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A14 PEOPLE & ARTS
Friday 27 November 2020
Review: 'Ma Rainey' is Boseman's final, perhaps finest gift

By JOCELYN NOVECK are scheduled one after-
AP National Writer noon in 1927 to record a
Chadwick Boseman surges few hits. Intensifying the
onto the screen as fast- claustrophobia, Wolfe has
talking trumpeter Levee in turned it from winter to sul-
"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" try summer; Ma is perpetu-
like a man on an electrified ally glistening in sweat.
tightrope -- balancing pre- Before Ma arrives -- suitably
cariously between hope late -- her band gathers.
and cynicism, humor and There's the fatherly Cutler
sadness, joy and pain, and (Colman Domingo), Slow
love and hate. Drag (Michael Potts), and
Unlike with some of Bose- pianist Toledo (Glynn Tur-
man's other famous char- man). Then Levee bursts in,
acters who've had a clear brandishing a prized new
moral center from the start, pair of shoes. Not only does
it's not clear what Levee, a he have talent, he boasts
creation of legendary play- to the older guys: "I got
wright August Wilson, has STYLE." That he does. And
up his sleeve. Handsome ambition. Encouraged by
and wiry, he's constantly on the white studio owner, he's
edge, and behind even his writing songs and plans to
most brilliant smile there's a launch his own band. And
whiff of something amiss. This image released by Netflix shows Michael Potts, from left, Chadwick Boseman and Colman he has his own, jazzier ver-
We don't really know what Domingo in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." sion of "Black Bottom," sure
we're looking at. But we Associated Press to get people dancing.
sure don't want to look But Ma isn't having it. She
away. without saying that the per- screenplay by Ruben Santi- "Mother of the Blues." She's has her version of the song,
Boseman's performance formance is brilliant, and ago-Hudson and score by the only real-life character and it works. She's also in-
in this film adaptation of yes, electric, but it's also Branford Marsalis. There's in Wilson's 10-play cycle sistent that her nephew
Wilson's 1982 play, lov- heroic. If there had to be also the matter of the titular documenting the African Sylvester give the introduc-
ingly directed by George a final role, what a gift that Ma herself, played by a su- American experience, and tion, even though he stut-
C. Wolfe, would be heart- it was this, an exclama- perb Viola Davis, nearly un- the only LBGT character, ters. And she won't begin
breaking even if the actor tion point to a career that recognizable in her broad- too. recording until she's good
hadn't tragically lost his life seems ever more momen- ened silhouette, mouth of Wolfe, who doesn't try to and ready. "That's the way
to cancer this year. tous. gold teeth, and coat upon underplay the material's it go around here," she says.
But watching it now, that Boseman isn't the only vol- coat of eye makeup. To- theatrical roots, gives us Ma isn't merely throwing
knowledge informs every canic force in "Ma Rainey," gether, she and Boseman a a few tone-setting per- around her weight. She's
moment, as one imagines a meditation on power, conduct a master class. formance scenes. But the staking a claim to her very
the challenges he must race, sex and commerce A historical note: Ma Rain- action takes place almost dignity. Once the studio
have faced in a famously in early 20th-century Amer- ey, who died in 1939, was a exclusively inside a white- has what they need, she
taxing role that was clearly ica treated with sensitivity groundbreaking Black sing- owned studio in Chicago, knows, they won't care a
so important to him. It goes and grace by Wolfe, with a er from Georgia known as where Ma and her band whit about her. q

Obama memoir sells a record 1.7 million copies in first week

By HILLEL ITALIE day that it had increased popularity as a writer. Her George W. Bush's "Decision now each sold between
AP National Writer its initial print run from 3.4 "Becoming," published in Points" sold 775,000 copies 3.5 and 4 million copies,
Former President Barack million copies to 4.3 million. 2018, has sold more than its first week and Bill Clin- totals that Obama's book
Obama's "A Promised Land" Sales also include audio 10 million copies worldwide ton's "My Life" topped 1 mil- should easily surpass.
sold more than 1.7 million and digital books. and is currently in the top lion in eight days. The two No nonfiction comes close
copies in North America in "A Promised Land," the first 20 on Amazon.com. presidential memoirs have to the pace set by J.K.
its first week, roughly equal of two planned volumes, Rowling's "Harry Potter and
to the combined first week was published Nov. 17 and the Deathly Hallows," which
sales of memoirs by his two sold nearly 890,000 copies in 2007 sold more than 8
immediate predecessors just in its first day. Among million copies in its first 24
and among the highest former White House resi- hours.q
ever for a nonfiction book. dents, only Obama's wife
Crown announced Tues- Michelle approaches his Solution Sudoku

This Feb. 19, 2019, file photo shows former President Barack
Obama speaking at the My Brother's Keeper Alliance Summit
in Oakland, Calif.
Associated Press
Puzzle on Page 13