Ella: First Lady of Song

Madison Theatre’s Ella: First Lady of Song won five 2022 AUDELCO “VIV” Awards for Best Musical, Best Director of a Musical for Lee Summers, Best Lead Actress in a Musical for Freda Payne, Best Featured Actress in a Musical for Harriet D. Foy, and Outstanding Musical Director for Dionne Hendricks.

The production, written and directed by Lee Summers and conceived by Maurice Hines, tells the inspiring story of Ella Fitzgerald’s remarkable journey from homeless teenager to the world’s first lady of song. “Sweet Georgia Brown,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing,” “Oh, Lady Be Good,” and dozens of other songs popularized by Fitzgerald were performed.  

BroadwayWorld writes: “Ella: First Lady of Song was one of the best productions I have seen all year, which in part is due to the amazing performance of Freda Payne and her "band" of gold. Upon the show's conclusion, a quote by Frank Sinatra is projected on stage. Sinatra once said, "There's Ella, then there's the rest of us." Ladies and gentlemen, after this performance, I can easily substitute Ella's name for Ms. Payne's.”

Madison Theatre’s General Manager Kathleen Marino said of the experience, “We were honored to be a part of the musical’s success. We enjoyed working with Lee Summers, Freda Payne, Harriett D. Foy, Debra Walton and DJ Hendricks and the entire team who brought Ella to life. There was a short, but rigorous rehearsal process, only rehearsing for two weeks before opening on the18th of August. It was a pleasure watching Ms. Payne bring Ella to life every night in the theatre.”

The production even offered Molloy’s CAP21 senior Icis Hammond the thrilling opportunity to work with such award-winning talent as an understudy for Ms. Payne’s, Ms. Foy’s, and Ms. Walton’s characters.

Although rehearsals were fast, the seeds of the production started years ago. According to writer/director Lee Summers, Tony nominee and legendary tap dancer Maurice Hines had his own first-hand childhood memories of Ella’s backstage life when he, his brother, (the late Gregory Hines) and their father Maurice "Chink" Hines, Sr. were the opening act for Ella Fitzgerald in Las Vegas. The family tap dance act was billed as “Hines, Hines, and Dad.” Hines remembered Ella as being a warm, disciplined professional who didn’t smoke or drink in order to protect her voice. Hines felt that she possessed all the warmth and authenticity of the struggling Black women of the era, who were also the age of his own mother and aunts.

Sometime later, when Washington's Arena Stage commissioned a project from Hines, he invited Summers to write an Ella musical. After Summers researched more public information to write the libretto, he pitched centering the piece in 1966 when Ella’s only sibling, her half-sister Frances, suddenly died. Her death came just as Ella was recording an album with Duke Ellington in the South of France. Summers, no stranger to female-driven narratives (his Broadway debut was in the original production Dreamgirls), felt these dramatic events in Ella's life were the most powerful to center a narrative of a gifted woman’s search for love and how pain and loss brings the transformation and acceptance of what love for her will be.

The musical ran from August 18^th through September 11^th of 2022, and every performance received a full standing ovation. The 50th Annual Vivian Robinson AUDELCO Recognition Awards, “THE VIV” for Excellence in Black Theatre, were presented at Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York on November 28th. The AUDELCO (Audience Development Committee, Inc.) was established in 1973 by Vivian Robinson to acknowledge and honor Black Theatre and its artists in New York City. 

Madison Theatre’s Artistic Director Angelo Fraboni said that future plans for the Theatre are to continue to program and develop shows with diversity in mind.