Norm Lewis Naughty and Nice - Flow

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DECEMBER 3-4, 2021 JARSON-KAPLAN THEATER, ARONOFF CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Building an Inclusive and Equitable Community through the Arts The arts offer the potential to change hearts and minds. As the engine for the arts, ArtsWave is working with arts organizations to make inclusion a hallmark of the Cincinnati region’s arts through our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Access (DEIA) Commitment, “Lifting As We Learn.”

Goals for

“Lifting As We Learn”

Over the past two years, ArtsWave backed up the commitment with action:

Created a new grants program supporting 28 organizations led by or mostly serving African Americans

Commissioned 27 Black & Brown Artists to create new works on the themes of “Truth” and “Reconciliation”

Investing in organizations that share a commitment to DEIA.

Building audiences that reflect the region we serve.

Increasing available resources for organizations of color.

Recruiting staff, board members, volunteers and vendors that represent our entire community.

Promoting the voices of all artists in our community.

Creating a culture where everyone brings their authentic self to work.

Jumpstarted Paloozanoire’s “Black & Brown Faces” exhibition at Cincinnati Art Museum

Funded the artists behind downtown’s “Black Lives Matter!” mural and the “Black Excellence in Zone 15” mural in Lincoln Heights

Join the Circle

• Bringing together individuals in our community who believe in the power of the arts and philanthropy to bridge cultural divides and deepen roots.

• Guide resources for Black arts and artists and build new audiences for their work through The Circle’s African American Grants, funded in part by Circle member gifts.

With your annual leadership gift of $1,500+, you can join the Circle. Members receive invitations to exclusive arts and networking experiences, newsletter insights and pre-sale, discounted ticket opportunities for upcoming Flow performances.

Visit artswave.org/Circle for more information.

Partnered with the Cincinnati Music Festival to create an Outdoor Museum

Welcome

MESSAGE FROM FLOW CO-CHAIRS TOGETHER! The very word has so much more meaning than we may have appreciated.

The fact that we are back together for live performances. The ability to be together again after shutdowns, masks, quarantines and vaccines. Most importantly, our decision to stay together through the on-going social and political upheaval.

Welcome to the re-launch of Flow, An African American Arts Experience, powered by ArtsWave. We are grateful for the sustained support of our founding sponsors: Fifth Third Bank; the Greater Cincinnati Foundation and the David Herriman Fund at GCF; the Cincinnati Arts Association, which also serves as the series’ production partner; Duke Energy; GE; TriVersity Construction; The Cincinnati Enquirer; U.S. Bank; and d.e. Foxx & Associates. Thanks also to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center and Clever Crazes for Kids for supporting Flow’s educational programs as well as our media partners, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Cincinnati Herald, Radio One and Easley Blessed Media. Finally, we thank the many individuals who helped create this series showcasing top-flight African American artists from around the country and close to home.

The ideal at the core of Flow was to be together: to experience and enjoy the arts together. This aspiration has been challenged in ways we could not have predicted two years ago. So many have been personally or professionally devastated. Individual artists and the arts sector were particularly hard hit. Through it all, we decided to believe we would not only survive but we would thrive in a stronger, more inclusive and more sustainable way. We met new friends, created new relationships and maintained hope that one day we would be together again.

Tonight, together, we mark the next chapter in the ideal behind Flow. Sit back in your seat. Take a deep breath (through your mask, of course) and relish in the soothing sounds of Norm Lewis and the spirit of the holiday season.

It has been a difficult and uncertain journey. But for at least this moment, let’s celebrate that we have decided to travel this way, more together than ever before.

Thank you for Flowing with us. We are looking forward to sharing amazing arts experiences...together.

MEL GRAVELY

| TriVersity Construction CEO

MARY STAGAMAN |

ArtsWave Impact Executive

in Residence

FLOW 2021 • 3

Welcome

MESSAGE FROM ARTSWAVE’S PRESIDENT & CEO HAPPY HOLIDAYS! Live arts are back and shining brightly with a star like Norm Lewis in our midst!

