3 Black women bring 1950s 'Memphis' to the Twin Cities

It's a blue moon rarity. A creative team headed by three Black women is putting on a homegrown version of the Broadway musical "Memphis."

Director Aimee K. Bryant, choreographer Leah Nelson and music director Ginger Commodore are forging new paths in Twin Cities theater.

"When I got the phone call from Aimee, I quickly dropped the phone and picked up my calendar to see how I could make this work," said Commodore, jazz vocalist of Moore by Four. "I was excited to even be considered."

Composed by David Bryan, a founding member of Bon Jovi, with book by Joe DiPietro, "Memphis" tells the story of a white disc jockey, Huey Calhoun, who falls in love with Felicia Farrell, a Black singer. The character is inspired by real-life Memphis DJ Dewey Phillips, one of the first whites in 1950s segregated Tennessee to play music by Black artists. The show won four Tonys in 2010, including best musical.

We met with the three women and here are edited excerpts of that conversation.

Q: All of you raised your eyebrows at first about doing this show. Why did you hesitate? Nelson: The [milieu] of the show is Memphis in the 1950s, which could be compared to Rhodesia in the 1970s, when I came of age. A Black woman is beaten and loses her ability to have a child. That's the story that this show tells. And we never see the perpetrators.

Bryant: The content of the story and the juxtaposition of the music creates a lot of dissonance for us, particularly because the creators of this piece are all white men. And the main character of the story about Black culture is this white man. So, it has been really challenging not only dealing with race in a mixed company of actors but also having to have white actors perform as racists and Black actors experience racism in performance. That's already a huge thing. Also, the play is not really written to be told in our voice. We're really trying to find our way to manipulate the telling of this story with somebody else's words and somebody else's music to be a more truthful representation of the history and of the people — all of the people. And not in a way that's binary, that's good and evil, but in a way that is honest.

Q: What's different about your perspective and the changes you are making?

Bryant: I don't want to give it away because I want people to have the experience and not feel manipulated. The first thing is that Huey [the white DJ] is not being treated like a hero who comes in and saves these poor Black people. Huey also is not being treated like Columbus, like he discovered these Black people who've always been there doing what they do. That's like we don't exist without a white gaze. I can say that we're really being careful with how the music is being used when it's contradictory to the moment. So, there's violence. There's a headline about people being arrested for attending an integrated concert. But it's in a song that's a dance party. To not allow something that's that serious to be washed over by the rah-rah of the music part.

Nelson: I didn't understand some of the context of the movement [of previous productions]. The Broadway choreographer [Sergio Trujillo] is a Colombian person who immigrated to Canada and came through Broadway. Dancers have an international life like that. The women in the opening are doing this very intense, manipulated choreography. They're doing a lot of splits and going down a lot physically, especially around male-presenting bodies. The underground of Beale Street in the '50s had threads of inter-African experience. So, you'll see capoeira style and all of these representations that are not all classic trained jazz dance. I mean, we fly but we're also grounded.

Bryant: Leah's work is really rooted in the culture and the culture of the period. I can't understand when you create a piece set in a specific time period why you would not want to represent that time period. But, you know, people make their own artistic choices. And this is ours.

Commodore: I find with the music, it's a challenge. You want to represent the time and the culture and you're dealing with people who're not of that time or that culture. That presents some problems. You have to deal with the written music that's transcribed in the written way it was intended. That written music is a guide for people who don't know how to do it another way, or, in this instance, in the way it's intended to be presented. Sometimes it's going to be a feeling or emotion that carries you through the song. That is some of the things that we — I have been presented with. But you have to be willing to take the chances and give up some preconceptions of traditional music theater. Let the piece draw you in.

Bryant: Throughout the play, if we're truthful about what's happening in the story, the music doesn't quite match. The Broadway production is hella entertaining and it makes you move. We'll do that but we'll also honor the story. "Memphis" is a huge show. The amount of dance, the amount of music, the way that the story flies. It's like you get on the train and you don't stop until the finale.

Commodore: It's important for people to see that this kind of project can be presented culturally and accepted from three Black women. It will sneak up on folks and they'll go, "Wow, look at this perspective and look what they were actually brave enough to go ahead and do."

Nelson: Artistry is taking a big leap and I see their positive intentions in making these choices and where they're also having a huge learning curve in presenting a piece this large from these perspectives. Our goal is to make an amazing production and have people come through.