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Whoopi Goldberg Joins Producing Team of Broadway's "Bricktop"
posted on Mar 27, 2008
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Whoopi
Goldberg has joined forces with producers Paul Lambert and Jonas
Neilson to bring "Bricktop - Queen of the Night," a new musical about 1920s performer and Paris nightclub owner Ada "Bricktop" Smith to Broadway. Goldberg's involvement in the project was announced at the March 24 Musical Mondays Actors Fund Benefit Concert at Los Angeles' Pantages Theater.
American expatriate Ada "Bricktop" Smith was a 1920s Paris nightlife
sensation, operating numerous clubs and opening her own — Chez
Bricktop. She was noted for her red hair, freckles and signature
cigars. Cole Porter was so taken with her talent, he wrote "Miss Otis
Regrets" for her to perform. In addition to Porter, Smith counted among
her friends F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
Jazz legends such as Josephine Baker, Mabel Mercer and Duke Ellington
were among her protégés.
According to the Daily News, the producers hope to present the
musical on Broadway in 2009 after an intended out-of town-engagement in
Chicago.
Goldberg is also co-producing the previously announced summer Broadway revival of Ntozake Shange's 1976 play
"For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is
Enuf." "For Colored Girls," helmed by Shirley Jo Finney and
choreographed by Hinton Battle, will star India.Arie. The show aims to
start previews in mid-July for an early August opening. Goldberg's previous producing credits include "Thoroughly Modern Millie" and the 2003 revival of "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom."
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