‘Mama, I Want to Sing!’ Returns for 40th Anniversary

Ahmaya Knoelle Higginson made her first stage appearance before she was born. Her mother, Vy Higginsen, a gospel co-writer of her musical Mama, I Want to Sing!, was pregnant with Higginson in 1983. When Higginson was a toddler, she staggered backstage during the musical’s international tour, and at age 10, she joined Madison’s choir for her Square Garden performance. Then, as a teenager, she stepped into the lead role of Doris Winter.

“I have become a product of my environment,” said Higginson. “Did you hear music from the womb?”

Now 39, Higginson is leading the nearly three-week revival of “Mama, I Want to Sing!” for its 40th anniversary. Performances will run through his March 12th at El Museo’s El Teatro, also coinciding with Black History Month. Heckscher TheaterThe 1983 musical ran for years in the 80’s.

Higginsen, who produced the work with her husband Ken Widlo, said she never expected her daughter to carry on the show’s legacy as a director. Her daughter said, “We’ve seen every iteration, we’ve seen every singer, we’ve seen every star,” Higginsen said, adding, “Who’s more capable of directing a show than her at this stage? ‘ added.

In a recent interview at Harlem’s Mama Art Foundation, an organization founded by Higginsen to preserve and promote black music through free educational programs, Higginson leaned on her mother while talking about the evolution of the show. rice field.

“Mom, I want to sing!” is a family matter. This story was inspired by Higginsen’s older sister, Doris her Troy. Dristroy was a choir girl in her father’s Harlem church and later became a singer in Seoul. Known for her 1960s hit “Just One Look”. (Troy played the role of her mother in the musical from 1984 to 1998, and died of emphysema in 2004. Theatre.

Between 1983 and 1991, the musical ran over 2,800 performances at the Heckscher Theatre. Higginsen said he still remembers lifting the chains from the previously closed theater and scrubbing the dirt and dust off the seats. “I wasn’t sure if it would work at first, but then word of mouth spread like wildfire.”

The success of “Mama, I Want to Sing!” has led to a national and international tour with stops in Switzerland, Germany, Italy, Japan and London. It was followed by her 1990 sequel Doris about her Winters marriage and her first child, and the production of 1996’s Born to Sing: Mama III.

All along, Higginsen thought about the show’s legacy. It started with her daughter, who went from performing on stage to sitting in the director’s chair.

“I hope this story is told in an authentic way,” said Higginsen. I was reborn in the world of American music. “

Reverend Richard Hartley, who plays Reverend Winter in the current production, first joined the show in 1987 as a member of the musical’s church choir, and has since served as narrator and raucous choirmaster. assumed the role.

“This is an American institution,” said Hartley.

To cast the next Doris for the show’s latest edition, Higginson launched a nationwide search last year without success. (The last version of the show performed on stage was Mama, I Want to Sing: The Next Generation, performed in Japan in 2013.) “was.)

And in November, after consulting with a colleague who teaches at the Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music, Art and Performing Arts, she visited the school on Tuesday and auditioned 20 students in the hallway.

“People say they expect the unexpected,” said Higginson. “You could see it in their faces, and that’s exactly what we wanted.”

Faith Cochrane, a 16-year-old junior vocal major, said Higginson was eating lunch when he arrived. She said she was nervous and she couldn’t hit every note in her audition song “Amazing Grace.” However, Higginson was impressed with her potential and Cochrane was asked to join her production. She is currently one of her three teenage performers, including Elise Silva and Asa Sultan, alternating roles of young starlets.

“What I had to work with was getting outside my comfort zone,” Cochrane said. “But when I did, the reaction from everyone else was really good and made me feel better.”

During rehearsals in Harlem last week, Higginson led the Sing Harlem Choir, telling them to sit up straight, jibe to the rhythm, and hit sharp staccato notes. In between scenes, his three teenagers playing Doris giggled, danced, bounced their shoulders, and stamped their feet. And as various performers sang solos, the choir members applauded and incited approval. Higginson and her mother could feel Troy’s spirit in the room.

“I’ve been in the spotlight for a long time,” she added. “What’s wonderful is watching the flowers grow.”