Noted writer, playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith has written a new musical about the legendary Ella Fitzgerald. ELLA: An American Miracle features two actresses portraying the vocalist: Dee Dee Bridgewater as the ghost of Ms. Fitzgerald and Charity Angél Dawson as a young Ella. A work session for the production is being held in New York City during August 25-September 1, which will conclude with a private industry presentation.
Recipient of the prestigious National Endowment for the Humanities Medal and a former MacArthur Fellow (known colloquially as the Genius Grant), Smith wrote and performed the one-person plays Fire in the Mirror, House Arrest, Let Me Down Easy, and Twilight: Los Angeles, productions in which she deftly managed to portray a multitude of characters whose different perspectives shape a narrative often about a traumatic social event. Her most recent work, Notes from the Field, addresses issues around the criminal justice system. She also has acted in television (Nurse Jackie, The West Wing, Inventing Anna, Blackish and For the People) and film (The American President, Rachel Getting Married, Philadelphia, Dave, Rent, and Human Stain).
“Composers wanted Ella Fitzgerald to sing their songs because listening to her, they knew how their songs were supposed to be sung,” Smith said, in a press release received by WBGO. “A jazz singer, a scat singer, she also famously both sang and defined the American songbook. To say she had humble beginnings is a profound understatement. She sang America through some of its most discordant times. She was America’s love song. She was an American miracle.”
Aside from her recent performance in Kurt Elling’s radio play The Big Blind at Jazz at Lincoln Center, this is Bridgewater’s first dramatic role in 30 years, going back to her acclaimed appearances in Sophisticated Ladies, Lady Day and The Wiz, the latter for which she received a Tony award in 1975. Dawson has acted in the Broadway productions of Waitress, Chicago and Mrs. Doubtfire.
Also in the workshop’s cast are: Saint Aubyn, Angela Birchett, J. Bernard Calloway, Milanis Clark, Crystal Joy, Ken Marks, Jhardon Dishon Milton, Joshua Morgan, Rance Nix, Okwui Okpokwasili, Nick Rehberger, Jessica Rush, Deandre Sevon, and Erica Sweany.
Produced by Steve J. Scarduzio and John Hart, ELLA: An American Miracle will be directed by Philip Wm. McKinley and choreographed by Ellenore Scott with musical direction by the Washington, DC-based pianist Mark G. Meadows. The stage production will feature costume design by Tony Award winner Ann Hould-Ward.
