
Jackie Taylor, the amiable creative heart and soul of Chicago’s beloved Black Ensemble Theater, has declared 2020 as the company’s Season of Change. She opens with Legends the Musical: A Civil Rights Movement Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, an original, ambitious musical battle cry, a movement against the injustice and bigotry that’s overtaking our country today, thanks to an administration that has set our country back 200 years.
And this is just the beginning of Taylor’s aggressive theatrical approach in trying to helping combat the racism that’s reared its ugly head in America since the Orange Menace was elected.
Ten talented performers, led by BET musical superstars Dwight Neal and Dawn Bless, welcome theatergoers to the Healing Circle. The entire company examines the horror of trying to survive in racist America today. Next, they take us on a journey back through time, illuminating dozens of forgotten black scientists, inventors and historical figures from the past. The cast leads this retrospective of heroes into the present and, with some imagination, a more hopeful future. Sometimes shocking, often uncomfortable to witness, the company relates the inhumane brutality that African-Americans have experienced throughout time.

But, in addition to being a wakeup call, the production also balances the negativity with hope, positive anticipation and a promise for a better future. The audience is asked to join hands with one another and swear to help bring love and healing back to our country. This begins with our own lives and then by making informed decisions at the polls next November. For this show, Taylor has composed several inspirational songs of her own, including the opening number, “Welcome to the Healing,” the sad “Face of Hate” and the lead-in to a presentation of the names of the Black lives we’ve lost, entitled “We Must Remember.” BET newcomer, the exquisitely gifted vocalist, Hannah Mary Simpson, thrills with Taylor’s anthem, “They Are Our Heroes.”

But perhaps one of the most poignantly moving moments of this production is performer MJ Rawls’ personal passage toward becoming who she truly is today. Affectingly told with heartbreaking honesty, Rawls relates her journey toward accepting that she’s a black woman trapped inside a man’s body. She’s embraced, both by the cast as well as every audience member, as she shares her sad past buoyed with the hope for a happy future. Rawls is now transitioning into the person she acknowledges that she was meant to be. She caps her stirring soliloquy with an inspiring rendition of the tear-jerking classic, “Stand By Me.”

Black Ensemble Theatre presents “Legends the Musical: A Civil Rights Movement Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” through April 12 at 4450 N. Clark Street, Chicago. More information and tickets are available here.
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