author: Wes Dennis
I approached The Colored Museum with deep skepticism. Too often shows that spotlight aspects of the black American experience leave me shaken and incensed: not in a truly powerful or earned way, but in a way that I find offensive and even insulting. A play that ends with the dramatic reveal that a black youth has been shot to death may serve as a gut punch to white audiences,
And it came to pass that jazz was born at Signature Theatre when Jelly’s Last Jam kicked off the 2016/2017 season in the sweltering August heat! Step right into ‘The Jungle Inn’ where you’re jammin’ with Jelly tonight! There’s no doubt about this masterful musical— with book by George C. Wolfe, Music by Jelly Roll Morton, Lyrics by Susan Birkenhead, and Musical Adaptation & Additional Music composed by Luther Henderson— as it lays down the birth of jazz exactly like Jelly Roll Morton remembers it!