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The Ultimate Backstage Tour of Broadway!

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By Louis Botto, edited by Robert Viagas
Preface by Tony Award-winning actor Brian Stokes Mitchell

• Inspired by Louis Botto's popular Playbill column, "At This Theatre"

• A lavish, 376-page at coffee table book, chock-full of theatrical history, facts, memories and anecdotes

• Richly illustrated with more than 550 color & black and white photographs, posters, and classic Playbill covers

Available through Playbill On-line at
www.playbillstore.com
and fine booksellers nationwide
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Who's Who in the Cast

Charles S. Dutton (Levee). Mr. Dutton originated the role of Levee in his Broadway debut in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in 1984. He originated the role of Herald Loomis in the Yale Repertory Theatre production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone in 1986. In 1990, Mr. Dutton starred in The Piano Lesson on Broadway, After more than a decade of effort and desire to mount a revival of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. Mr. Dutton would like to state that this is his farewell performance in the theatre: "I have done the theatre some service, and they know it...No more of that!" Mr. Dutton would like to dedicate this production of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom to the memory of Theresa Merritt, Joe Seneca and Robert Judd, original cast members. And to Tommy Hollis, original cast member of The Piano Lesson.

Whoopi Goldberg (Ma Rainey) got her start on stage, went to Broadway with her Grammy Award-winning show, Whoopi Goldberg on Broadway, directed by Mike Nichols, and was last seen on Broadway in 1997 in A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Whoopi earned an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe Award for her film debut in The Color Purple and won the Oscar and a Golden Globe for Ghost. Her films include Sister Act; Boys on the Side; How Stella Got Her Groove Back; Girl, Interrupted; Kingdom Come; and Rat Race. She will be seen next in Showtime's "Good Fences," co-producing and co-starring with Danny Glover. She won the Tony as a producer of Thoroughly Modern Millie. Her producing credits also include Harlem Song, the Life-time series "Strong Medicine" and numerous movies for television, including Showtime's "Ruby's Bucket of Blood" starring Angela Bassett and "What Makes a Family" starring Cherry Jones and Brooke Shields.

Louis Zorich (Sturdyvant). Broadway: 45 Seconds from Broadway, Follies, Little Murders (Voices!), On a Clear Day (Encores! Series), She Loves Me, The Marriage of Figaro, Arms and the Man, Death of a Salesman, They Knew What They Wanted (Drama Desk nomination), Hadrian VII (Tony nomination), Herzl, Goodtime Charley, Lincoln Center Rep, The Odd Couple, Moby Dick, Fun City, Becket. Movies: 45 films including Fiddler on the Roof, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Commandments, Honor Thy Father, City of Hope, Fish in the Bathtub, Hole in One, etc. TV: 300 shows. TV series: "Brooklyn Bridge", "Mad About You." Co-founder with wife Olympia Dukakis, Whole Theatre Co., Montclair, NJ.

Thomas Jefferson Byrd (Toledo). Making his Broadway debut, Mr. Thomas Jefferson Byrd has performed in a host of August Wilson's works, including Two Trains Running, The Piano Lesson, Jitney, Seven Guitars and Fences. His theatrical resume stretches from Hamlet to Darker Face of the Earth by Poet Laureate Rita Dove at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Film roles include Bamboozled, Get on the Bus, He Got Game, Set It Off and a Best Lead Actor nomination by Sundance Film

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