✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

You have reached the limit of free articles.


To enjoy unlimited access to Culture Whisper sign up for FREE.
Find out more about Culture Whisper

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy

Each week, we send newsletters and communication featuring articles, our latest tickets invitations, and exclusive offers.

Occasional information about discounts, special offers and promotions.


OR
LOG IN

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

Thanks for signing up to Culture Whisper.
Please check your inbox for a confirmation email and click the link to verify your account.



EXPLORE CULTURE WHISPER
✕ ✕
Turning tips into memories
Login
Signup

Please fix the following input errors:

  • dummy
Forgot your username or password?
Don't have an account? Sign Up

OR
  • LOG IN WITH FACEBOOK

If you click «Log in with Facebook» and are not a Culture Whisper user, you agree to our Terms & Conditions and to our Privacy Policy, which includes our Cookie Use

Support Us Login
  • Home
  • Going Out
    • Things to do
    • Food & Drink
    • Theatre
    • Visual Arts
    • Cinema
    • Kids
    • Festival
    • Gigs
    • Dance
    • Classical Music
    • Opera
    • Immersive
    • Talks
  • Staying In
    • TV
    • Books
    • Cook
    • Podcast
    • Design
    • Netflix
  • Life & Style
    • Beauty
    • Fashion
    • Gifting
    • Wellbeing
    • Lifestyle
    • Shopping
    • Jewellery
  • Explore
  • Shopping
  • CW SHOPS
  • Support Us
  • Get Started
  • Tickets
  • CW SHOPS
Get the Best of London Life, Culture and Style
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
Theatre

Blues for an Alabama Sky, National Theatre review ★★★★★

21 Sep 22 – 05 Nov 22, 7:30 PM – 10:15 PM

Samira Wiley (Orange Is the New Black) and Giles Terera (Hamilton) star in Lynette Linton’s mesmeric revival of Blues for an Alabama Sky at the National Theatre

By Holly O'Mahony on 5/10/2022

Samira Wiley (Angel) and Lincoln Conway (Ensemble) in Blues for an Alabama Sky. Photo: Marc Brenner
Samira Wiley (Angel) and Lincoln Conway (Ensemble) in Blues for an Alabama Sky. Photo: Marc Brenner
Blues for an Alabama Sky, National Theatre review 4 Blues for an Alabama Sky, National Theatre review Holly CW
One of the first things that strikes about ‘30s-set play Blues for an Alabama Sky is how contemporary it feels. A group of adult friends living in flatshares across the corridor from one another in a New York apartment block, leaning on one another for support and divulging the day’s gossip from their interactions with the outside world, is pure sitcom territory. In fact, the first three-quarters of the play runs a little like an extended episode of Friends. However, unlike the notoriously homogenous, long-running TV show that first aired the year before, African-Amerian playwright Pearl Cleage’s 1995 play follows a Black group of friends, one of whom is openly gay.




BOOK HERE


If the major TV networks weren’t willing to give much airtime to the Black American or gay experience in the 90s, the stage wasn’t much better, so it’s no wonder, sadly, that this compelling play hasn’t been revived more frequently in the last 27 years. Still, it’s here now, showing in the National Theatre’s largest auditorium, in a hilarious-cum-harrowing production by the Bush Theatre’s artistic director Lynette Linton, with Orange Is the New Black’s Samira Wiley and Hamilton’s Giles Terera steering its turns.



Sule Rimi (Sam) and Samira Wiley (Angel) in Blues for an Alabama Sky. Photo: Marc Brenner

Against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance, a time of flourishing and prosperity for Black Americans living in the Manhattan neighbourhood, we meet party-loving showgirl Angel (a skittish, magnetic Wiley) and her gay best friend Guy (a deliciously camp Terera), a costume designer with big dreams of running away to Paris like the legendary performer Josephine Baker. They go out dancing together and console one another through hangovers, job losses and break-ups.


Across the hall is the upright and attentive Delia (Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo, at her most brilliant while being bashfully wooed), who has big ambitions to open a family planning clinic. Regularly dropping in on the trio is their good friend doctor Sam (a loveable Sule Rimi), who proudly claims he’s delivered the majority of black babies in Harlem, but who we learn also performs back-street abortions.



Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo (Delia) in Blues for an Alabama Sky. Photo: Marc Brenner


The arrival of Leland (Osy Ikhile, hiding his prejudices behind his manners), a gentleman caller from the Deep South, throws a love-bomb-shaped grenade at Angel and Guy’s friendship. Alabama is not just a state, it’s a state of mind, the group wryly notes of this outsider, who plans to whisk Angel away to a more secure but strait-laced future.


The drama unfolds on Frankie Bradshaw’s doll's house-like set, with fire escapes and a run of brownstone steps lending the block its Manhattan address. An underused ensemble occasionally appears in the building’s windows and doorways, singing bluesy harmonies between scenes.



Samira Wiley (Angel) and Osy Ikhile (Leland) in Blues for an Alabama Sky. Photo: Marc Brenner

Costumes are more than period outfits here. It’s through Angel’s dresses, also designed by Bradshaw, that Cleage betrays her character’s wavering frame of mind: we see her swap her glittering party number for Leland’s dowdy one as she flirts with the fresh start he’s offering, but later shrug back into her sequins as she rejects it. Some of her later decisions are agonising to watch, but then neither her current or proposed lifestyle can truly offer her the freedom she craves.


Through a string of carefully paced entrances to the stage, Linton allows her audience to pre-empt each blow of the play’s climactic fallout before it happens, but regardless, you’ll likely find your heart in your mouth as a shock revelation sees Leland’s traditional values collide catastrophically with Angel and Guy’s hedonistic lifestyle.


Few of this year's revivals seem as worthy of their place on a major London stage as Cleage’s Blues for an Alabama Sky, and Linton’s production distils its every beat.




Book your tickets here.

What Blues for an Alabama Sky, National Theatre review
Where National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX | MAP
Nearest tube Waterloo (underground)
When 21 Sep 22 – 05 Nov 22, 7:30 PM – 10:15 PM
Price £20 - £89
Website Click here for more information and to book



Most popular

Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Things to do in London this weekend: 17–19 March
Best art exhibitions in London. Photo: Thin Air at the Beams
Top exhibitions on now in London
Irene Maiorino and Alba Rohrwacher in My Brilliant Friend season 4, HBO/Sky Atlantic (Photo: HBO)
My Brilliant Friend, season 4, Sky Atlantic: first-look photo, release date, plot, cast

Editor's Picks

Jerone Marsh-Reid in Marvellous at the New Vic Theatre. Photo: Andrew Billington
Eight new theatre shows to see in October
Erin Doherty (Abigail Williams) in The Crucible at the National Theatre. Photo: Johan Persson
The Crucible, National Theatre review
The best kids theatre shows in London
The best kids' theatre shows in London
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).

We recommend nearby

  • Green Room

    A great place to eat or relax, the Nation Theatre's Green Room is enclosed in a sustainable garden, which acts as an urban oasis amid the hustle and bustle of the Southbank. The Green Room is open from noon until midnight from Monday-Saturday, and until 10pm on Sundays.

    Read more...

    Culture Whisper is your ultimate guide to the newest, most exciting cafés, bars and restaurants in London and we are sure you will love Green Room!

    Book Map

theatre

National Theatre

autumn

You might like

  • MOTHER GOOSE. John Bishop, Mel Giedroyc and Ian McKellen. Photo: Craig Sugden

    Ian McKellen in Mother Goose, Duke of York's Theatre

  • Erin Doherty (Abigail Williams) in The Crucible at the National Theatre. Photo: Johan Persson

    The Crucible, National Theatre review ★★★★★

  • Jews. In Their Own Words., Royal Court Theatre review

    Jews. In Their Own Words., Royal Court Theatre review ★★★★★



  • The Culture Whisper team
  • Support Us
  • Tickets
  • Contact us
  • Press
  • FAQ
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions
  • Cookies
  • Discover
  • Venues
  • Restaurants
  • Stations
  • Boroughs
Sign up to CW’s newsletter
By entering my email I agree to the CultureWhisper Privacy Policy (we won`t share data & you can unsubscribe anytime).
×