Amen Corner | |
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Music | Garry Sherman |
Lyrics | Peter Udell |
Book | Philip Rose Peter Udell |
Basis | Play The Amen Corner by James Baldwin |
Productions | 1983 Broadway |
Amen Corner is a musical with a book by Philip Rose and Peter Udell, lyrics by Udell, and music by Garry Sherman, based on the 1965 play of the same title by James Baldwin. The score consists of mostly gospel-inspired music.
The Amen Corner, 1954 play by James Baldwin 'The Amen Corner', song from the 1998 album My Arms, Your Hearse by Swedish progressive metal group Opeth; Amen Corner, a 2008 album from Railroad Earth; Other uses. Amen Corner (golf), nickname given to the difficult 11th (White Dogwood), 12th (Golden Bell), and 13th (Azalea) water holes at Augusta. It is PDF a scalding, uplifting, sorrowful and exultant masterpiece of the modern American theater. One of James Baldwin's two plays produced on Broadway, The Amen Corner pulses with the music and energy of America's black church and bristles with the pain and anger of racial injustice ePub. Reviews of the The Amen Corner.
After 12 previews, the Broadway production, directed by Rose and choreographed by Al Perryman, opened on November 10, 1983, at the Nederlander Theatre, where it ran for 28 performances. The cast included Rhetta Hughes as Margaret, Keith Lorenzo Amos as David, Roger Robinson as Luke, Ruth Brown as Odessa, Helena-Joyce Wright as Sister Boxer, Jean Cheek as Sister Moore, and Chuck Cooper as Brother Boxer. Hughes was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Musical. The production received poor reviews.[1]
The musical was produced in Philadelphia by the Philadelphia Drama Guild in 1986 and has been produced a number of times since.[2]
Synopsis[edit]
Margaret Alexander, the pastor of a storefront church in Harlem in the early 1960s loses some of her sheen of righteousness in the eyes of her poor but devout, congregation, when her wayward jazz-trombonist husband Luke returns after many years, now ill. Luke had always been trouble, and Sister Margaret had tried to keep him out of the life of her son, David, who she wants to become pastor some day. Now David wants to see his father, and Luke claims to have changed. Meanwhile, members of the church have seen David sneaking out to bars at night. Some argue that Margaret should step down as pastor.
Margaret struggles with her feelings for her husband, who says he still loves her, and her teenaged son, David, who has lost his faith and threatens to leave home. She finally reconciles with her dying husband, which purges her of her bitterness, and finds the strength to continue her religious mission.
Song list[edit]
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References[edit]
- ^New York Times review
- ^Information about a 2005 production
External links[edit]
- Amen Corner at the Music Theatre International website
- Amen Corner at the Musical Heaven website
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amen_Corner_(musical)&oldid=923409392'
Act I
Act I takes place 'on a Sunday morning in Harlem.' It begins with a church service, led by Margaret Anderson, the pastor of a 'corner' church. The singing of hymns, accompanied by Margaret's eighteen-year-old son, David, on the piano, is an important element of the service. At one point, Mrs. Ida Jackson, a young woman, walks up to the pulpit holding her sick baby; she asks Margaret what she should do to save her baby, and Margaret advises her to leave her husband, but Mrs. Jackson asserts that she doesn't want to leave her husband.
After the service, Margaret, her sister Odessa, David, and three elders of the church, Sister Moore, Sister Boxer, and Brother Boxer, congregate in Margaret's apartment, which is attached to the church. Margaret's long estranged husband, Luke, arrives unexpectedly at the apartment. In front of David and the church elders, Luke confronts...