Among the things we are grateful for this year is the community’s response to ArtsWave’s “Lifting As We Learn” diversity, equity, inclusion and access plan. Flow, An African American Arts Experience is one of the plan’s tactics. By presenting inspiring Black artists from around the country to local audiences on a consistent basis, we are intentionally building everyone’s appreciation for Black artistry. ArtsWave has also increased resources for talented local Black artists over the last decade, with increased investment each year as a result of donors to the Circle of African American Leaders for the Arts and through programs dedicated to supporting artists of color. ArtsWave is also leading efforts to make inclusion a hallmark of the Cincinnati arts community by asking 40 of our largest grant recipients to develop their own DEIA plans and goals.

Flow is back and we’re eager to sit side by side in the theater again. My thanks to the Board of Advisors for keeping a passion for Flow “flowing” over the last, unexpected 18 months. We are grateful for your leadership, and we are grateful for each and every audience member here tonight.

ALECIA KINTNER |

ArtsWave President & CEO

FLOW BOARD OF ADVISORS Tysonn Betts, Procter & Gamble Eric Combs, Dinsmore Kala Gibson, Fifth Third Bank Agnes Godwin Hall, Macy’s Mel Gravely, TriVersity Construction

4• FLOW 2021

Kristal Howard, Kroger Mary Stagaman, ArtsWave Deana Taylor, 3CDC Alicia Townsend, U.S. Bank

Welcome

MESSAGE FROM CAA’S PRESIDENT WELCOME back to to the Aronoff Center for the Arts and the Jarson-Kaplan Theater!

It’s so wonderful to be together again after such a long and unexpected intermission. We’ve missed you!

All of us at the Cincinnati Arts Association are delighted that you have joined us for this terrific evening of stories, songs, and festive cheer. We are excited and proud to partner with ArtsWave to present SAG- and Tony-nominated Broadway star Norm Lewis in his Naughty and Nice holiday cabaret. This is the second event in ArtsWave’s Flow series, which offers quarterly performances by renowned Black artists and ensembles working in various disciplines.

This event was postponed from its original date in December 2020 due to the ongoing impact of the pandemic.

We are indebted to Mr. Lewis for his flexibility and commitment to reschedule this special evening with us.

We are passionate in our support of programs, artists and audiences and in providing a diverse, equitable, inclusive and safe environment. We believe that the power of the arts is transformative and that the arts unite us all in their embrace of inclusion and social justice. Thank you for joining us on this journey and for supporting ArtsWave’s Flow. With love, anything is possible!

Wishing you a happy holiday season and a healthy, prosperous New Year filled with arts and entertainment at the Aronoff Center and Music Hall.

Enjoy the show!

STEVE LOFTIN |

Cincinnati Arts Association President

FLOW 2021 • 5

Norm Lewis HIS FAVORITE ROLE IS ‘TRAILBLAZER’ Why Norm Lewis continues to open doors for others.

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t’s hard to talk with Norm Lewis and not smile. He is ebullient and affable, exuding the charm and goodwill you’d expect from his holiday shows—and the antithesis of some of his most iconic roles: The Phantom from The Phantom of the Opera; Javert from Les Misérables; and Sweeney Todd, the demon barber of Fleet Street.

Norm Lewis’ Naughty and Nice arrives at the Aronoff Center on December 3rd and 4th. It marks the seventh year of his holiday cabarets, begun in the cozy space of Feinstein’s/54 Below in New York City.

Lewis is bringing the Queen City a Yuletide gift not only through the show, but through the show’s reper6• FLOW 2021

toire and exclusivity: it is different from the 2019 Naughty and Nice show, and the Cincinnati booking is the only performance of this particular version of this holiday cabaret.

This man loves what he does and loves the holiday season. It’s immediately apparent during our conversation, covering Naughty and Nice, his musical idols, his work with Black Theater United and, of course, his top three Christmas songs.

“Oh, ‘Chestnuts,’ that’s #1,” he responds immediately to my Christmas song question. “That one sticks out the most. I do it in my show, and it’s on my Christmas album—by the way, shameless plug, I have a vinyl!

And there’s a CD!

“ I had the original Supremes Christmas album, and it was one of the first times I heard ‘My Favorite Things,’ and I did not know it was from a show until I saw the movie The Sound of Music as an older kid.

But I will always equate that song to Diana Ross and the Supremes.

