Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

August Wilson · 1984 CE · Play · Modern / American · Contemporary

A Chicago recording session in 1927 stalls while the singer keeps the white producer waiting upstairs and her band fills the time in the basement arguing about God, arrangements and what a Black musician is worth. The young trumpeter Levee has his own songs and a promise from the studio. Wilson's Broadway debut, and the work where the century cycle found its subject.

Open Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in the archive — filters, lineage graph and full facet browsing.

Lineage

• companion to ↑ Jitney
  August Wilson · 1982 CE · Play
• ↓ Fences
  August Wilson · 1985 CE · Play — companion to this

Attributes

Closest analogues

• Seven Guitars
  August Wilson · 1995 CE · Play

  62% · 15 shared
  PlayTragedyHistoricalRace & IdentityArt & CreationContemporaryTragic HeroCreatorDialogueMusicBloodvs Societyvs PersonRealistModern / American
• Dolemite Is My Name
  Craig Brewer · 2019 CE · Film

  52% · 11 shared
  HistoricalRace & IdentityArt & CreationAmbition & HubrisContemporaryCreatorTricksterThe Stagevs SocietyRealistModern / American
• Absalom, Absalom!
  William Faulkner · 1936 CE · Novel

  51% · 10 shared
  TragedyHistoricalRace & IdentityPower & CorruptionAmbition & HubrisTragic HeroBloodvs SocietyTragicModern / American
• Doctor Faustus
  Thomas Mann · 1947 CE · Novel

  51% · 9 shared
  TragedyHistoricalArt & CreationPower & CorruptionAmbition & HubrisTragic HeroCreatorMusicTragic
• Richard III
  Laurence Olivier · 1955 CE · Film

  49% · 11 shared
  TragedyHistoricalPower & CorruptionAmbition & HubrisContemporaryTricksterTragic ReversalBloodvs Societyvs PersonTragic
• Amadeus
  Miloš Forman · 1984 CE · Film

  49% · 11 shared
  TragedyHistoricalArt & CreationAmbition & HubrisContemporaryTragic HeroCreatorMusicvs PersonTragicModern / American