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Ella
Fitzgerald, the subject of Jackie Taylor's latest biographical musical
for the Black Ensemble Theatre, never got any formal vocal training.
But as her legions of fans well recall, they didn't teach her superlative
diction, three-octave range and staggering ability at improvised scat
vocals in any conservatory -- even if she could have found one that
would have let her enroll.
Taylor's "Ella: The First Lady of Song (The Ella Fitzgerald Story)"
is a rather quieter show than this exuberant theater usually delivers.
Both cast and band are smaller. This is partly because Black Ensemble
has many of its usual, first-rank personnel occupied with the upcoming
national tour of "The Jackie Wilson Story." It's partly because
Fitzgerald made her mark doing Cole Porter, Irving Berlin and the Gershwins,
rather than high-energy rhythm and blues.
And it's also a consequence of her unusual biography.
Such is the appalling legacy of racism in the American music industry
that the musical biographies of African-Americans who worked from the
1940s to the 1960s almost invariably contain tales of discrimination
at venues and thievery by white studio executives. Many of these figures
also had their share of personal demons to battle. That all makes for
good drama.
And nothing every came easy for Fitzgerald -- a child of the Colored
Orphan Asylum in Riverdale, N.Y., and, as a youngster, a victim of abuse.
But nobody stole money from her as an adult, and her professional life
was marked by such a single determination to sing that she was accepted
by the white establishment long before her peers. Instead of the usual
guys in suits, the main (and unsexy) antagonist in Taylor's show is
Fitzgerald's declining health -- she had a long struggle with the diabetes
that eventually contributed to her death in 1996.
One wishes that Taylor had dug deeper into this remarkable woman's psyche.
Partly because Fitzgerald is played here by
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three
women (and there are only two other cast members, along with a couple
of dancers), she remains a shadowy and elusive figure with too little
outside context.
But there's nothing wrong with the music under Cortez D. Sims' direction.
Dividing Fitzgerald's career into thirds, Evelyn Danner, Ava Logan
and Marilyn Grimes all play Ella -- differently, but well. Danner
captures the insouciance of "A Tisket a Tasket"; Logan has
the right vulnerability for "Someday He'll Come Along";
and Grimes, who deservedly gets the last act to herself, handles the
scatting in the Fitzgerald version of "Mack the Knife" and
offers a splendid, sensual version of "My Funny Valentine."
It's a full and diverse treatment of the First Lady of Song's remarkable
catalog, built over seven decades. And for many of the clearly thrilled
members of Black Ensemble's audience, it's all they came to hear.
By Chris Jones
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