Salli Richardson-Whitfield’s Quest To Play Lena Horne On Broadwayby Wilson Morales
April 17, 2014
With five-time Tony Award-winner Audra McDonald (Porgy & Bess) currently captivating audiences on Broadway in her portrayal of legendary singer Billie Holliday in ‘Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill,’ in time, audiences will hopefully get a chance to see the story of another legend on the Great White Way.
Actress Salli Richardson-Whitfield has recently started a Kickstarter campaign to get ‘A Lady Must Live,’ a play on legendary singer and actress Lena Horne, to Broadway.
For Richardson-Whitfield, who’s acted for over 20 years and is best known for her roles in A Low Down Dirty Shame, Biker Boyz, I Am Legend, Black Dynamite as well as a starring role in the TV series Eureka, playing Lena Horne will be a great challenge and accomplishment.
Richardson-Whitfield has been trying to get this project off the ground for a few years and even displayed her singing talent back in 2011 when she performed a few of Horne’s song at Halle Berry’s Jenesse Silver Rose Gala.
In speaking exclusively with Blackfilm.com, Richardson-Whitfield talks about her passion for the project, and her quest to play the legend on stage.
Where did the idea come from?
Salli Richardson-Whitfield: I have wanted to do it because it’s hard to get a play written that’s good. It’s like doing a script. When I first got the idea, I said, “Now, I have to find a playwright to do it.” I went to London for a sci-fi convention and saw this play there and my manager happen to know playwright Rikki Beadle Blair. He seemed to be the perfect guy for the play. We sat down and talked. He said yes, wanted to do some research, and came up with a wonderful idea. We were able to make a deal and gave him the time to write it. He finally had a great script and we wondered what our next step would be. Meanwhile, for the last year or so, and for who didn’t know, I used to sing when I was younger. I started in a musical but I hadn’t been singing a lot. I don’t when this (the play) would happen, but if I’m going to be Lena, then I’m going to have to know what it is to be a performer in clubs and stuff. I started going to a voice coach and learning her music and started performing in some clubs and just getting into her music. Once we do the show, I would have to sing every night and be ready for that. It’s really been a developing process and now we’re ready. We just need the money to put on the workshop, which is a different process than movies, to present it to the Broadway people.
Why Lena?
SR-W: We, as Black people, have to bring our own stories to life. We have to make them happen. I grew up loving Lena as opposed to Dorothy (Dandridge), who everyone always talks about. As we all know as we get older in life, it’s much harder to live in this world, rather than passing away. Lena had to fight through so many struggles that people didn’t know; from having to leave her son, from being blackballed, from being put up on this pedestal as this beauty icon for Black people but at the same time being hated for being light-skinned. As if that’s the only reason she was up there; you represent us, but you don’t. She was also married to a white man and loving him but hating that he was white. She just had such a great story and we have to continue to do stories of our great leaders; and she was one of them. For me, I have always, always loved Lena Horne. There was no one better for me growing up.
What aspect of her life are you looking to explore? Will it be from childhood to death or a key period in her life?
SR-W: The play is based on research but also a made up day in her life. There is a reel of her Broadway show where she wasn’t with it and afterwards she wanted to rework the entire show. The playwright then says what if she wanted to rework the show and goes in her dressing room and all these ghosts from her past (her mother, her father, who wasn’t in her life much, her ex-husband). What if she had to deal with these ghosts in her past, and her pain and the anger in her life and she has these conversations with these and that is what helps her find where the real gut of her show should be. That’s where the play happens. It’s more in her later life when she was doing her one-woman show. I would say she was around 60 at that time. This is something where I would love to play her in a movie eventually, but Lena’s real home and the place she loved the most was being on Broadway. I felt like the perfect place to first tell her story.
Recently, some folks have seen the musical ‘Stormy Weather,’ which starred Leslie Uggams and she talked about bringing it to Broadway. Should that happen or not, will it be something different and be two different Lena Horne projects vying for a Broadway spot?
SR-W: This is completely different from that. Leslie’s show is more of a revue. She’s almost doing all the songs from her show. This is a play and a drama where there happens to be music in it. I don’t want to misspeak on what her show is, but I’m pretty sure she’s doing exactly what Lena did in her one-woman show, which really isn’t a play. That’s like a revue almost.
Lena’s family have been instrumental as far as approving anything on her life. We remember Janet Jackson being asked not do the project after the Super Bowl fiasco and Alicia Keys had been developing a project with Oprah Winfrey. Lena’s daughter Gail has been vocal in responding to those projects. There have been responses to biopic projects developed where the family haven’t been involved. We’ve seen it with Marvin Gaye’s family as well as Nina Simone’s family in which film projects were done without their consultation. Have you had a chance to speak with any of her family members?
SR-W: I have not and it’s something that I’m hoping to do. It’s not a film and it’s not based on research about her. I’m hoping as things get further, there’s nothing about the project that they wouldn’t love. I’m not expecting any problems and I think it will be a wonderful experience for everyone. There’s a difference between having singers play Lena and having an actress who’s a great singer play her. Lena was a woman full of drama and that’s the main part you have to get first.
Getting Black projects on Broadway is a challenge itself. Have you looked into producers who can be of help with influence?
SR-W: Not yet. Some of that is my manager’s doing, because he comes from that world. That’s how he started out. Right now, we’re doing the basic steps that need to be done and most shows start out this way. You get the money to do a workshop and maybe we get the money to do here in LA first, and then the theater house brings it to Broadway. There are all these different steps to get there. The one thing about Lena’s story is that Broadway, especially European audiences, always loved Lena. The Broadway crowd is an older crowd that goes. Her audience is there and waiting for it. It’s a better fit than other shows for that market.
Do you have a goal to when you want to go to Broadway?
SR-W: Well, I’m hoping that within the next year, the show is up. That may mean that we have to start here first. Getting to Broadway takes time and I’m hoping that within two years, this is on Broadway. God is leading me and he will take me through every step I need to be in.
Through Kickstarter, you’re asking for $40K, which is not a lot of money when you, as a veteran actress, can easily make that doing a pilot episode or a commercial.
SR-W: We’re going bare bones for the workshop. I’m just asking people to help me with my dream and with a story that I think we as a community, and not just Black people, will be proud of to see this woman’s story. She deserves, out of so many people who have been in this business for so many years, to her story done with dignity and intelligence. When you see some of the scenes from this play, you’re going to understand what kind of show we’re doing.
It’s funny, but if we were to go to some private investors, we might ask for more, but people don’t quite get theater. If I said I wanted to do a film, it would be easier, but people don’t understand the theater world. We just decided this is the way we wanted to do it without having someone give us money and telling us what they want and having some sort of control. It’s a way to keep the integrity of the project that we’re trying to do, at least in the beginning stages.
To donate to Richardson-Whitfield’s Kickstarter campaign, click here
