'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' Shines A Light On August Wilson's Vision

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was August Wilson's first Broadway hit — and a preamble to his cycle of award-winning plays about the African-American Experience across the 20th Century that included Fences and The Piano Lesson.
Now Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the first of the late playwright's works to be adapted for Netflix (premiering December 18).

Wilson was a little-known poet when the play opened at Yale Repertory Theater in the spring of 1984. Sitting in the theater, Wilson told me the story came to him one day when he was listening to a recording of Ma Rainey singing the title song.

"I felt privileged to be listening to her sing," Wilson recalls. "I thought, 'How did this record get recorded?' And 'What was the price that was paid?' I know those things are paid for in blood, sweat and tears."

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom takes place in a Chicago studio on the day in 1927 when the song was recorded. The Netflix adaptation preserves Wilson's dialogue, with added musical numbers bookending the script. On the surface, the story is about the economic exploitation of the early black performers.