Carla Cook, Brandon Victor Dixon, Adriane Lenox Take Part in a Cotton Club Parade, Starting Nov. 18

By Andrew Gans
18 Nov 2011

Carla Cook, Wynton Marsalis and Adriane Lenox
Carla Cook, Wynton Marsalis and Adriane Lenox
Photo by Joan Marcus

Duke Ellington's Cotton Club Parade, a celebration of Ellington's years at the famed Harlem nightclub in the 1920s and early '30s, plays the recently renovated New York City Center Nov. 18-22. The production is billed as an "Encores! Special Event."

Conceived by Jack Viertel, with selected texts by Langston Hughes, the production is directed by Warren Carlyle and features the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, who also serves as music director.

The cast includes Alexandria "Brinae Ali" Bradley, Everett Bradley, Andrew "Dr.Ew" Carter, Carla Cook, Nicolette DePass, Brandon Victor Dixon, DeWitt Fleming Jr., Carmen Ruby Floyd, Jared Grimes, Jeremiah "Showtyme" Haynes, Rosena Hill, Rachael Hollingsworth, Kendrick Jones, Monroe Kent, Tony winner Adriane Lenox and T. Oliver Reid, with Shani "Virgo" Alston, Jason E. Bernard, Tanya Birl, Braxton Brooks, Christopher Broughton, Chanon Judson, Karine Plantadit, Monique Smith, Daniel J. Watts, Joseph Monroe Webb, Christian Dante White and J.L. Williams.

It is the inaugural production of a new producing partnership between City Center and Jazz at Lincoln Center.

With Ellington's music as the centerpiece, Cotton Club Parade, according to City Center, "reimagines one of the composer's Cotton Club floor shows. ... As in the original revues, Cotton Club Parade will feature singers, dancers and variety acts, and songs by the greatest jazz composers of the time, including Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields ('I Can’t Give You Anything But Love' and 'Digga Digga Doo'), a young Harold Arlen ('Stormy Weather,' 'I’ve Got the World on a String,' 'Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea,'), and of course, Duke Ellington ('Rockin' in Rhythm,' 'Cotton Club Stomp,' 'Black and Tan Fantasy,' and 'Creole Love Call')."

Tickets start at $25 and are available at the New York City Center Box Office (W. 55th Street between 6th and 7th avenues), through CityTix at (212) 581-1212, or online at NYCityCenter.org.