The roles of Revision and Serendipity in DC Copeland's JITTERBUG!

DC Copeland's award-winning dancical Jitterbug! has been in rewrites since it's 3/23 reading in the New Works Festival in NYC. The three-act is now a two-act with the addition of new historical characters and one new/old song. Legendary bad girl Madame Stephanie St. Clair and her faithful henchman "Bumpy" Johnson have been added. The song is Irving Berlin's 1936 hit "Let's Face the Music and Dance."          

Ella Fitzgerald

"Flipping channels brought me to an episode of the Great American Songbook on PBS where I rediscovered Irving Berlin's Let's Face the Music and Dance," Copeland said. "I was looking for inspiration for the final scene in the first act and this song put it all together for me. The lyrics and the mood of the piece mirrored what I had written so it was a no-brainer. The fact that it was recorded by Ella Fitzgerald was chocolate icing on the cake. It was one thing to have been recorded during the dancical's time period (a must for me), but it also had to reflect one of the play's themes, i.e., the uniquely American collaboration of black and white creatives. Stumbling upon this program last week was serendipitous to say the least."

You can learn more about the process at the dancical's website. Copeland has also updated the dancical's music list which includes YouTube links to the music and some facts about the songs and the songwriters.

Jaz Dorsey

Khalil Kain and Peter Jay Fernandez "trade fours" in DC Copeland's dancical "Jitterbug!" (NYC)

Here's a video clip shot by Benja K Thomas during the sold-out 3/23 NYC reading. Khalil Kain, in the starring role of Billy Rhythm, takes on Bojangles (Peter Jay Fernandez) in the Hoofers Club, the legendary "unacknowledged world headquarters of tap dance." The Hoofers Club was basically a storage closet in the Comedy Club, the Jolly Fellows' Harlem hangout. It was just big enough to squeeze in an upright piano and a bench and still have enough floor space left over for two tap dancers to work their stuff. Bojangles challenges the desperate, injured and impetuous Rhythm to "trade fours." If he dances as well as he says he can, Bojangles will call off the Jolly Fellows who are bent on beating him up good. Pamela Monroe is reading the stage directions. Directed by Petronia Paley at the Tada! Theater. Music is based on the "Buck Dancer's Lament," a turn-of-the-century little riff in the public domain aka "stop-time." You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.

Andi Bohs cast as female lead in Jitterbug! (NYC)

Andi Bohs

Actress Andi Bohs has been cast by director Petronia Paley as the female lead in DC Copeland's Jitterbug!  This will be Andi's second time around in the dancical. Last March she had a smaller part in the shortened "radio" version at the prestigious National Black Theater in Harlem. While in Chicago she was featured in a number of regional productions including a dual-role performance as Mama/Hannah in A Midnight Cry at the historic Auditorium Theatre and Richard III at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. Since moving to New York she has performed as Belle de Costa Green in Ventfort Hall’s production of Belle of the Books, a role which was remounted for both the Metropolitan Playhouse’s 2011 Harlem Renaissance Festival and the 50th anniversary of the Union College Library. She most recently performed in Fresh Ground Pepper’s All the Rats and Rags and Tiny Rhino's Valentine's Day Eve Celebration.

Tickets are still available for the music and dance-filled reading at the Tada! Theatre Saturday March 23rd. Movie and TV star Khalil Kain will play Billy Rhythm, the lead character. He will be joining award-winning director Petronia Paley and Emmy nominated choreographer Jeffrey Page. Jitterbug! was invited by Artistic Director Paul Adams of the Emerging Artists Theatre's (EAT) to participate in the "invitation only" annual New Works Festival. The play has been vetted by USA Projects and Fractured Atlas for tax- deductible contributions to help offset its production costs. You can learn more at www.ouatih.com.