Broadway Goes Dark After Midnight

Although Patti LaBelle has been a major contributor to recent sellout audiences of the Tony Award® winning play “After Midnight,” you’ll need to grab a ticket sooner than later.  After less than eight months, After Midnight, which is set in the heyday of Harlem’s golden age, is closing at the end of the week. Apparently, Miss Patti’s pocketbook nor her sold-out performances over the past two weeks, is not deep enough to save the show and she’s gone public with an appeal to keep the show alive.

LaBelle is fighting to make sure the show continues to run, especially since it pays homage to jazz legend Duke Ellington and the iconic Cotton Club. The club originally opened by former heavyweight boxing champ, Jack Johnson, catered to a “whites only” clientele yet launched the careers of legends such as Lena Horne, Ella Fitzgerald and Sammy Davis, Jr.

Patti says, “My whole worry is to all of those wonderful talents, what they will do after this play? This play is so wonderful, so my heart is broken for the cast. Totally.” Patti expressed high hopes that the show will be saved in the final hour. “I’m praying that somebody, a big angel, will come and say, ‘Here’s enough money to keep it going,'” she adds. “We have to beg, I’m ready to take buckets after the show when the people are leaving the building and offer a kiss for five thousand dollars or one of my old shoes or something, just…something to keep it alive and you know the kids, some of them are devastated and that makes me very sad. And I’m praying that something will happen to keep it open.”

L-R above : Gladys, Fantasia and Patti performing at the 2014 Tony Awards

After Midnight, described as exhilarating, explosive, glamourous and exuberant, boasts an orchestra consisting of the Jazz at Lincoln Center All-Stars, an exclusive group, hand-picked by 9-time Grammy Award® winner Wynton Marsalis. Fantasia, Toni Braxton and Babyface are amongst the exclusive group of artists who’ve starred in the show. Gladys Knight and Natalie Cole were scheduled to succeed LaBelle’s lead role. Perhaps, ”After Midnight” would fare better as a touring show. For updates, log on to www.aftermidnightbroadway.com.

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