Tuesday, January 19, 2021

445. SAFARI 300. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975.

Tad Truesdale.
SAFARI 300 [Musical Revue] CN: Tad Truesdale; D: Hugh Gittens; CH: Lari Becham; S: Bob Olsen; C: Lee Lynn; L: David Adams; P: Richie Havens; T: Mayfair Theatre (OB); 7/12/72-7/26/72 (17)

 A stimulating revue of Black music covering hundreds of years of Black history, conceived by and starring Tad Truesdale, performed in a small, basement theatre on W. Forty-sixth Street. The 10-person company included Lari Becham, Ernest Andrews, Joyce Griffen, Holly Hamilton, Onike Lee, Fredi Orange, Andre Robinson, Grenna Whitaker, and Dorian Williams. They sang and danced spiritedly on a bare platform stage with a ramp at the rear, conveying the pain, sorrow, anger, joy, and humor of their racial experience. Popular singer-musician Richie Havens served as the producer.

The music ran the gamut from African ritual chants to slave melodies and hymns to 1920s Harlem jazz to 70s rock and rhythm ‘n blues. Howard Thompson observed that much of the show was “blazingly dynamic and alive.” He noted that Truesdale “has a voice best described as friendly. He is far more effective fitted into the ensemble numbers.”