From the Sunday, January 30th performance at 7pm

Press Photos

Photos by Colin Hovde

More images of Ethel Waters

Ethel Waters and John Bubbles perform Birmingham Bertha in On With the Show (1929)

http://songbook1.wordpress.com/pp/fx/features-2-older-2/ethel-waters/

Donald Bogle's biography of Ethel Waters, 'Heat Wave'

By Wil Haygood
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 28, 2011


Toward the end of her beguiling life, the onetime vaudevillian Ethel Waters was schlepping around small college campuses. She was performing the Carson McCullers drama "The Member of the Wedding," which had brought her fame many years earlier on Broadway. But this was now the '60s, and Waters - in her own 60s - was a mysterious figure to many, an obese woman with a vicious temper who moonlighted with evangelist Billy Graham's traveling revivals. She had purposely distanced herself from the civil rights movement. The black college kids, in love with their rising cultural pride, wanted nothing to do with her during her campus tours. The white kids thought her an intriguing relic from the past. In 1972, Waters had been introduced to an audience as a legendary "black" performer. "Please, not the word 'Black,' " she said. "I'm a Negress and proud of it."

Waters, whose career spanned radio, Broadway, musical recordings, TV and film, has long demanded a major assessment. Donald Bogle's "Heat Wave" goes a long way toward putting her career in perspective and detailing her tortuous and enigmatic journey.

She was born on Halloween in 1896 in Chester, Pa., her birth a result of the rape of her teenage mother. While growing up, Waters became fond of music and musicians. It would be the way to escape poverty. "In time," writes Bogle, "Ethel got to see performers like the Whitman Sisters, the comedy duo Butterbeans and Susie, dancer Alice Ramsey, the ventriloquist Johnny Woods, and the great blues singer Ma Rainey." It was her education. She watched, she imitated, she learned.

Her voice was mature, and her stage presence aggressively sexy. (Waters never was a classic beauty like Lena Horne or Dorothy Dandridge, but in the old show-business adage, she worked well with what she possessed.) In time, Waters made her way to Baltimore, where she joined the lively Negro vaudeville circuit under the umbrella of the Theatre Owners Booking Association. It was an amalgamation of businessmen and hucksters who sent black performers throughout the country. Performers had another name for the group: Tough on Black Actors. The theater owners could be crooks, the pay paltry, the hours long and cruel. But Waters was nothing if not a hard worker. Harlem was a mecca for black entertainers, but it was also risky for newcomers. "There was too much Negro talent around," Bogle - the author of, among other books, "Dorothy Dandridge" and "Bright Boulevards, Bold Dreams: The Story of Black Hollywood" - tells us of that Harlem.

Waters stormed Harlem. She waltzed into the offices of Black Swan records in 1921. They liked her style. On show billings, she was referred to as "Sweet Mama Stringbean." She traveled with the Black Swan Jazz Masters and a lesbian lover. (A brief marriage had gone bust.) Onlookers gawked as she galloped atop a horse through Central Park. She was becoming one of the highest-paid Negro performers. She made it to Broadway in "Blackbirds of 1930." The show flopped, but theatergoers would remember her singing, especially the song "My Handy Man Ain't Handy No More," whose lyrics included: "He don't perform his duties like he used to do/. . . He says he isn't lazy, claims he isn't old/But still he sits round and lets my stove get cold." Mae West had nothing on Ethel Waters.

But every success Waters had she seemed to undermine. She cursed managers. She had lovers' spats that ended up in the tabloids. Domestic chaos was always at hand. She operated, certainly, in a racist environment. But charm was not her metier, as it was Lena Horne's. During rehearsal for a play, Waters confided: "I'm still a mite savage, I guess. Maybe there's real craziness in me. I'll say things I don't mean. I can't help it."

Her Hollywood foray was as dispiriting as every other black entertainer's at the time. "Generally," says Bogle, in wicked understatement, "Hollywood did not know what to do with its Black glamour goddesses." Here Bogle clearly becomes too enamored of his subject: Ethel Waters was no glamour goddess.

She performed well in "Cabin in the Sky" but did not, as Bogle proclaims, steal the movie. The newcomer Lena Horne did. Waters was mighty fine on-screen in "The Member of the Wedding." Her signature songs live on, among them "Am I Blue" and "St. Louis Blues." But the ending of her life is all too familiar. There were troubles with the IRS. Then health problems because of her weight. There were appearances in forgettable episodic TV dramas: that old lady sitting over there waiting on her cue.

Those who lived on higher ledges were never to her liking. "Though she could appreciate the attention of nobility," Bogle tells us, "she would always respond most to others like herself who crawled out of the pit, be it an economic or emotional one, and made a name or place for themselves."

