Based on August Wilson’s Tony-nominated 1982 play by the same title,
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom draws inspiration from the life of Getrude “Ma” Rainey, the pioneering blues singer widely known as “The Mother of the Blues.” Rainey was among the first blues singers to record music; she also broke new ground for generations of blues singers to come by fusing vaudeville with southern blues. Wilson’s play depicts a fictionalized afternoon in Rainey’s life, set on a sweltering summer day in Chicago circa 1927, with Rainey set to record a song titled “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” Waiting at the run-down record studio for a tardy Rainey and her entourage are her Black band members, her white manager, and the white owner of the record label. When Rainey finally arrives, a heated conflict erupts between everyone present—one that wrestles with the complexities of racism and artistic exploitation.