Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: A Play (Plume) (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: voice intro, band room, black bottom, Lord's Prayer, Moonshine Blues, New Orleans (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In a jazz-era Chicago recording studio, musicians await the great blues diva.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

August Wilson is the most influential and successful African American playwright writing today. He is the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Fences, The Piano Lesson, King Hedley II, Ma Rainy's Black Bottom, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Seven Guitars, Two Trains Running, Jitney and Radio Golf. His plays have been produced all over the world. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Plume (April 24, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452261139
• ISBN-13: 978-0452261136
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #475,530 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The insightful play is a mix of comedy and drama., February 4, 1999

By A Customer

This play shows how the rage caused by racism can be manifested in unusual ways. Each character, the blues singer and her band, has a different means of trying to gain control of a racist society hoping to, thereby, overcome it. The author's surprisingly humurous dialogue accentuates the story but, there is no mistaking the gravity of these characters's pain. Wilson's writing makes the play fast-paced and gives excellent insight to the histories of the individual characters. The use of blues lyrics and speech make them not just backdrops but characters, themselves. The abrupt ending seems a little forced, but the play is extremely entertaining.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An understanding of blues and history!, March 2, 2005

By	Rizzo (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Recognized as a great American playwright with numerous awards, August Wilson has brilliantly chronicled the black experience through decades. Depicting the 1920s, he wrote "Ma Rainey" in 1982, a real life blues singer.

The scene for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom", takes place in a recording studio in 1927 where two white music executives are making a record with blues singer, Ma Rainey and a group of musicians.

Because the focus is on four male band members. it may take a while to try to put a face with each character, but within a short time, you grasp who the characters are - their values, beliefs and fears.

Ma Rainey's tone of voice is profound and nobody can push her around. Some critics report that Ma Rainey was exploitive and abusive to her band members, but I certainly did not get that impression. She was just tough and she knew how important her role was in blues music! Ma Rainey didn't take any crap from the white executives or anyone.

The dialogue interweaves with Ma's performance onstage and the band members during rehearsals. Their identities evolve and it's clear who and why they are as they share their experience with racist America and we then know their role in a racist society and industry.

A dramatic ending caps the story when the most bitter player reacts violently when another member steps on his shoes. To me, the incident seemed unjustifiable to provoke such a violent reaction by another member. It appeared out of place.

If you have an interest in the work of a great playwright or another interpretation of black experience through the decades, read more from this amazing man.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Talky, but interesting, November 10, 2003

By	David Bonesteel (Fresno, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This play is set in a studio during the early days of sound recording. Ma Rainey's back-up band awaits the overdue arrival of the so-called Queen of Blues, discussing their lives and arguing about the music scene and their places in it. The white studio execs are practically tearing their hair out over Ma's tardiness and the demands that she is sure to make when she arrives. When she finally comes, she is every bit as demanding and overbearing as we expect, but also very perceptive-she is well aware that black artists are being exploited by the very record company people who continually urge her to be "reasonable" about the amount of money that she "wastes" on personal demands while recording the music that makes them so rich.

Although it features very good dialogue and some fine monologues, nothing much happens dramatically during the course of the play. There is an explosive finale, but it feels contrived and overdone, as though Wilson didn't know where to take his characters after all of the talking stopped.