Northlight Theatre presents the World Premiere of Low Down Dirty Blues
Artistic Director BJ Jones and Executive Director Timothy J. Evans announced the World Premiere of Low Down Dirty Blues, by Randal Myler and Dan Wheetman, the creators of It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues and Fire on the Mountain. The production will feature Tony Award nominee Felicia P. Fields (The Color Purple) in her first role in Chicago since The Color Purple and two-time Jeff Award-winner Mississippi Charles Bevel. The production will be directed by Randal Myler with musical direction by Dan Wheetman. Low Down Dirty Blues runs May 27 - July 3, 2010 at Northlight Theatre, 9501 Skokie Blvd in Skokie.
When the crowd goes home for the night, the real show begins! At least that's the case at one local Blues bar, where musicians gather after hours to swap stories and songs filled with passion, soul and an authentic love of the Blues that can't be described, but demands to be played. Inspired by Blues legends such as Muddy Waters, Ma Rainey, Sophie Tucker, Howlin' Wolf and Pearl Bailey, this low down dirty jam session pays tribute to a musical form that's steeped in Chicago history - and alive and thriving today!
"Northlight is delighted to welcome back director Randy Myler, Dan Wheetman and two-time Jeff Award winner Mississippi Charles Bevel with a world premiere musical, in celebration of our 35th Anniversary," says BJ Jones. "Low Down Dirty Blues continues Northlight's dedication to exploring American Blues music and its roots, in a joyous and roof-raising evening sure to lift our audiences' spirits."
"The Blues has always had an 'earthy' quality. It has been the voice of a people caught in economic and social situations that have kept one entire social sector of the country under the thumb of another sector through the ‘Jim Crow' laws and through narrow fields available for economic gain. Out of this environment, their voices found expression in the celebration of Life in all its facets," say Myler and Wheetman. "From the first blues songs (known as 'jump ups,' ‘work songs' and ‘hollers'), the Blues has dealt with subjects other musical styles have either avoided because of social stigma, or overlooked due to lack of understanding or experience. In the early 1920s women like Sippy Wallace, Ma Rainey, Memphis Minnie and Alberta Hunter sang songs with a 'ragtime' feel and a lyric as explicit and real as the world they lived in. Men like Charlie Patton, Son House, Tommy Johnson, Bo Carter and the Chatmans sang heartbreaking songs of a life bound in invisible chains of prejudice and poverty while also singing joyous songs of sexual freedom and their freedom of movement. All of these were testaments to freedom, and all exemplified the Low Down Dirty Blues."
Tickets for Low Down Dirty Blues, $39-54, are available by phone, 847-673-6300, or online at northlight.org.