The Advocate about Rainey s unapologetic queerness, orgies, and power for the new Netflix film. December 21 2020 8:00 AM EST
“They say I do it, ain’t nobody caught me / Sure got to prove it on me / Went out last night with a crowd of my friends / They must’ve been women, ’cause I don’t like no men,” Ma Rainey declares in “Prove It on Me Blues.” That 1928 tune isn’t performed in
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the new film based on August Wilson’s 1982 play that premiered Friday on Netflix. But Viola Davis, who is deeply familiar with Wilson’s oeuvre she won an Oscar for her role in the 2016 film based on his play
Chadwick Boseman as Levee, Colman Domingo as Cutler, Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, Michael Potts as Slow Drag and Glynn Turman as Toledo in Ma Rainey s Black Bottom. (David Lee/Netflix) Ma Rainey s Black Bottom is one of the most talked about movies this year. The film, which premiered on Netflix on Dec. 18 and was adapted for the screen by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, is based on the Tony Award-nominated 1984 play by August Wilson. Ma Rainey is part of the American Century Cycle of ten plays by Wilson that reimagines the 20th-century African American experience, decade by decade.
Except for Ma Rainey, Wilson s plays were fictional and took place in Pittsburgh where he grew up. Gertrude Ma Rainey (1886-1939) was known as the Mother of the Blues and was one of the first blues singers to record. This play, based in Chicago, is the only one that Wilson places outside of Pittsburgh. While it is winter in his play, Santiago-Hudson changes the season to summer to great