing it.' So I came home from scourting locations
and I had three messages. And one was Mos [singing], 'Caldonia! Caldonia!' He sang
the song on my cell phone. I said, 'Okay, you got the role.'"
***** "In the stage show there's a lot of music, most of it blues, but it spans the
realm of African-American culture," notes Santiago-Hudson. "We have gospel. We have
jazz. We have rhythm and blues. We have blues.* The research was there in my life in
that rooming house on the jukebox and in listening to Mr. Tom Wright and Natchez
McClatchett and the people in that rooming house."
***** Halle Berry hopes her role as an executive producer on the project will bring
in fans who would've otherwise passed on tuning in tomorrow night.
***** "Maybe through their association with me, many of them might get introduced to
George Wolfe for the first time because they are not that versed in theater and they
don't realize the icon that he is.* Just because they don't know about this town and
they don't know about this music and they don't know about a woman like Nanny and a
rooming house that a man like Ruben could grow up in, I think it makes me feel good
to take them to a place that they've never been."
** "Lackawanna Blues" debuts Saturday at 8 p.m.* Other HBO playdates: Feb. 15 at 9
p.m.; Feb. 20 at 10:30 p.m.; Mar 5 at 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m.; Mar 8 at 3:30 p.m. and
midnight. * HBO2 will rerun the film on Feb. 17 at 8 p.m. and Feb. 27 at 12:30 p.m.
and 8 p.m.
