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The Program ...

“Baldwin on Broadway”

A Wealth of Non-Fiction, Fiction and Verbal Fire

•  Live Reading of “Notes for Blues” (Baldwin’s introductory essay
   from the play’s 1964 Playbill)

•  Screening of the restored & re-mastered Blues for Mister Charlie

•  Panel Discussion intercut with archival film clips of Baldwin,
   critics and colleagues

•  A Musical Coda:  audio recording + onscreen lyrics of the film’s
   eloquent theme song — composed & performed by Bobby Sharp, Jr.

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Performance time ~ 120 min.

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The Backstory ...

A 1964 Broadway Play

... that became a 16mm Film Adaptation ...
and now a 4K Digital Restoration
 

Dedicated to the memory of Medgar Evers and “the dead children of Birmingham,”
James Baldwin’s ground-breaking play Blues for Mister Charlie was described by the
New York Times as an exploration of a “moral crisis,” a drama with "fury in its belly,
tears of anguish in its eyes and a roar of protest in its throat.”

In April, 1964, Blues opened on Broadway, but its producers were soon losing
money—largely because Baldwin insisted on a minimal ticket price so that Black
people could see it.  In June, 1964, hoping that publicity would boost the play’s box
office, Baldwin edited his two-and-a-half-hour opus into a half-hour compilation of
excerpts:  filmed live with the original cast, it was broadcast by the CBS religious
series “Look Up & Live.”  In August, 1964, despite support from the National Council
of Churches and contributions from high-profile patrons, the play closed.

For many years, a sealed 16mm print of that recorded performance lay untouched
in the basement of Baldwin’s 17th-century French farmhouse:  ideal conditions for
pristine film storage.

In 1987, Baldwin died unexpectedly at age 63.  For the last two years of his life, he
had been collaborating with filmmaker Karen Thorsen on a cinéma vérité project;
after his death, Baldwin’s brother David gave the long-forgotten Blues film print to
Thorsen.  In 1989, five brief excerpts of the play were included in Thorsen’s award-
winning film portrait, JAMES BALDWIN: THE PRICE OF THE TICKET—and in
1998, the original film can and its contents became part of her Schomburg-based
Baldwin Archive.

In 2026, with the support of Ohio State University, this abbreviated version of
Baldwin’s original Broadway production—unseen by the public since 1964—has
now been restored & digitized.