Sizzlin’ Celebration

Sandra Reaves-Phillips and the cast of ‘One Mo’ Time’ celebrate New Orleans and 1920s vaudeville at Crossroads Theatre.

By: Megan Sullivan
   The black vaudeville circuit of the 1920s sizzled with the sounds of blues and boogie woogie, oozing from bold and brassy performers. Some of the finest entertainers, from Ethel Waters and Ma Rainey to Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday, performed on the circuit, known as the T.O.B.A. (Theater Owners Booking Association). But behind the energetic and savory numbers sung, the Charlestons, Black Bottoms and Cakewalks danced, were the overworked and underpaid performers struggling through the hardships.
   Vernel Bagneris’ musical One Mo’ Time, which premiered at the Toulouse Street Theatre in the French Quarter in 1978, replicates a swinging New Orleans vaudeville circa 1926. In October 1979, the show opened at off-Broadway’s Village Gate Theater, where it ran for more than three years. From there, it had national and international success and even a brief run on Broadway four years ago. One Mo’ Time first came to Crossroads Theatre Company in New Brunswick in 1985 and now the show is back in town, running Nov. 3 to 12.
   Directed by Ricardo Khan, the production will remind audiences that after all New Orleans endured last year with Hurricane Katrina, the music lives on and keeps its cultural legacy alive. Sandra Reaves-Phillips, who played Bertha on the national tour in the ’80s and in the original Crossroads production, is back again as the prima donna of a vaudeville touring company. The ensemble cast stars Natalie Carter as Ma Reed, Jerome Harmann as Papa Du, Gabrielle Lee as Thelma and Philip Galbraith as the exploitative theater owner.
   "This show is special to me because I have a new respect, a new feeling, a new love, a new care about New Orleans since all of this happened after Katrina," says Ms. Reaves-Phillips in a phone conversation after rehearsal in New York. She dedicates her performance to all of the New Orleanians who had to restore their homes — and their lives — after the tumultuous hurricane. "I get a very choked up feeling about it," she says. "I know people personally there and that’s only just scratching on the surface of their loss."
   Ms. Reaves-Phillips describes her character Bertha as always wanting to be bigger and better. "She has this big roar and this presence like a lion…" says Ms. Reaves-Phillips. "Deep inside her, she has a heart of gold. She makes sure everyone else in her company is taken care of financially and emotionally before she takes care of herself. I found a love for her because of that.
   "And she’s never gotten the love or the attention that she really needed as a person," she continues, "but yet she smiles and she sings and goes on to try and make other people happy. And sometimes she searches for love in all the wrong places because of that."
   In between musical numbers, off-stage banter and skits reveal some of the struggles the vaudeville performers encountered. Even when an argument ensues, they jump right out of the conversation and back into song as if nothing happened.
   "The (songs) are about the rivalries, the tensions of the time between owners and the performers, what they had to go through, what they had to endure, not getting their money… people not showing up for shows, the stress," Ms. Reaves-Phillips says. "It was a tough circuit they had to go through."
   Accompanied by a band (with musical director Frank Owens), the numbers are old standards of the era, like "Tiger Rag" and "Muskrat Ramble." One of Ms. Reaves-Phillips’ favorite songs is "Muddy Waters" because it really speaks for the whole company, she says, "the mud, the dirt, the hardship they had to go through to get where they are." The song is followed by the final number "A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight," another showstopper. "Bessie Smith sang it way back and she hit a home run with it," Ms. Reaves-Phillips says. "I just pray to God I do it justice."
   Ms. Reaves-Phillips has previously been seen at Crossroads Theatre in her original show Late Great Ladies of Blues and Jazz, in which she immersed herself into the sound, tone, vernacular and costumes of Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Ethel Waters, Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington and Mahalia Jackson. It was as she developed this piece in the late ’70s that she gained such an appreciation for music of the ’20s, jazz, soul and blues.
   Born in South Carolina, Ms. Reaves-Phillips moved to New York with her family in the late ’50s, at which time she began entering talent contests as a teenager. Now a seasoned performer, she earned her big break with her portrayal of Mama Younger in the Tony Award-winning musical Raisin in the national and international tours.
   Other credits include co-starring in Paris at the Chatelet Theatre in the original production of Black and Blue, on Broadway in ROLLIN on the T.O.B.A., and off-Broadway with leading roles in the original productions of Blues in the Night and Further Mo’, Vernel Bagneris’ sequel to One Mo’ Time.
   In One Mo’ Time, Ms. Reaves-Phillips looks back to the 1920s as Bertha, hoping to convey an appreciation for New Orleans and the period in the present.
   "It’s not about me, it’s about an era," she says, "a time in life that was so profound that it propelled me into the future."
One Mo’ Time will be performed at Crossroads Theatre, 7 Livingston Ave., New
Brunswick, Nov. 3-12. Performances: Thurs.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 3 p.m. (additional
performance Nov. 11, 3 p.m.). Tickets cost $40-$55. For information, call (800)
766-6048. On the Web: www.crossroadsnb.com