27 April 2016

Book now to see the Olivier Award-winning Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
15 performances remaining

5 STARS Daily Telegraph, Sunday Times, Observer

4 STARS Daily Mail, Evening Standard, Financial Times, Guardian, Independent,

The Times, Time Out

‘Terrific. Sharon D Clarke leads a superb cast in this knockout production.’ Observer

‘A masterpiece.Breathtaking.’ Sunday Times

August Wilson’s Olivier award-winning play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by Dominic Cooke, with Sharon D Clarke leading the cast as Ma Rainey, ends its run in the Lyttelton Theatre on 18 May.

Chicago, 1927. In a recording studio on the city’s South Side, a battle of wills is raging.

Ma Rainey, Mother of the Blues, uses every trick in the book to fight her record producers

for control of her music. Hardened by years of ill-treatment and bad deals, she’s determined that ‘Black Bottom’, the song that bears her name, will be recorded her way. But Levee, the band’s swaggering young trumpet player, plans to catapult the band into the jazz age. His ambition puts them all in danger.

Cast includes John Paul Connolly, Clint Dyer, O-T Fagbenle, Tamara Lawrance, Tunji Lucas, Finbar Lynch, Stuart McQuarrie, Lucian Msamati and Giles Terera. The production is designed by Ultz, with lighting by Charles Balfour, music by Tim Sutton, movement by Coral Messam, sound by Paul Arditti and fight direction by Bret Yount.

Final performances: evenings at 7.30pm, matinees at 2.15pm

Thurs 28 mat and eve, Fri 29, Sat 30 mat and eve,

Mon 2 May, Tues 3 mat and eve, Mon 9, Tues 10 mat and eve,

Mon 16, Tues 17, and Wed 18 mat and eve.

Ends

Press contact: Mary Parker on 020 7452 3234 or

Notes to Editors

  1. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottomopened in the Lyttelton Theatre on 26 January, 2016.
  1. The production won an Olivier Award for Best Revival on 3 April, 2016
  1. Box Office: 020 7452 3000, open 9.30am – 8pm

Book tickets online at nationaltheatre.org.uk Information: 020 7452 3400

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