By SHARON EBERSON
Just one more thing, Delana Flowers was saying, before our goodbyes. She had been discussing her return to Dinah: A musical revue, as Dinah Washington, who declared herself the Queen of the Blues and had a remarkable string of hits in her 39 larger-than-life years.
Flowers played the title role nine years ago for Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company and will do so again, this time at the Manchester Arts Center in the Upper Hill District, April 5-28, 2024.
“I want you to know how important I think it is that Mark has us doing performances for the community during the first week of previews,” Flowers said PPTC producing artistic director and the show’s director, Mark Clayton Southers. “Dinah found herself feeling out of place around other celebrities, and she preferred to be with people in the communities where she toured and and preferred to sing for them, too. They gave her back the energy other audiences could not.
Dinah, by Ernest McCarty, is part bio-musical and part concert. There will be subtle differences in this production, from the one in 2015, not the least of which is the tight quarters of Playwrights’ former Downtown home and the current Carter Redwood Theatre, which will be outfitted with cabaret-style tables.
Flowers welcomes this chance to revisit Dinah Washington in the relatively new venue, tucked into a community where it once served as an elementary school.
Since that first turn at the role, the Pittsburgh-based actress, singer, model and writer has been seen on countless local stages, including as Sojourner Truth for Prime Stage, in the ensemble of Front Porch Theatricals’ Merrily We Roll Along and was one of the first artists to perform a cabaret, with guitarist Mila Shadel, at the remodeled Greer Cabaret Lounge.
“I hadn’t had a lot of experience in my own life when I first played Dinah, but in nine years, life teaches lessons, and now I find her so much more relatable.”
She adds, “The jury is still out on whether she was married seven times – some say eight or nine, but who could really know, except her? Have I been married that many times? No. But I understand trying to fill an internal void externally. We are all searching for something, and don’t always know the right way to go about it.”
One thing Dinah Washington could always do was sing, from gospel to R&B to pop. She was a vocalist for Lionel Hampton’s band before before a solo career that, between 1948 and 1955, produced more than two dozen R&B Top 10 hits. Pigeon-holed mostly as a torch-song singer, she could do it all – in 1959, her version of “What a Diff’rence a Day Made” reached No. 4 on the U.S. pop chart.
When she was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, Quincy Jones said of her, “She could take the melody in her hand, hold it like an egg, crack it open, fry it, let it sizzle, reconstruct it, put the egg back in the box and back in the refrigerator, and you would’ve still understood every single syllable.”
Flowers points out that Dinah Washington, despite her popularity on the R&B charts, was often denied the chance for cross-over distribution of her recordings, something she craved. She had the added burden inflicted on African-Americans in the 1950s of traveling to venues – sometimes cross-country for a single gig – where she was not allowed to enter through the front door or to use the facilities.
“I read about her playing in Las Vegas. They didn’t allow her to go into the casino, and they made her stay in a trailer outside until it was her turn to perform. Wow,” Flowers said.
She traveled with musicians – and married a few of them, Flowers noted – and they were witness not only to the injustices thrown at them, but of the singer’s well-known mood swings.
“You hear people talking about how she could be cutthroat and definitely had the mouth of a sailor, but she was also extremely generous, almost to a fault,” Flowers said of her research. “She just felt the need to give to people. Now, don’t get on her bad side. She might take it back and she might embarrass you about it, too.”
The all-star band for the 2024 show comprises Dwayne Fulton on piano, Tony Campbell on saxophone, Dwayne Dolphin on upright bass and Roger Humphries on drums.
“I am ecstatic about getting to play with these legends,” Flowers enthused. When we did this the first time, it was an honor and a pleasure to sing with George Hyde Sr. for the first time. I value that even more now than I did then. And now I get to play with Mr. Humphries!”
Flowers noted that Washington worked with great musicians and “she let them shine,” assuring they paid accordingly and spotlighting them with solos.
of Dinah: A musical revue, for Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company.
The show also features “special guest” Royce Jones, formerly of KDKA News, playing a reporter for Ebony magazine. The cast also includes Cheryl El-Walker, Les Howard, Sam Lothard, Chris Olshefski and Katy Cotten, as Dinah’s mother.
Among the “stellar” cast, she has sung with Cotten, “but it’s been a really long time since we’ve acted together on stage. So that was cool,” Flowers said. “It was nice not to have to conjure up chemistry, because we are close friends already.”
Of Jones, she said, “He’s very much a thread in the show, asking me about things as a reporter. He’s so easy to talk with, which I guess makes a lot of sense.”
Dinah Washington was insecure about her weight. She took pills and also had mercury injections, which allowed her to drop two dresses sizes in a day. She died of a probable accidental overdose in 1963, found unresponsive by her husband, football Hall of Famer Dick “Night Train” Lane.
Playwright and musician McCarty, who also directed the first Playwrights production, set his story during the last year of Dinah’s too-short life.
“I’m really, really just grateful, I felt honored to revisit this,” Flowers said. “I was very curious to see where this show would sit in my being after so much time had gone by, and it actually feels a little more vulnerable this time for me. I think that’s just because I have more relatable experience.”
As for the music, there may be a couple of changes for those who saw the earlier production. But then, Washington left a legacy of memorable songs that few can match, and that alone is worth another visit to Dinah.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Dinah: A musical revue is at Madison Arts Center, 3401 Milwaukee St., Upper Hill, April 5-28, 2024. Tickets: https://www.pghplaywrights.org/season-info/dinah-2024/
Categories: Our Posts, Show Previews
This is VERY informative about Diana’s trail and tribulations she endured during her path to success.
Thanks for keeping her legacy alive and thriving.