One finishes this overlong chronicle wishing that Bogle had cracked the question of her mixed emotions about her race. It would also have been enlightening if he had delved deeper into her relationship with Billy Graham's crusading. Much of it, one is led to believe, comes down to the fact that entertainers are needy souls; they wish to be loved. Happy and functional romantic relationships seemed to have been beyond Waters's grasp. Upon meeting Eleanor Roosevelt, Waters said, "Mrs. Roosevelt, please hug me." But Donald Bogle has wrapped the life of Ethel Waters in empathy, and that is no small achievement.

Haygood, a national reporter for The Washington Post, is the author of three biographies, the latest of which is "Sweet Thunder: The Life and Times of Sugar Ray Robinson."

CLICK HERE to purchase HEAT WAVE: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters by Donald Bogle (Harper, 624pp, $26.99)

Note From The Producer

It has become a tradition at MetroStage. Every January we open a show featuring an amazing cast, telling an amazing story, featuring and celebrating African American artists from our collective history. And did I mention the incredible music and gifted musicians on our stage? This season is no exception. Miss Ethel Waters, one of the most acclaimed blues, jazz and gospel singers, is being featured in the play entitled "His Eye is on the Sparrow," her favorite gospel song and the title of her autobiography.

Waters led an extraordinary life, born at the turn of the century to a 13-year-old mother, living under impoverished conditions, and traveling the vaudeville circuit, performing at the Cotton Club in Harlem and, at one point, becoming the highest paid performer on Broadway. She was one of the most influential jazz and blues singers of her time and an actor earning great acclaim on Broadway, film and television. She was nominated for an Emmy, an Academy Award, received a Drama Critics Award, and introduced some of the most famous songs of the era: "Stormy Weather" by Harold Arlen and "Supper Time" by Irving Berlin.

MetroStage favorite Bernardine Mitchell returns to our stage as Ethel Waters. Our patrons know Miss Mitchell from her Award-winning portrayal in "Mahalia" and also her role in "Three Sistahs." She lives in Atlanta but considers Alexandria and MetroStage her second home. William Knowles will accompany her on the piano. Knowles is also well known to MetroStage audiences, most recently, as composer and conductor for "Cool Papa’s Party," for which he won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Music Direction.

In addition, we will be introducing to our stage Mary Millben, an Alexandria actor who will be playing Ethel Waters in select performances. Miss Millben has an impressive resume, having appeared at Arena Stage in "Crowns" and "Sophisticated Ladies" with Maurice Hines (another favorite here at MetroStage), and has also performed at the White House, the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors, the XLIII Super Bowl, the Congressional Black Caucus, and Obama’s Lincoln Memorial inaugural concert. She is another exceptional talent we are pleased to introduce to our audiences.

The stories and history of the African American artist in the first half of the 20th century are part of our mission here at MetroStage. In past seasons we have featured Alberta Hunter, Bricktop, Mabel Mercer, Pearl Bailey, Nat King Cole and Duke Ellington, to name a few. First and foremost, the music and their journeys are important for future generations to understand and appreciate, and the entertainment value from the stage is unsurpassed. We believe it is important to share this work, entertain our audiences, and honor the ground-breaking artists whose stories we are telling and whose music we are singing.

Oftentimes we will have three generations in our audience: a grandmother who grew up with these artists and their music, a daughter who had always heard the stories and a grandchild to be introduced to the era and the music. In fact, my 9-year-old granddaughter, Annalise, still sings "Baby Its Cold Outside" from our "Pearl Bailey … By Request," and had an opportunity to interview Miss Mitchell when she was here playing "Mahalia" for a school report. Theatre is to entertain, enlighten and enrich. These stories, these artists, and the actors on our stage accomplish all of the above, and we are proud to present this work on our stage during our celebration of Black History Month and beyond.

Excerpt from an Interview with Playwright Larry Parr

Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On The Sparrow was commissioned by Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota as part of its New Play Development Program and premiered in 2005. It is the third in a trilogy of one-person shows playwright Larry Parr has written about influential African-American women in show business that began with “Hi-Hat Hattie,” (1991) about Hattie McDaniel, and continued with “My Castle’s Rockin’,” (1996) about singer Alberta Hunter. Parr first discovered Waters when he was given a copy of her biography by a friend in high school. “I loved Ethel Waters when I was a kid. It seemed to me she would be my ideal mother or grandmother. As I learned more about her, I was astounded that someone who came from such an awful beginning, and who grew up in such a horrible situation, with no one to love her, could rise to such magnificent stardom and become such a strong symbol of faith. How did this happen? Well, that’s a story I wanted to tell.” Parr wanted to do more than highlight Waters’ early struggles and ultimate successes. “I thought it was extremely important to tell the story of a woman who had every right on earth to be a racist, yet who overcame that racism with a strong sense of will and faith. To me, that story gives hope to the rest of humanity.”

