TENNESSEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER®
Hello Tennessee theatre fans – so nice to meet you!
Welcome to the Encore family of publications, which includes Atlanta’s Broadway Across America programs at the famed Fox Theatre, The Woodruff Arts Center (including both the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre), the Atlanta Opera, the Atlanta Ballet plus the Blumenthal Performing Arts Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.
We are thrilled to partner with the beautiful Tennessee Performing Arts Center and to showcase the amazing Broadway season line-up that is in store for you. From tonight’s The Sound of (Black) Music to Funny Girl, Tina: The Tina Turner Musical and Disney’s Frozen, we will dance, cry, laugh and sing together over the months to come.
So, sit back and enjoy the show. We’re glad you’re here and we’re glad to be here too!
BrantleyPublisher
Manderson
PUBLISHER
Brantley Manderson brantley@encoreatlanta.com
SENIOR ACCOUNT DIRECTOR
Hila Johnson hila@encorecharlotte.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF
Robert Viagas robert@encoreatlanta.com
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Tamara Hooks tamara@encoreatlanta.com
DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR
Jennifer Nelson jennifer@encoreatlanta.com
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Electric Root Presents
A joyful reimagining of the Rodgers and Hammerstein songs through a utopian, afrofuturistic lens.
Recognized as among the “Best of Theater, 2021” by the New York Times, The Sound of (Black) Music is a vibrant one-act concert reimagining of the classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical through a utopian, afrofuturistic lens full of love. Cherished songs such as “Do-Re-Mi,” “Edelweiss,” and “Climb Ev’ry Mountain'' are recast through a Black roots music kaleidoscope of jazz, gospel, blues, soul, funk and Afro-beat.
The Sound of (Black) Music is co-directed by Shariffa Ali and Kamilah Long, with arrangements by Mathis Picard and music direction by Vuyo Sotashe. The concert channels the singular musical gifts of some of today’s most talented Black musicians into an overflowing celebration of Black Roots music. Vocalists Vuyo Sotashe, Brianna Thomas, Charenee Wade, Alexis Lombre and Zhanna Reed are supported by an electrifying band to bring to life the most joyous and loving presentation.
WHEN YOU KNOW THE NOTES TO SING
The Sound of (Black) Music Gives the Classic Rodgers and Hammerstein Score a New Sound
STORY BY Robert Viagas
The hills around Nashville are alive with The Sound of (Black) Music, with songs they have sung for eighty years—but probably never like this.
Tonight’s show presents the original and beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein score orchestrated in an innovative new way, through what its creators call “a utopian, afrofuturistic lens.”
Whose idea was this? The show was co-created by Michael Mwenso and Jono Gasparro, in association with producer Electric Root. The performance is co-directed by Shariffa Ali and Kamilah Long with new musical arrangements by Mathis Picard and music direction by Vuyo Sotashe.
What gave them the idea? Mwenso said, “For me as a child it [the movie version of the Broadway show] was something me and my mother could connect to. She watched it as a young child, then she introduced it to me. And
then, you know, it’s one [movie] that I felt everyone knows, generationally: It has accessibility through the generations. It crosses borders.”
How will the well-known songs be arranged? The score, including “DoRe-Mi,” “Edelweiss,” “The Lonely Goatherd,” “Climb Ev’ry Mountain” and many of the rest of the show’s familiar songs will be performed with their original words by 20 musicians and five featured singers, playing gospel, funk, soul and Afrobeat arrangements. “You’re going to have most of the songs from the musical, but reimagined,” Gasparro said. “They will be the same songs with the same lyrics, but with a different tinge.” Mwenso said, “The songs will definitely be going through a black music lens, you know, just funkified.… They’re the same songs but based in another type of musical vibration.”
Who will sing the songs? Vuyo Sotashe, Brianna Thomas, Charenee Wade, Alexis Lombre and Zhanna Reed.
Will There Be Sets and Costumes Like a Traditional Musical? Not for this concert production.
What inspired Gasparro and Mwenso to pursue this project? “Michael and I have a relationship that goes back about 15 years now,” Gasparro said. “Michael was born in West Africa [Sierra Leone] and raised in London, and I’m from Ohio. But we met through the love of jazz music and black music and a mentor of ours Wynton Marsalis. Ever since then we’ve been individually and collectively on a mission to share the gifts of black music with the world which is to heal and uplift and to bring joy to communities.” In the years before COVID-19 they worked together on performing arts center tours that highlighted black music. They teamed up to open a music club in New York’s Harlem just as the pandemic hit. After the May 2020 George Floyd murder, they decided to form the Electric Root production company to spread music that builds bridges to “unite and empower diverse communities with radical hospitality love and joy.”
Has the show been performed anywhere else? Parts of the show were performed at the Burlington Jazz Festival and at Bard College, where it was reviewed by The New York Times, which chose the show as one of the outstanding theatre experiences of 2021. But this Nashville engagement is the show’s first fully staged concert production.
Are there plans for the show after Nashville? The Sound of (Black) Music will give a special performance at Alice Tully Hall in New York’s Lincoln Center on November 9, followed by bookings around the country, including stops in New Jersey, Alaska, Texas and California. But Gasparro and Mwenso said their long-term dream is to see a fully staged Broadway revival of the show using their new arrangements. “I mean, it spreads joy, and that’s what we’re trying to do in the world. But it is step by step and each day people coming to support the show helps us move towards that direction.
