NY’s Longest-Running African American Musical Celebrates Seventh Smash Year

Broadway World, Off Broadway – by BWW News Desk – January 10, 2018

With the arrival of 2018, the long-running smash SISTAS: THE MUSICAL had its seventh New Year’s celebration at St. Luke’s Theatre in the heart of the Theatre District. Produced by three-time Tony winner Hinton Battle and directed by Kenneth Ferrone (“Smash,” “Grease Live!”), SISTAS: THE MUSICAL opened Off-Broadway October 23, 2011. The show was released on DVD and digital download (iTunes, Netflix) by RLJ Worldwide/One Village Entertainment in 2013, and has been nationally broadcast on the BET Network. The production is now the longest-running African American musical in New York history.

SISTAS: THE MUSICAL, by Dorothy Marcic, follows a group of sisters as they prepare to bury the matriarch of their family. While cleaning out her attic, the five women reflect on the history of their family and of African-American women through popular music spanning from Ma Rainey to Billie Holiday to Mary J. Blige toBeyoncé. This joyous, soulful and screamingly funny show celebrates the evolution of African American women through popular music including “Oh Happy Day,” “Mama Said,” “I Will Survive,” “Tyrone,” “I Am Not My Hair,” and “A Woman’s Worth.”

Featured in the cast are Tyla Collier (Spamalot and Little Shop of Horrors at Paper Mill), Aneesa Folds (This One’s for the Girls, Ragtime), Kendra Lynn Lucas(Hairspray, Godspell), Haley Swindal (Broadway’s Jekyll & Hyde, The Secret Garden at Lincoln Center), and Nesha Ward (“Orange is the New Black,” “Show Me a Hero”), with choreography by Lauren Lim Jackson and musical direction by Zachary Ryan.

Writer Dorothy Marcic also created the current hit musical This One’s for the Girls. Her first musical Respect (the genesis for This One’s for the Girls) played in over 70 U.S. cities. Dr. Marcic is a professor at Columbia University, a former Fulbright Scholar and author of 14 books including Managing with the Wisdom of Love, Respect: Women and Popular Music and, most recently, Love Lift Me Higher.

SISTAS: THE MUSICAL is produced Off-Broadway by Hinton Battle, Jay Harris and William Franzblau. Performances are Saturdays and Sundays at 4:30 pm at St. Luke’s Theatre, 308 West 46 Street (just west of Eighth Ave.) and tickets are available through www.SistastheMusical.com 212-239-6200.