Tuesday at 7pm Wednesday through Saturday at 8pm Wednesday and Saturday at 2pm Sunday at 3pm
In Ntozake Shange's powerful mid-'70s "choreo-poem," a group of African-Americans dramatizes the struggles and journey toward self respect experienced by black women in America.
Still, Shange's work remains as riveting as it was in 1976. Her words have become more than the unspoken and unrealized accounts of Black women's pain and promise; they have evolved into the gift of permission to heal and the agency to be seen and understood. It has become a memo to Black women to embrace their femaleness (no matter what that looks like) while looking to the rainbow as a sign of hope for the future of the collective, because they alone are enough.
The best moments in this production, which features the performers Amara Granderson, Tendayi Kuumba, Kenita R. Miller, Okwui Okpokwasili, Stacey Sargeant, Alexandria Wailes and D Woods, are those when the words face forward, the speaker tells truths, and the lyrical beauty of the piece is allowed to soar, without apology. Pain and all. That said, there are many rich and vibrant moments. It's great to see this spectacular American piece of writing now reaching a new generation of Broadway theatergoers. Shange, who could and perhaps should have been poet laureate, deserves every last piece of applause.
| 1976 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
| 1976 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 1976 | Broadway |
Broadway Transfer Broadway |
| 1979 | West End |
London Production West End |
| 1980 | Regional (US) |
Regional Revival Regional (US) |
| 2000 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2000 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2019 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theater Off-Broadway Revival Off-Broadway |
| 2022 | Broadway |
Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
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