As the world comes to terms with the death of Chadwick Boseman, fans are combing through the back catalog of his work and marveling at the uniquely gifted artist he was. They can take some small solace in the fact that not all of his cinematic contributions lay behind him. Prior to his tragic passing, he completed production on one last film, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which will premiere on Netflix later this year. When Boseman was a young man, fate joined him and Denzel Washington when the latter paid the former's way to Oxford. Their paths crossed again in the making of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which Washington produced.
The prestige project is a film adaptation of the playwright August Wilson's stage drama of the same name. Wilson, who died of cancer in 2005, hailed from Pittsburgh's primarily African American Hill District. His neighborhood became his muse. He co-founded Black Horizon Theater and is known for his Pittsburgh Cycle, consisting of ten plays, one from each decade of the twentieth century. Each play deals with the Black American experience. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the only play in the cycle not set in Pittsburgh. The most famous is Fences, a film version of which debuted in 2016. Denzel Washington (who has a deal with Netflix to bring more of Wilson's work to the screen) produced, directed and starred in that film, and it earned Viola Davis an Academy Award.
Davis stars in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom as well, in the title role. The play, which won the 1985 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and was nominated for a Tony, takes place in 1920s Chicago and revolves around Ma Rainey (referred to as the "mother of the blues" for her groundbreaking career) and her efforts to record a new album. Ma is an outrageous and unapologetic figure, especially for her time. She shows up late -- with her female lover no less -- and knows how to parlay her talent and power in an era in which she was an outsider, many times removed.
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was in 1985, and will still be in 2020, progressive for its thoughtful portrayal of a Black queer woman. However, that's but one layer to Wilson's profound writing. The real drama lies in the tension between Ma's bandmates, Toledo, Slow Drag, Cutler and Levee, and the studio owner and manager, Sturdyvant and Irvin. Despite the story's laid-back pretense (much of the action involves conversations that occur while characters are sitting around and waiting for things to happen) the show is really an exploration of the anxiety and rage that afflicted Black men during the Jim Crow era, even in the north. There are thematic parallels to be made between it and Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, which burst onto the scene only four years later. Both depict how subtle power structures can impose unbearable stress on everyday life, which sometimes boils over into violence.
Boseman plays Levee, the band's trumpeter and youngest member. He's attractive and ambitious, and interested in pushing the boundaries of both the types of music he plays and the social structures in which he exists. But he's also brash and impulsive, frequently clashes with other characters and is not fully in control when contrasted with Ma. Boseman often played quietly noble figures, like Thurgood Marshall, so his character in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is somewhat of a departure and almost certainly gave Boseman the chance to flex new and different acting muscles. Of the entire ensemble, Levee is the show-stopping role.
The film adaptation doesn't appear to be significantly changed from the source material. Out of sensitivity, Netflix canceled a planned virtual event in anticipation of the film's release that would've featured a Q&A and an homage to August Wilson. But the streaming service has indicated audiences will still see Ma Rainey's Black Bottom before the end of 2020. The movie had already garnered awards attention, given it was inspired by an acclaimed play and stars such accomplished actors, and it is almost certain to be an Oscar contender. Chadwick Boseman -- who began his creative life as a playwright and director interested in many of the same issues -- had much in common with August Wilson. To those for whom Boseman and Wilson loom large, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is sure to be a bittersweet celebration of Black artistic voices.
Directed by George C. Wolfe and based on a play of the same name by August Wilson, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom stars Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Taylour Paige and Michael Potts. The film arrives on Netflix later this year.