From the information on Jean DuShon page
"Jean was called back to New York to replace the ailing Ruth Brown three weeks before the Broadway opening of the musical, "Blues in the Night" co-starring Leslie Uggams. DuShon received rave reviews from the likes of Frank Rich of the New York Times who said "Miss DuShon is sassy, yet elegant" and from Clive Barnes who called her "indelibly randy" had great things to say about her performance. Others felt that she made history while singing Bessie Smith's "Wasted Life Blues". Audiences gave her standing ovations, the same way they had with Jennifer Holliday's "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going". It was an astonishing performance prompting The Princeton Town Topics to say, "Our nominee for star of the evening is Jean DuShon...she is not only a gifted singer but a gifted actress whose songs are not simply sung, but performed." The Spectrum reported, "The show-stopper is Jean DuShon...hers is a bravura performance which brings down the house".
"Blues in the Night" was so good, it was nominated as best musical of the year at the Tony Awards against "Cats". Strangely, the producers of the show did not push to get DuShon a best actress in a musical nomination which could have saved the show from closing after six months."
All the above is true!!! I saw Blues in the Night many times during the New York run. It played at the Rialto, a theatre that was torn down years later during the 42nd Street renovations. It was on Broadway between 42nd & 43rd Streets. The year was 1982 and I had just come back to New York from my time on the road with Sesame Street Live. I was living off my savings and going to the Equity office every day. They give out free theatre tickets (I've mentioned this in the past) to union members so I saw Blues many times. I thought it was wonderful. I agree with the person in the above paragraph, but the show did not get across the board great reviews. The performers were singled out, like Miss DuShon and Leslie Uggams and Debbie Shapiro before became Debbie Shapiro Gravitte. She (DuShon) was riveting. Her performance of Wasted Life Blues was a heart stopping moment. What a piece of work. I also saw the show in London with Carol Wood. It was much better received in London than in New York and ran much longer, closer to two years. I saw it on the road with Miss Della Reese and I saw it when it came back to New York after the London run. It played at the Minetta Lane Theatre and had a short, ultimately unsuccessful run. I sound like a Blues groupie but all during that time I was friends with the director of the show, Sheldon Epps. He will be directing a new version of Purlie, the musical in San Diego (I belive) and they hope to bring it to New York sometime in the fall or winter.
During that summer of 1982 I also saw Torch Song Trilogy many times (also for free) with the amazing Mr. Harvey Fierstein and his understudy, Jonathan Hadary. And I saw one of Mr. Nathan Lane's first Broadway performances with Mr. George C. Scott in Present Laughter (a Noel Coward play). It was done at Circle in the Square when that space was still a subscription theatre. I remember laughing until it hurt. Christine Lahti was also in that show. Ah, the memories of 1982.
Kerry, thanks for the mention of dear Mr. DangerMouse
Michael, what a great Web page for Larry! Good work, my friend. I will look at the page more closely tomorrow at work where I have high speed.
Now I want to post this before something happens since I've been writing it forever.
Later.
