Bubbling Brown Sugar (with Xae Copeland)

So we're in the middle of the 1975 to 76 Broadway season, so today we're talking about the 76 OBC album for Bubbling Brown Sugar.

So you don't have much of a relationship to this show or album other than the song that you mentioned.

I similarly do not have a long history with this.

I mostly know it as one of the shows that was up against Pacific Overture to the Tonys, and then everybody got steamrolled by a chorus line that year.

But it is interesting because it is a review, but it's got more of a story than a lot of reviews.

Although, spoiler alert, we don't get much of that from the cast album.

But from what I can gather, it's about some people in Harlem in the present day of the 70s Taking a white couple who are there looking at the historical sites, taking them back in time to see the heyday of Harlem jazz in the 20s and 30s.

And it sounds confusing.

I think it's really just a device to allow for the show to continue.

sing the songs at once and kind of go through the parts of history that it wants.

But it's an interesting concept to have time travel and intercultural teachings.

And it's like somebody travels back in time.

They say, no, you have to go back because they don't want her there.

And just, I don't know.

Look at the Wikipedia page.

It's

wild.

Yeah, basically they go back in time and then it's like two people who are also like who could have made it big in the industry and And it was like what these I guess what they work and they started out together as youngsters.

So it was like, what if she went back and changed it or like if he didn't make that one deal or something like that?

Yeah, so it's interesting.

This is going to be the first of many episodes for this season where dealing with shows that, you know, there are a lot of shows in Broadway history that are about communities and cultures that I did not share.

And starting with this season, I'm definitely wanting to be better about having guests whose lived experiences can maybe add some better perspective to that conversation that I could never really offer.

So to that end, I'm very glad that you're here with me.

Because this is an interesting time period because we have started now having shows like The Wiz where the cast, the story content, and the creative team are all of the community.

In this case, all black composers and directors and things like that.