Ethel Waters: His Eye Is On The Sparrow finds Waters in a later, happier period of her career, singing with the Billy Graham Crusades. She recounts the trials and accomplishments in her life while singing many of the hits for which she is so well known. “One goal I set for myself in writing [the play] was to use the wonderful music associated with Ethel Waters in a way that would help illustrate her compelling story,” says Parr.

SNOW IS COMING DOWN...

Due to the inclement weather,

TONIGHT'S PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN PREVIEW IS CANCELLED.

$25 tickets are available for Thursday and Friday's performances at 8pm.

CODE: Preview

Call 800-494-8497 or CLICK HERE to order tickets online.

Who was Ethel Waters?

Ethel Waters was the first black Superstar...an innovator who opened all the theatrical doors hitherto closed to black performers of her day, to attain the towering position she reached as a headliner. She fought hard and long to achieve solo star status in the white world of vaudeville, night clubs, Broadway theater, radio, films and television. More than any other black performer of the century, Ethel Waters was a woman of the theater, and the celebrity she attained in maturity as an actress tended at times to overshadow-at least in memory-the importance of her accomplishments and influence as a singer.

Her talents defied categorical limits. She was the fountainhead of all that is finest and most distinctive in jazz and popular singing. Widely imitated during the 30's and 40's, one still hears echoes of Ethel Waters in many singers who came after her. Joe Turner, Bing Crosby, Ivie Anderson, Lee Wiley, Mildred Bailey, Connie Boswell, and Ella Fitzgerald have acknowledged their debt to her. Her range soared easily from a low, chest tone to a high, clear head voice: on records she sang from a low E to high F, just over two octaves, and on "Memories of You" she hits a spectacular high F sharp. Her diction was clear and impeccable, coloring the lyrics with the proper emotion necessary to express the feelings she wanted to convey.

Born October 31, 1896, in Chester, Pennsylvania, her eighty year life was a turbulent one filled with low valleys and high peaks. In her autobiography, His Eye Is On The Sparrow, she frankly detailed the squalor of her sordid childhood and early struggles. Her singing career began with amateur night performances in Philadelphia, then slowly moved in the black theater circuit, where she was billed as "Sweet Mama Stringbean."
She began recording in 1921 for the Black Swan label, continuing with that company through 1924. When she introduced "Dinah" at the famous Plantation Club (Broadway and 50th Street) in New York City in 1925, she met with such success that she was signed by Columbia Records, for whom she was to make many of her most famous recordings during the next decade. Her career continued to escalate in such black shows as Africana, The Blackbirds of 1928 (and 1930) and Rhapsody in Black. In 1929, she made her film debut in the new talking films, singing "Am I Blue?" and "Birmingham Bertha" in On with the Show, remade a few years later as Forty-Second Street.

In 1933, her sensational rendition of "Stormy Weather" at the Cotton Club made her the talk of the town; when Irving Berlin heard her sing it, she was signed for his As Thousands Cheer, a revue starring Marilyn Miller and Clifton Webb. She stopped the show with "Heat Wave" and "Suppertime" and was elevated to co-starring status. At the same time, she became the first Negro to star in a sponsored coast-to-coast radio show, accompanied by the Jimmy Dorsey orchestra. Her Broadway career continued its spectacular ascent with the hit shows At Home Abroad, Mamba 's Daughters, Cabin in the Sky, and Member of the Wedding. Later, she filmed the latter two, appearing also in Gift of Gab, Cairo, Tales of Manhattan, Pinky, and The Sound and the Fury. These films and her numerous recordings remain a legacy for audiences too young to have been or heard this legendary performer at her peak.

Her last years were spent touring with the evangelist Billy Graham, still performing occasionally, until her death on September 2, 1977, in Chatsworth, California.

Ethel Waters remains a towering figure in the history of jazz and American music.

Source: Text by Larry Carr; http://www.jazzateria.com/roots/ewaters.html

Ethel Waters sings "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" from the 1952 movie The Member of the Wedding with Ethel Waters as Bernice Sadie Brown, Julie Harris as Frankie Addams, and Brandon De Wilde as John Henry.

For more information, check out:
PBS - JAZZ, a Film by Ken Burns: Selected Artist Biography - Ethel Waters
http://www.pbs.org/jazz/biography/artist_id_waters_ethel.htm

The Museum of Broadcast Communications - Ethel Waters
http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=watersethel

Press Release

Producing Artistic Director Carolyn Griffin is pleased to announce the return of Helen Hayes Award winning actor and MetroStage favorite, Bernardine Mitchell, to MetroStage in the one woman musical, His Eye is on the Sparrow, based on the life of Ethel Waters. Written by Larry Parr, directed by Gary Yates, under the musical direction of S. Renee Clark, and accompanied by William Knowles on the piano and keyboard, the production will run from January 26th through March 20th. MetroStage is proud to welcome to its stage Mary J Millben, who will perform in selected performances.

