Director George C. Wolfe's adaptation of playwright August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is
many things.
It's a testament to the power of the blues.
It's a story about artists who refuse to compromise or let social prejudices define them.
It's a showcase for some of the finest actors in Hollywood, and it's full of all the human
drama and excitement you've come to expect from the talent involved.
Here's everything you should know before you watch Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
While the play and film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a fictionalized story about a Blues
singer and her band, Ma Rainey was a real life musician.
During her heyday, Ma Rainey went by many names, but she's remembered as the "Mother
of the Blues," honoring her status as one of the very first Black women to become a
professional blues singer, as well as one of the first blues vocalists whose voice was
immortalized in recordings.
“But they wanna call me Mother of Blues that's alright with me, it don't hurt none.”
In the first five years of her career, Rainey lent her voice to over 100 records, cementing
her legacy as one of the founding matriarchs of the genre and paving the way for the countless
blues, soul, and R&B singers who followed.
While Rainey passed away in 1939, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
in 1990, and is still widely remembered for her flamboyant costumes, her elaborate stage
shows, and her powerful, raw singing voice.
She's also known for frank and evocative lyrics, which didn't shy away from expressing Rainey's
sexuality or her Southern upbringing.
Ma Rainey left some big shoes to fill.
Thankfully, the people behind Ma Rainey's Black Bottom found just the woman to do it:
Viola Davis.
Not only did Davis win an Emmy for Outsanding Lead actress in a Drama Series for her lead
role in How to Get Away With Murder, but she's also intimately familliar with August Wilson's
body of work.
In 2001, she won a Tony Award for her role as Tanya in Wilson's King Hedley II, and earned
another one in 2010 for playing Rose in Wilson's Fences.
She won an Oscar in 2017 for playing the same role in Denzel Washington's Fences movie adaptation.
For Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Davis threw herself into the part, embracing all of Rainey's
quirks and embodying all of her confidence.
"We'll be ready to go in fifteen minutes."
"We'll be ready to go when Madam says we're ready to go, and that's the way it go around
here."
The result is one of Davis' most dynamic, assured, and transformative roles yet - and
given her past work, that's saying something.
Starring in a leading role alongside Davis is Chadwick Boseman, who turns in a very different
performance than his fans may be used to seeing.
While the Marvel Cinematic Universe's King T'Challa is regal and stoic, cornet player
Levee is a livewire, and Boseman puts everything he has on the screen.
"You don't know nothin' about what kinda blood I got, what kinda heart I got beatin' here!"
In addition to Davis and Boseman, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom features The Wire alums Glynn
Turman and Michael Potts and Fear the Walking Dead's Colman Domingo as the members of Ma's
band.
You'll also see Hit the Floor's Taylour Paige as Dussie Mae, Jonny Coyne as the owner of
the recording studio where the drama goes down, Dusan Brown as Ma's nephew Sylvester,
and Better Call Saul veteran Jeremy Shamos as Rainey's manager.
Of course, there'd be no Ma Rainey's Black Bottom without August Wilson.
The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright is best known for a 10-play series called
The American Century Cycle, which focuses on issues the African-American community faced
throughout the 20th century.
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is one of those plays.
So are Fences, The Piano Lesson, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, and plenty of other classics.
Wilson's complex, nuanced, and heartbreakingly realistic stories about the Black experience
made him one of the most important voices in American theater.
While Wilson passed away in 2005, his legacy lives on through revivals of his best-known
plays, as well as film adaptations of his work.
In fact, Wilson was nominated for a posthumous Oscar for the big-screen version of Fences,
which came out in 2016.
In light of that, director George C. Wolfe is the perfect person to bring Ma Rainey's
Black Bottom to the screen.
Not only is Wolfe a critically acclaimed director and playwright - the man has five Tonys - but
he also has a diverse and provocative filmography.
His feature film debut, Lackawanna Blues, is based on a play by Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
screenwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
Meanwhile, his 2008 film Nights in Rodanthe is a romance starring Richard Gere and Diane
Lane.
Finally, while you probably know Ruben Santiago-Hudson best for his performance on ABC's Castle,
the multitalented filmmaker is also an accomplished writer and director.
Not only did he adapt Ma Rainey's Black Bottom for the screen, but he also appeared in Wolfe's
first Broadway show, Jelly's Last Jam, and wrote and starred in the stage production
of Lackawanna Blues.
Put that all together, and you'll find that Ma Rainey is in very, very good hands.
Similarly, it's not much of a surprise to see Denzel Washington credited as a producer
on Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
Over the past few years, Washington has made preserving August Wilson's work something
of a mission.
In 2016, he directed, starred, and produced in the big-screen adaptation of Wilson's Fences
that won Viola Davis her Oscar.
His co-producer on that film, Todd Black, also returns for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
"Times have changed, Troy.
People change.
The world's changing and you can't even see it."
It's hard to imagine a better team bringing Wilson's dynamic play to the screen.
Thanks for watching.
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