“And #3, on this Christmas album that I mentioned, is a song given to me by Jay Landers and—I never say his name correctly [Walter Afanasieff]—but he wrote ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ with Mariah Carey. And so this song sounds a little like that, but it’s a little different.”

Lewis brings the same research and deep focus of his Broadway

Photograph by Peter Hurley

BY A. KORI HILL, IMPACT COMMUNICATIONS SPECIALIST, ARTSWAVE

Norm Lewis roles to his Christmas shows, a mix of standards and rare gems. When I asked him for a sneak peek of the rep for Naughty and Nice 2021, he pauses, his brain going a mile a minute.

“You know, I don’t know, I’m working on several Christmas shows so my wires are crossing!

“But what I can say is, we [my manager and creative team] do deep dives every year because there are songs out there that I didn’t even know about. Now, I do Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Goin’ On’ in a lot of my shows, and thank God for the internet because during a deep dive we learned there’s a Christmas song that Marvin sang about the troops, so we put that in there. We include standards like ‘Little Drummer Boy’ and ‘The Christmas Song,’ but we also try to find something new.”

Lewis has been holding down many roles and repertoires for more than three decades. In 2014, his run as The Phantom marked the first time a Black performer portrayed the character on Broadway—and the second time a Black performer was cast in the role. In 1990, Robert Guillaume succeeded Michael Crawford as The Phantom in the musical’s L.A. production, a fact Lewis is quick to mention.

“I just want to give homage to Robert Guillaume as the first African American to play the role; I stand on his shoulders. I finally got to see the show in 1994. And I said to myself, as an audience member, ‘God, I want to be in that show, and I would actually love to be The Phantom!’

“And people kept asking what was my dream role and I said, ‘The Phantom, I want to play The Phantom.’ And after a while it became more of a precedent, to have that opportunity for other Black actors and people of color.

“Cut to the start of 2014, one of my best friends who was playing The Phantom was leaving. And it got out there that I wanted to go and audition, so they had that door open for me. I get to the audition, we’re on

the actual stage in front of the great Hal Prince, God rest his soul, and a few other creatives. Before I go out there, I hear, this sounds weird, but I hear living legends and legends that have passed on saying, ‘Go for it. Go get this.’ I left it on the stage, and a couple days later I found out I got the role.

“Now, to add on to that, I got all these accolades, Diane Sawyer said my name, I was the Person of the Week and all this stuff and it was great, I am not knocking that at all.

But it was bigger than me, because I would have people come up to me from India, China, Brazil, all these other countries, people of color, saying, ‘Now I feel like I can do this.’ So, if I can be that key that opens that door, then I take that on.”

This responsibility has also manifested in Lewis’ work with Black Theatre United. BTU was founded by Lewis and other major Black Broadway figures in 2020, intent on amplifying calls for police reform and addressing inequities in the theater industry.

“After last year, the pandemic made people around the world focus at home on certain situations.

Especially Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and George Floyd. This has been happening for so long, but for some reason that month was the month and people were like, ‘Oh my God, you’ve been saying this for so long, now we can see it.’ So that filtered into ‘What can we do communally, what can we do societally?’ A lot of young Black artists and artists of color were calling us older people and saying, ‘There’s a door that’s open, we have to explain the inequities in our area, what can we do right now?’ We decided to form a coalition [Black Theatre United] and go to the theater owners and the producers and the creatives and say, ‘These are things we’re concerned about.’ Having someone who can deal with Black hair at the show, it’s a minor thing but a huge thing.

There is only one person of color in sound on Broadway who happens

to be a Black woman. On Broadway! That’s kinda sad. There might be someone who is interested in sound but doesn’t know there’s an opportunity there. We want those opportunities to be available to you, so we’re trying to be that voice.”

Making Broadway equitable and multi-cultural is not only a matter of change on and behind the stage, Lewis says; it’s also a matter of who makes up the audience.

“I went to the opening night of The Color Purple in 2005. In the audience was Oprah’s phonebook, her friends, stars and all that stuff. I came back maybe three months later to visit a friend of mine in the show, and for the first time in my life—in New York—I saw nothing but Black people walk out of a Broadway theatre. I had never seen that before. I went to her and said, ‘What is happening?’ There were busloads from Texas, from Atlanta, from Iowa coming to the show. Once people see themselves represented, you’ll find somebody that will gravitate toward that. But a lot of times people just don’t know and you gotta let them know.

