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along with Charles Lederer, wrote the script for Kismet, the musical on which Timbuktu is based. Davis has revised the book and transported the play from Bagdad to the 15th century African city. "Timbuktu was a fabulous city," he says. "It means a lot to those of us who care about black history, because it says, 'Yes, we had kings and queens, and armies, and wicked wazirs!'"

Robert Wright and George Forrest have contributed four new songs to replace ones that aren't relevant to the new play. "Bagdad" is gone, for example, with "Timbuktu" in its place. The old songs were drawn from the tunes by Alexander Borodin; the new ones are based on African folk music. "The whole score will be laid on a bed of African drums, bells, and windbells," Holder tells me, with excitement. Then he hauls out a portfolio of costume designs that have been brightly sketched in magic marker. The men are dressed in huge, billowing capes of silk. The women, their backs arched and breasts thrust forward, are attired in nothing but baubles, bangles, and beads. "That's going to be pretty erotic," I say. "Not to the African mind," he snaps back.
"Yes, but..."

He riffles through the pile of sketches. For "Stranger in Paradise he has conceived two human birds, virtually naked, with graceful, hugely plumed tails. Holder's concepts are so bold, so self-assured, it is clear that those images came to mind when he began sketching will end up shaping the entire show. The costumes themselves may change, but the concepts will endure.
 
Holder leans back in his wing chair, the great burst of energy with which he showed me his drawings beginning to recede. "To squeeze out a tube of paint, to give a canvas life, to give energy to a piece of white paper - that's the same excitement I get from directing," he says.

I have almost finished my rum-and-Bitter Lemon, and he, because he has quit smoking and drinking, his Bitter Lemon. "Sometimes it would have been easy," he reminisces, "for me to have said, 'I'm having trouble getting work because I'm black.' But that would have been a cop-out. I'm just like anybody else. I have to get up in the morning, brush my teeth, think clearly, and then go out and do it."

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