His Eye is on the Sparrow is an inspirational musical about the life of the renowned African American, groundbreaking jazz singer and actor, Ethel Waters. From humble beginnings, she made her mark on Broadway (As Thousands Cheer -the first black woman in an all white cast-and Member of the Wedding -with Julie Harris, receiving the New York Drama Critics Award for her role), film (Pinky-receiving a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination, and Member of the Wedding) and television. She is considered one of the most influential jazz and blues singers of her time.

Director Gary Yates' credits include performing in regional theatre, film and television and directing on stages across the United States. He is chair of the Speech Communication and Theatre Arts Dept. at Clark Atlanta University and directed Ms. Mitchell in His Eye is on the Sparrow last season at Theatre in the Square in Marietta, Georgia. He has also directed Blues for an Alabama Sky, The Piano Lesson, Hambone, Gee's Bend and many others.

Bernardine Mitchell is well known to MetroStage audiences having performed on our stage in both Three Sistahs (nominated for Outstanding New Musical) and Mahalia, for which she received the Helen Hayes Award with her portrayal of Mahalia Jackson. In both cases, she reprised the roles in second productions by popular demand! She performs internationally (Gospel at Colonus) and regionally: A Christmas Carol (Alliance Theatre), A Cool Drink of Water (Black Arts Festival), Bessie's Blues (Studio Theatre), Blues in the Night (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award), and many others.

Mary Millben will be performing the role of Ethel Waters for select performances. She has been seen locally in Crowns and Sophisticated Ladies (Arena), has toured for the Kennedy Center, and has sung at the White House, The Congressional Black Caucus, The Kennedy Center Honors, the Super Bowl, the National Symphony Orchestra and President Obama's Lincoln Memorial inaugural concert. We are delighted to be introducing her to our audiences.

At MetroStage, S. Renee Clark has music directed and performed in Mahalia (twice) and was the music director for Bricktop. In Atlanta she has played piano or keyboard for Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris and Jesus Christ Superstar (Alliance Theatre), and has extensive music directing, performing, arranging, and composing credits. She has also performed world-wide.

William Knowles, who will be playing piano and keyboard for His Eye is on the Sparrow, was the composer and conductor/pianist for MetroStage's Award-winning Cool Papa's Party (he received the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Music Direction) and has played and music directed at MetroStage in numerous productions: All Night Strut, Ellington, Bricktop, Pearl Bailey...By Request, and elsewhere: Dinah Was (Arena Stage, Helen Hayes Award) and Tambourines to Glory (Lincoln Theatre, Helen Hayes nomination).

Performances for His Eye is on the Sparrow will be Wednesday, Thursday and Friday at 8pm, Saturday at 3pm & 8pm, Sunday at 3pm & 7pm, January 26-March 20 (no performances on February 2 and no matinees on January 29 and 30). Wednesday, January 26 at 8pm will be a Pay-What-You-Can Preview. Press night is Saturday, January 29 at 8pm. For ticket reservations, call 800 494-8497 or go online to www.metrostage.org. For information and group sales, call 703-548-9044. MetroStage is located at 1201 North Royal St. in North Old Town Alexandria. There is a free parking lot and fine dining nearby. The theatre is handicap accessible.

Joining the cast...

Mary Millben (Sophisticated Ladies, Crowns at Arena Stage) will be performing the role of Ethel Waters in select performances throughout the run of His Eye Is On The Sparrow.

Starting February 9th, we will be adding a Wednesday performance at 8pm.

Tickets are on sale now

by calling 800-494-8497

or CLICK HERE to order online.

Minor change in our upcoming schedule

Due to scheduling conflicts, His Eye Is On The Sparrow will now open Wednesday, January 26th.

The Real Inspector Hound will open April 21st (one week later than originally announced).

Please note the new dates & times below...

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN PREVIEW
($10 minimum)
Wednesday, January 26 at 8pm

Please come directly to the theater
and check in with the Box Office upon arrival.
Box office opens one hour prior to performance.
Seating is general admission. Space is limited.

PREVIEW PERFORMANCES:
Thursday, January 27 at 8pm
Friday, January 28 at 8pm

NOTE: There will not be a 3pm matinee on Saturday, January 29th or Sunday, January 30th.

OPENING/ PRESS NIGHT:
Saturday, January 29 at 8pm

Performances:
Thursdays & Fridays at 8pm,
Saturdays at 3 & 8pm
and Sundays at 3 & 7pm

Tickets:
$45-50 (Students: $25)

Tickets are available by calling 800-494-8497
or CLICK HERE to order online.

Coming this Spring...