|
The Hippodrome State Theatre's 1996-97
season will climax with the world premiere of Marion J. Caffey's Cookin'
at the Cookery, an uplifting musical based on the life of blues and
jazz legend Alberta Hunter. Hunter, whose bold and sultry singing style
bridged the gaps between classic blues, hot jazz and cabaret-flavored pop,
was the toast of American and European audiences in the 1920s. Cookin'
at the Cookery transports us to 1911, when a 16-year-old Hunter caught
a northbound train out of Memphis. She arrived in Chicago, a landscape
of hustling, dancing, loving and killing. When musicians mixed them all
up just right, they'd call it ... the blues! In less than a decade, Hunter
made the city her own, performing her songs for poets, gangsters and movie
stars. She sang with Fats Waller, Fletcher Henderson and Louis Armstrong
and earned the adoration of blues luminaries like Bessie Smith who recorded
Hunter's Down Hearted Blues. Cookin' at the Cookery follows Hunter's
meteoric rise to fame and her travels across the United States, to Broadway,
Europe and beyond. In 1928, following a stint in Paris where she performed
on the same stages as Josephine Baker and Jelly Roll Morton, Hunter appeared
opposite Paul Robeson in Showboat at London's Drury Lane theatre.
Her musical career followed an upward spiral of success in British and
American musicals, and Hunter went on to entertain US and British troops
as head of the first black USO in WWII and the Korean War. Hunter retired
from performing in 1956 to begin a nursing career. Twenty years later,
forced to retire from nursing, she returned to the stage. At the Cookery
in New York's Greenwich Village, 82-year-old Alberta Hunter launched a
stellar comeback the likes of which the world had never seen. Cookin' at
the Cookery is an original musical written and directed by playwright/
actor/ director/ choreographer Marion J. Caffey. Caffey, who was last seen
on the Hippodrome Mainstage in Jelly Roll: The Music and the Man,
has performed on Broadway and in Switzerland, Africa, Germany, Italy and
throughout the United States. Cookin' at the Cookery promises to
be a one-of a kind theatrical event! Don't miss this exciting world premiere.
Call 375-HIPP to reserve your seats. .
|
and showtimes.
