{"id":17680,"date":"2023-02-19T17:50:53","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T17:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/?p=17680"},"modified":"2025-04-21T07:16:20","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T07:16:20","slug":"billy-wilson-orbit-the-all-black-revival-of-guys-and-dolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/2023\/02\/19\/billy-wilson-orbit-the-all-black-revival-of-guys-and-dolls\/","title":{"rendered":"Billy Wilson Orbit: The All-Black Revival of Guys and Dolls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Wilson and the All-Black Revival of Guys and Dolls<\/i><\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Return Back to Billy Wilson’s orbit in The Constellation Project<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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After choreographing <\/span>Bubbling Brown Sugar<\/span><\/i>, Wilson\u2019s next Broadway show was an all-black revival of <\/span>Guys and Dolls<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 Wilson both directed and choreographed the show, which premiered in 1976.\u00a0 This show gave Wilson his second Tony nomination. When talking about his revival, Wilson said, \u201cIt\u2019s not so much the changing of words that makes the difference. It\u2019s the delivery. We have such rich attitudes among blacks. It\u2019s something that\u2019s intrinsic with us. It isn\u2019t what you say, it\u2019s how you say it, which is beautiful to me.\u201d\u00a0 Ken Page, who starred in the revival as Nicely, Nicely Johnson, said about Wilson, \u201cI had never met anyone who was African American and had that level of control and power in a work situation\u2026 [he] was mesmerizing and absolutely instructional.\u201d \u00a0 Furthermore, the show brought many black dancers and performers to prominence, further cementing Wilson\u2019s contribution to black musical theater.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Sources:<\/b><\/p>\n

A Celebration of the Life of Billy Wilson, dancer, choreographer, director, educator, Facebook<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>
\nLook Back at the All-Black 1976 Revival of Guys and Dolls On Broadway, Playbill<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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More about All-Black Revival of Guys and Dolls<\/i><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The all-Black revival of <\/span>Guys and Dolls<\/span><\/i> opened on Broadway in July of 1976 and had 239 performances before it closed in February of 1977. Produced by Moe Septee and directed and choreographed by Billy Wilson, the show was given the Tony nomination of the Most Innovative Production of a Revival.\u00a0 The plot of the show features a gambler attempting to seduce a Salvation Army missioner as a bet. \u00a0The revival cast included Robert Guillaume, Norma Donaldson, Ernestine Jackson, James Randolph, Edye Byrde, Clark Morgan, Ken Page, Christophe Pierre, Emett Wallace, Derrick Bell, Toney Brealond, Jamie Charlies, Bardell Conner, Prudence Darby, Irene Datcher, Alvin Davis, Jacquelyn DuBois, Anna Maria Fowlkes, Helen Gelzer, Nathan Jennings Jr., Julia Lema, Bill Mackey, Sterling McQueen, Marion Moore, John Russel, Jacqueline Smith-Lee, Andy Torres, Freda T. Vanterpool, Walter White, and Eddie Wright Jr. \u00a0Tom H. John was responsible for the scenic design, Bernard Johnson did the costume design, lighting design was done by Thomas Skelton, and Sander Hacker did the sound design. \u00a0Total nominations include:<\/span><\/p>\n

Tony Awards: Best Actor in a Musical (Robert Guillaume), Best Actress in a Musical (Ernestine Jackson), and Most Innovative Production of a Revival.<\/p>\n

Drama Desk Award: Outstanding Actor in a Musical (Robert Guillaume), Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Ernestine Jackson).<\/p>\n

Theatre World: Award (Ken Page).<\/p>\n

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Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Look Back at the All-Black 1976 Revival of Guys and Dolls On Broadway, Playbill<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>
Guys and Dolls, A Musical Fable of Broadway, IBDB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Anna Owens<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billy Wilson and the All-Black Revival of Guys and Dolls After choreographing Bubbling Brown Sugar, Wilson\u2019s next Broadway show was an all-black […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"universe-template.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[302,253],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-billy-wilson-constellation","category-universe"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17680"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18819,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17680\/revisions\/18819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mobballet.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}