“Ask Your Mama!â€, the multimedia musical show based on the poetry of Langston Hughes, will be presented for one night at the Apollo Theater next spring, the theater announced on Tuesday.
The show â€" described as “a 90-minute tapestry of music, film and spoken word†â€" received warm reviews when it had its premiere at Carnegie Hall in March 2009. Written by the composer Laura Karpman, the score is based on Hughes's “Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz.†The poet had begun the piece at the 1960 Newport Jazz Festival and had envisioned setting it to music with Charles Mingus, but died before the project was completed.
The opera singer Jessye Norman will lead the cast, which includes the jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon. The music will be performed by the Manhattan School of Music Chamber Sinfonia, along with the hip-hop band the Roots, led by the drummer Questlove (Ahmir Thompson) and the rapper Black T hought (Tarik Trotter). George Manahan will conduct as he did the premiere and a later performance at the Hollywood Bowl.
Ms. Karpman's composition is an ambitious musical collage that weaves into her own motifs many of Hughes's musical cues, which he had noted in the margins of the poem and which ranged from hot jazz numbers to patriotic songs. The primary narrator is Hughes himself, his voice manipulated with a sampling keyboard. Â The performance includes a stream of vintage film clips and abstract video segments.
The performance will take place on March 23. Tickets go on sale through Ticketmaster at 10 a.m. on Nov. 19.
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