ROYCE JONES, DELANA FLOWERS
Playing in the Hill District through April 28
by Genea Webb, For New Pittsburgh Courier
The thirst for good music, romance and a bit of history will be quenched when audiences attend the performance of Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s season-opening production of “Dinah: A Musical Revue.”
“People’s souls are starving for something of substance that they can relate to that won’t kill them,” explained the production’s creator, Ernest McCarty. “This piece means a lot to the people who come to see it, to hear those old sounds and feel the old feelings because the radio isn’t playing Dinah Washington anymore. Where can they go to worship at the throne of Dinah Washington? ‘Dinah: A Musical Revue’ takes people back to that old feeling and those old sounds that they can’t get now.”
The show will run through April 28 at Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre’s 3401 Milwaukee Street home in the Hill District. It’s the second time Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company has produced the show. The first time was in 2015.
“I produced this in 2015 right before my accident. This time there is a different cast (except for Delana Flowers, who is reprising the role as Dinah Washington). We have a live band with top musicians in the city—Roger Humphries, Dewayne Dolphin, Dewayne Fulton and Tony Campbell,” said Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Mark Clayton Southers. “Ernest, who wrote the play, was in the production last time and he directed it, but this time I’m directing it. There are 10 new songs. We have swapped songs and this time the show is being performed in our permanent home. It will have a nightclub feel. It takes place in Birdland in New York in the 1960s, so the theater is going to be transformed into a nightclub. It will be a nice night on the town for folks. We’ve been getting good comments from the audience. It’s a really nice atmosphere.”
Flowers told the New Pittsburgh Courier she’s excited to reprise her role as Dinah Washington.
LES HOWARD AS BROOK BENTON AND DELANA FLOWERS AS DINAH WASHINGTON
“When I played Dinah back then, I didn’t have as much relatable experience,” said Flowers, who hails from Lancaster, but has lived in Pittsburgh 18 years and has been acting consistently since she set foot in the Golden Triangle. “Now I can relate more to her. Now I understand trying to fill an internal void. The research I’ve done and having more life experience is going into this performance. I want the audience to recognize that we are all human beings. We see people perform and we think they are wonderful, but they have problems, and they can’t have human experiences in the public eyes. There was a lot of segregation back then and the Black artists had to do a lot to survive. Every time I perform it’s special, I get to share the stage with living legends, and I feel so honored to share the stage with them. I am grateful that they were willing to trust me with this role again. This story is important to our culture, history, and I am grateful for this opportunity.”
TONY CAMPBELL, DWAYNE FULTON, DWAYNE DOLPHIN, ROGER HUMPHRIES
In addition to Flowers reprising her role as the main character, other cast members include former KDKA-TV reporter Royce Jones, Cheryl El-Walker, Katy Cotten, Les Howard, Sam Lothard and Chris Olshefski.
“I’m playing reporter Bob Hunter who does an expose on Dinah Washington,” said Jones, who is making his professional acting debut with the role. “He has one night with her as she prepares for her Birdland performance. He becomes a fly on the wall, and he sees everything. This is the path I wanted to go down before journalism. I believe I was born to entertain. I was ready to jump into this when Mark reached out to me…If you love Dinah Washington and she’s a part of your life, musically you are going to love it. If you are just entering Dinah Washington’s world for the first time, then you are going to have an educational experience. We have to keep our ancestors’ stories alive and our ancestors’ names live for the next generation.”
DINAH WITH THE DINAH-MITES (KATY COTTEN, CHERYL EL-WALKER, DELANA FLOWERS)
“Dinah Washington was about music and singing and songs. I constructed the play around music to put in a little history and I created dialogue that she may have said to fit with the music,” said McCarty, who wrote the play in 2009. “She was a performer and businesswoman in a man’s world who booked herself. She owned herself. She said she was going to book her own self and pay herself 10 percent. She also booked other acts as well at a time when that was uncommon for women. The songstress battled weight, low-self-esteem, and other demons and tragically died of a drug overdose at the age of 39.”
Tickets for “Dinah: A Musical Revue” can be purchased by visiting Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company’s website at
www.pghplaywrights.org.
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