6/1/2011 6:00:00 AMAll-City Musical 'Bubbling Brown Sugar' connects students to the arts
June 01, 2011, 6:00 AM
By Donald Rosenberg, The Plain Dealer
PREVIEW: Bubbling Brown Sugar
What: The Cleveland School District presents the 12th annual All-City Musical.
When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Ohio Theatre, PlayhouseSquare, Cleveland.
Tickets: $15. Go to playhousesquare.org or call 216-241-6000.
Every year, a vicious plant swallows a human or two. Or warring gangs go at it on the west side of Manhattan. Or Motown divas do their explosive thing. They do so, by the way, through song and dance.
Those scenarios and others have delighted Cleveland audiences on an annual basis since the turn of the 21st century, thanks to the All-City Musical presented by the Cleveland School District in partnership with Great Lakes Theater Festival, PlayhouseSquare and the Musical Theater Project.
For this year's 12th annual entry, "Bubbling Brown Sugar," more than 40 Cleveland students from 10 district and charter schools will be onstage at the Ohio Theatre to evoke Harlem from the 1920s to the '40s. That was the era when the Cotton Club, Apollo Theater and other nearby landmarks were red-hot platforms for the greatest black and white jazz performers.
Like all of the shows the Cleveland School District has been presented since 2000, "Bubbling Brown Sugar" was chosen to fulfill educational goals. As described by Tony Sias, the district's All-City Arts Education Director, the All-City Musical is "an afternoon, weekend and college-readiness program" that recruit students from across the city.
"It's not about skill level," Sias said in an interview. "It's about raw talent and interest and participating in the arts. It's a way to augment what we may not have in some of the buildings. We still have a responsibility for providing excellent programming for students."
Students audition for the All-City Musical in January and February and rehearse the show starting in early March. In addition to the 40 in this year's cast, another 20 or so work with professional set and costume designers at Great Lakes Theater Festival or team with technical people at PlayhouseSquare when the production arrives at the Ohio Theatre.
And three students will perform with 11 professional musicians in the orchestra pit at the Ohio under musical director David Thomas. Great Lakes acts as producer of the show, developing a budget, paying rights for the musical, hiring the director and designers, and overseeing the design aspects in its own shop.
"We treat it as yet another production in our season, frankly," said Bob Taylor, executive director of Great Lakes.
The budget for "Bubbling Brown Sugar" of nearly $140,000 is funded by the school district, which receives about $40,000 back from ticket sales. PlayhouseSquare provides the stage free of charge, while Great Lakes takes care of union costs.
"It is an extremely important part of our commitment to the school district and our mission," Taylor said. "We were founded by the school board president in 1961 to provide matinees for students."
Great Lakes welcomes 18,000 students a year to matinees at PlayhouseSquare and takes artists into the schools to serve another 18,000.
"These schools have been so challenged with arts education programs virtually disappearing," said Taylor.
As director of nine of the All-City musicals since 2000, Sias has made it his principal aim to draw students into the transformational world of the arts. The program, which embraces history, teamwork and social issues, aligns with the school district's curriculum and educational standards.
Sias said "Bubbling Brown Sugar" was chosen as this year's musical to give students an awareness of the contributions black performers have made to the arts for generations.
"We want to educate them about a time in history when the minority culture had one of the greatest influences on the majority culture through the arts," he said. "This production is about how arts and culture and African-Americans helped transform mainstream America."
The show is structured in the form of a revue, with old performers reminiscing about their experiences in Harlem long ago, when such legendary musical figures as Duke Ellington, Thomas "Fats" Waller, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday and Eubie Blake reigned in clubs and theaters.
Along with the high school students participating in "Bubbling Brown Sugar," Sias has invited alumni of the school district to play some of the leading roles. They include Lawrence Farmer, a theater student at Cleveland State University, as Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and Imani Thomas, a dance education major at Kent State University (and daughter of the show's musical director) as the cabaret singer Judy Cantrell.
The response to the All-City Musical is the same every year. "You get tears in your eyes," said Great Lakes' Taylor. "It's such an empowering experience for these kids. They're like rock stars onstage."