FREE SHOW!!!
Go to www.bryantpark.org for more info!
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Go to www.bryantpark.org for more info!
Find this event on Facebook here
Many thanks and a HUGE shout out to Brooklyn Independent Television, a community media program of BRIC Arts | Media | Bklyn !
Check them out here
“ASK Melvin Van Peebles about his legacy, and you get a snort, a grimace, a wave of the hand, a game-show error buzz and a finely punctuated “come on.” “I didn’t even know I had a legacy,” he said between rehearsals for his latest project, a musical-theater adaptation of his 1971 film “Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song.” “I do what I want to do.”
The story includes audio excerpts of the interview.
Check it out here at NY Times Online
As the story goes …from a humble beginning of only two theaters and a torrent of negative reviews, “Sweet Sweetback’s Baasasssss Song” eventually mushroomed to domestic box office receipts of $10,000,000.00 and landed on Daily Variety’s list of top-grossing films for the year 1971. Incidentally Sweet Sweetback was the largest grossing independent film up to that time with it’s success kick-starting what became known as the Blaxplotation film movement.
Not as well documented is that Earth Wind and Fire performed the musical soundtrack on Sweetback. Here, thirty-nine years later, Mr. Melvin Van Peebles, the producer, writer, director, composer, editor and star of Sweet Sweetback has chosen Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber to be his 23rd-century Earth Wind and Fire.
The Arkestra Chamber will perform the soundtrack live, on-stage, for the theatrical world premiere of “Sweet Sweetback’s Baddass Song (The Hood Opera)” at the Sons d’hiver Festival in Paris, France on February 19th and 20th, 2010.
Want a taste and can’t go to Paris in February? Joe’s Pub has you covered!
On Sunday, January 10th, 2010, Joe’s Pub Late Night will present Burnt Sugar for a baadasssss time of tunes from the soundtrack; an appearance by Mr. Melvin Van Peebles himself; and of course the conducted-improvisational mash-ups conductor Greg Tate and the Burnt Sugar crew are world-famous for.
Get your tickets early as the last Burnt Sugar/Joe’s Pub performance in August stranded a bus-load of music lovers in the Public Theater lobby. The time is now, Be a witness!
Two Nights! Feb 3 & 4
Melvin Van Peebles
& Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber
in residence at BRICstudio
8:00 PM Work-In-Progress (rehearsal) Viewing
9:45 PM Discussion w/ Melvin Van Peebles
10:00 PM Book Signing & Merchandise Sales
Doors Open @ 7:45 PM
Tickets Details Coming Soon!
Join us for an unforgettable evening with legendary artist and director Melvin Van Peebles as he directs Burnt Sugar the Arkestra Chamber and a large cast of actors and singers in a musical stage adaptation of his groundbreaking 1971 film, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadassss Song. Experience a work-in-progress preview of the piece, ahead of its international premiere at the 2010 Sons d’hiver Festival in Paris, followed by a post-performance discussion with the artists.
Don’t miss this unique opportunity to witness the intimate process of artistic collaboration and creative fusion that will bring to the stage one of the most influential movies of the African-American cinema!
Melvin Van Peebles financed, wrote, directed, scored, and starred in the original film version of Sweet Sweetback, paving the way for the success of future independent black films to follow. It tells the story of a deprived African-American man on his flight from white authority in satirical, realistic and often humorous detail.