“Look, I’m weird [laughs]. When I’m invited to something like Flow, I look into it and if it involves inclusion, I’m all in. Remember, I came into the business ass-backward, because I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to be in the room. You tell me that. I don’t want to tell myself no; I want you to tell me no.

“And with BTU, we’re trying to have these conversations with the theatrical community around the world. You may not want to go to New York, you may want to stay in Cincinnati. It’s about equity in this business and having a say.

“In casting, if someone Black comes into the room and it’s a very universal sort of show, why not have that person be considered? I got to perform The Music Man in D.C. Why not? I have the talent, the wherewithal, the charm, why not let someone [like me] have that opportunity?”

FLOW 2021 • 7

About Norm Lewis

BAND Joseph Joubert, Music Director / Piano Perry Cavari, Percussion Michael Olatuja, Bass

8• FLOW 2021

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street at the Barrow Street Theatre, receiving the AUDELCO Award for his performance. In May of 2014, he made history as The Phantom of the Opera’s first African American Phantom on Broadway.

He has been seen on PBS in the Live From Lincoln Center productions of Showboat with Vanessa Williams, Norm Lewis: Who Am I?, and New Year’s Eve: A Gershwin Celebration with Diane Reeves, as well as American Voices with Renée Fleming and the PBS Special First You Dream – The Music of Kander & Ebb. He can be seen recurring in the VH1 series, Daytime Divas, also alongside Vanessa Williams.

His additional television credits include Mrs. America, Better Things, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,

Photograph by Peter Hurley

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mmy, Tony, and SAG Award nominee, NORM LEWIS, recently starred in Spike Lee’s critically acclaimed, “Da 5 Bloods,” and in the groundbreaking FX series, Pose. Additionally, Mr. Lewis can be seen in Peacock’s newest series, Dr. Death, and offscreen, his voice can be heard in the latest season of Apple TV’s animated series, Central Park. He was previously seen in the NBC television special, “Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert!,” alongside John Legend, Sara Bareilles, and Alice Cooper.

Mr. Lewis is currently back on Broadway starring in Chicken and Biscuits at the Circle In The Square Theatre. He recently appeared in the Broadway revival of Once on This Island and as Sweeney Todd in the Off-Broadway production of

Bull, Chicago Med, Gotham, The Blacklist, and Blue Bloods, as well as in his recurring role as Senator Edison Davis on the hit drama Scandal.

Mr. Lewis is a proud founding member of Black Theatre United, an organization which stands together to help protect Black people, Black talent and Black lives of all shapes and orientations in theatre and communities across the country. He received Tony, Drama Desk, Drama League, and Outer Critics Circle award nominations for his performance as Porgy in the Broadway production of The Gershwins’ Porgy & Bess. Other Broadway credits include Sondheim on Sondheim, The Little Mermaid, Les Misérables, Chicago, Amour, The Wild Party, Side Show, Miss Saigon, and The Who’s Tommy. In London’s West End he has appeared as Javert in Les Misérables and Les Misérables: The 25th Anniversary Concert, which aired on PBS. Off-Broadway Mr. Lewis has performed in Dessa Rose (Drama Desk nomination, AUDELCO Award), Shakespeare in the Park’s The Tempest, The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Drama League nomination), Captains Courageous, and A New Brain.

His regional credits include Porgy in The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess (A.R.T.), Ragtime, Dreamgirls (with Jennifer Holliday), First You Dream, Sweeney Todd, and The Fantasticks.

His additional film credits include Magnum Opus, Winter’s Tale, Sex and the City 2, Confidences, and Preaching to the Choir.

Norm’s albums “The Norm Lewis Christmas Album” & “This is The Life” can be found on Amazon.com as well as cdbaby.com.

Next Up

April 1-2

Photograph by Emmanuel Afolabi

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CALLED TO PERFORM Jazzmeia Horn’s singing path was set by her jazz-loving grandmother. BY BILL THOMPSON

here is no more aptly named performer than Jazzmeia Horn. The singer’s path was ordained by her name, chosen by her jazz-loving, piano-playing grandmother. Horn grew up in Dallas, the child of a churchgoing family who began singing as a toddler and graduated from the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, the alma mater of musical trailblazers Roy Hargrove, Norah Jones, and Erykah Badu.

