The Gospel at Colonus
| The Gospel at Colonus | |
|---|---|
| Music | Bob Telson |
| Lyrics | Lee Breuer |
| Book | Lee Breuer |
| Basis | Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles |
| Productions | 1983 Brooklyn Academy of Music 1985 American Music Theater Festival, Philadelphia 1987 Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis 1988 Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Broadway 1990 American Conservatory Theater, San Francisco 2004 Apollo Theater 2010 Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, St. Paul 2015 Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, Los Angeles 2015 Playhouse on the Square, Memphis |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize finalist, 1985 |
The Gospel at Colonus is an African-American musical version of Sophocles's tragedy, Oedipus at Colonus. The show was created in 1983 by the experimental-theatre director Lee Breuer, one of the founders of the seminal American avant-garde theatre company Mabou Mines, and composer Bob Telson. The musical was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show had a brief run on Broadway in 1988.
The Gospel at Colonus premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's New Wave Festival in November to December 1983.
The following year it received a production at the Arena Stage in Washington D.C. running from Nov 23, 1984 – Dec 30, 1984
The musical ran at the American Music Theater Festival, Philadelphia, in September 1985.
The Gospel at Colonus opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on March 11, 1988 in previews, officially on March 14, 1988, and closed on May 15, 1988 after 61 performances and 15 previews. Directed by Lee Breuer, the cast featured Morgan Freeman (Messenger), Sam Butler, Jr. (The Singer), Clarence Fountain and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama (Oedipus) and the Institutional Radio Choir of Brooklyn. Breuer was nominated for the 1988 Tony Award for his book.
The musical was a finalist for the 1985 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The musical won the 1984 Obie Award as Best Musical.
The musical was produced at the Apollo Theater, New York City, in October 2004, featuring Charles S. Dutton as the Preacher, the Blind Boys of Alabama and the Legendary Soul Stirrers.
The production at the Nate Holden Performing Arts Center, Los Angeles, by the Ebony Repertory Theatre was nominated for the 2015 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards for theatrical excellence.
...
Wikipedia