Ol' Man River freshly channeled
K.B. Solomon revisits Paul Robeson’s artistic and activist legacy
By Bliss 08/06/2009
Despite the number of doors he opened and preconceptions he smashed, the great actor, singer and activist Paul Robeson remains most widely known as the towering figure who sang “Ol’ Man River” — but was otherwise little seen — in the 1930s musical “Show Boat.” It’s one of many ironies in a career of singular achievements.
Born in 1898 in Princeton, NJ, Robeson was the son of an abolitionist Quaker mother and a slave who became a Presbyterian minister after escaping from a Southern plantation. The third African-American student to attend Rutgers University, where he became class valedictorian, Robeson earned numerous sports varsity letters and was named to the All-America football team. He graduated from Columbia Law School in 1923, but by the mid-1920s he was starring in plays by Eugene O’Neill and in George & Ira Gershwin’s “Porgy & Bess.” When US theaters refused to cast him as Shakespeare’s “Othello” — a role then typically performed by white actors in blackface — Robeson played the role in England; he was finally given the role on Broadway in 1943. He also originated his “Show Boat” role in London.
Robeson crisscrossed the globe performing in concert halls and for US troops, Welsh miners’ protests and Spanish soldiers fighting Franco, mixing Broadway tunes with inspirational slave spirituals. But after World War II ended, his outspoken views on civil rights and highly controversial visits to the Soviet Union placed him in the crosshairs of the FBI and, later, the CIA and Britain’s MI6. Called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1956, he was ultimately blacklisted even though he was not a Communist. By the time he died in Philadelphia in 1976, he was largely forgotten, despite having prepared the field for the civil rights movement.
It’s intriguing to contemplate what role Robeson might play in today’s culture. KB (Kevin Bell) Solomon attempts precisely that in his one-man musical play “Speak of Me as I Am,” in which he performs numerous Robeson staples, including “Ol’ Man River,” “The House I Live In,” “Scandalize My Name” and “Danny Boy.” He’s accompanied by pianist Alfredo Olivieri and bassist Bill Markus, but the show rests on Solomon’s shoulders and operatically trained basso profundo voice. The play explores Robeson’s cinematic life story while theorizing what the trailblazing activist might say about current events such as Obama’s election. One can only imagine.
Grand Performances presents K.B. Solomon in “Speak of Me as I Am” at 8 p.m. Sunday at California Plaza, 350 S. Grand Ave., downtown LA; free admission. Info: (213) 687-2159. www.kbsolomon.com
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