After graduation, Horn moved to New York and enrolled at The New School’s Jazz and Contemporary Music program, where her talent was quickly noticed by veterans of

the city’s music scene. She collaborated with some of the players she met during this period on her two albums, 2017’s A Social Call and 2019’s Love & Liberation. Each received Grammy Award nominations for Best Jazz Vocal Album.

Although it took four years after graduation from The New School for Horn to record her first album, awards started arriving almost as soon as she hit New York. In 2010, she was named Downbeat Best Young Vocalist. In 2012, she was honored as a Sarah Vaughan International Vocal Competition Rising Star finalist, and the following year won the award. She followed that with a win at the Thelonious Monk

International Vocal Competition in 2015 and the Best New Artist of 2017 in the JazzTimes Critics Poll.

All of this was before she turned 28.

Horn, who records for the Concord label, spent most of the two years between albums on the road.

“I’ve had the opportunity to travel and practice and improvise night after night in a room full of people with some of the best musicians playing today,” she says. “This was worth more than gold to me, understanding how to utilize my instruments: my voice, my body, the band that I’ve hired.”

A Social Call harkens to songs from the 1950s by Betty Carter, one of her heroes. But Horn’s grandmother is the inspiration for the singer to use her music to raise awareness. She told the Albany Times-Union that her grandmother was “one of those people in the ’60s and ’70s that was denied the right to be a concert pianist. Obviously because the color of her skin. Not because she wasn’t a great musician. ...

It’s an honor and a privilege. And it’s part of my destiny as Jazzmeia Horn.

My grandmother knew exactly what she was doing. I like to say she gave me her legacy. She said, ‘If I can’t do it, you’ll be able to do it.’ And here I am. I’m very grateful.”

Horn told Texas Monthly that her second album takes the next step. “Love & Liberation is a call to action. We are aware of the different things I brought up in A Social Call.

I wanted to appeal to all audiences, no matter their race, color or creed, and get the attention of everyone throughout generations. A song everyone could attest to. Love & Liberation is saying, ‘Let’s do something about it.’ ” Jazzmeia Horn knows exactly what she’s doing.

FLOW 2021 • 9

WO CINCINNATI OPERA PRESENTS

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PR

Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith

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CASTOR AND PATIENCE

With powerful, soaring music by Gregory Spears and an original libretto by Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate Tracy K. Smith, this timeless and topical premiere is the buzz of the opera world. Deeply relevant to ongoing calls for racial justice, Castor and Patience probes historical and continuing obstacles to Black land ownership in the United States. TICKETS ON SALE IN SPRING 2022.

COMING JULY 2022 SCPA’s Corbett Theater

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cincinnatiopera.org Support provided by

The David C. Herriman Fund of Greater Cincinnati Foundation (GCF)

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Mark your calendar for these African American arts experiences HOT CHOCOLATE Revolution Dance Theatre @ the Aronoff Center for the Arts

NEED YOUR LOVE

December 10, 8 p.m.

December 11, 2 & 8 p.m.

Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Through December 12 Times Vary

NAJEE The Ludlow Garage January 15 8:30 p.m.

KARA WALKER: CUT TO THE QUICK Cincinnati Art Museum Through January 16 Times Vary

PHILADANCO! Mutual Dance Theatre @ the Aronoff Center for the Arts January 21-22 8 p.m.

MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM Cincinnati Shakespeare Company January 21 to February 12 Times Vary

Plan your schedule at artswave.org/TheCircleEvents

Founding Sponsors

& A S S O C I AT E S

Education Sponsors

Media Sponsors

Individual Supporters Henry Daniels • Martine & Renee Dunn • Mel & Chandra Gravely • Melvyn Heard • Kristal Howard • David & Guinette Kirk • Anthony Mathis • John & Debra Merchant • Tracey Nowlin • Steve & Julie Shifman • Sheila Simmons • Albert & Liza Smitherman • Ron Kull & Mary Stagaman • Deana Taylor • Stanford Williams & Kristi Clement Williams

Thank you to these generous supporters for making Flow possible!