Segregation in the 1950s in this country was about more than victimization, Jim Crow laws and the Klan, stage writer and director George C. Wolfe says.
“And not to minimize that, it was terrible,” Wolfe says. “But people didn’t just stand around and sing ‘Go Down Moses.’ They built communities. And a whole culture sprang up from that.”
We get an up-close look at that period in history in the upcoming 94-minute HBO original movie, “Lackawanna Blues.” It premieres at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Based on the one-man, award-winning stage production of the same name, “Lackawanna Blues” offers a sympathetic and candid look at some colorful and imperfect characters who shaped that culture and the life of a young man.
The autobiographical story comes from Tony-award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who wrote and performed the one-man show and plays one of the many boarding house residents in the film.
It was a life of chaotic days and vibrant nights, with Nanny – the steadfast matriarch played beautifully by S. Epatha Merkerson, best known as Lt. Anita Van Buren on “Law &Order” – always there to see folks through.
The frantic clamor of Nanny’s Friday night fish fry is where we join in, moments before her neighbor rushes in announcing that his companion is in labor.
Nanny rushes over, leaving a brewing fight and her philandering husband, Bill, behind.
A hectic couple of minutes follows as director Wolfe flashes between three dramatic moments – the razor fight back at the party, Nanny’s delivery of the baby and Bill’s tryst with another woman in the back seat of a car in the driveway – until Junior’s birth silences the commotion.
Nanny puts him into his parents’ arms, but the boy is soon living with her while his parents try to sort out their troubled lives.
Nanny brings Junior up as her own son at 32 Wasson Ave., Lackawanna, N.Y., which, by most accounts, was no place to raise a child.
“They were all ramblers or drifters of some sort,” Junior explains. “And all of them had some experience with prison, mental hospitals, alcohol, drugs, pimping, gambling or church.”
Wolfe, who directed the stage production, takes his first turn behind the camera and masterfully builds his characters and their individual stories around the relationship between Nanny and Junior. The mixture of music – at times frenetic, other times soulful – gives “Lackawanna” the feel of Broadway on the screen.
To be clear, this is no fairy tale. There’s no great epiphany that sends everyone to Harvard, with the credits rolling after graduation.
These are real people, with real stories, and that’s what makes it something to watch.
Merkerson nails her role as Nanny – who had no more than a third-grade education but earned a real-life Ph.D. in the workings of people – leading an ensemble cast that includes Jimmy Smits, Mos Def and Rosie Perez.
Singer Macy Gray is haunting as a borderline-psychotic jealous lover prone to whipping out a razor as a weapon. Terrence Dashon Howard (“Ray”) manages to make Nanny’s cheating husband seem compassionate.
Emmy- and Golden Globe-award winner Jeffrey Wright (“Angels in America”) is captivating as a quiet, remorseful murderer who shares his story with Junior.
Eleven-year-old Marcus Carl Franklin plays Junior and has the eyes and expressions of a boy confounded, a little frightened, but still excited by the turmoil that surrounds him.
Those same feelings of confusion, fear and excitement abound as you watch this tale unfold.
It’s one of struggle and longing and joy – a true American story.
Columnist Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@heraldnet.com.
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