Spreading the word - Broadway phenomenon `Def Poetry Jam' on tour

By Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

Published January 16, 2004

These days, Broadway tours often have little or nothing to do with the Great White Way. And that makes "Russell Simmons Def Poetry Jam," which arrives at the Shubert Theatre on Tuesday, a rare phenomenon in more ways than one.

For starters, this is the actual Broadway show with (for the most part) the actual Broadway cast.

Poets Beau Sia, Black Ice, Mayda Del Valle, Georgia Me, Suhier Hammad, Lemon and Petri were all standing on the stage of the Longacre Theatre when "Def Poetry Jam" opened on Broadway in November 2002. And along with newcomer Bassey Ikpi (in place of Steve Colman), those same poets all will be jamming on the stage of the Shubert on Tuesday.

"We wanted to take around the actual show that won the Tony," said Simmons, the noted hip-hop multimedia entrepreneur and a fellow who saw hundreds of poets in preparation for this show. "There were a lot of people who did not get the chance to see the show when it was in New York."

Good idea. It's just remarkable how few producers these days actually manage to do that.

Of course, "Def Poetry Jam" wasn't exactly a typical Broadway show. For one thing, it was a multiethnic island in what's still mainly a sea of white performers. For another, it isn't a book musical or narrative play but a celebration of performance poetry--which hadn't been seen before on Broadway in such a form. And it was, of course, less expensive to produce than the typical show.

The production attracted a very different group of people from the typical Broadway buyer (despite ticket prices that were only a little cheaper). These theatergoers were far more likely to be young, anti-establishment and African-American.

"More than 60 percent of the people who came to see the show in New York had never been in a theater in their lives," Simmons said. "This was an attempt for Broadway to reach out to a whole different group of people." And those ticket prices? "I really didn't have any choice about that," Simmons said. "That theater was very expensive."

Chicago being the home of Marc Smith's famous poetry jam at the Green Mill, we're not exactly unfamiliar with this genre. And, indeed, the grand finals of the 2003 National Poetry Slam took place on Navy Pier last August--the memorable last night was a face-off between teams from Oakland, Calif.; Austin, Texas; Los Angeles and New York. The operative word there is face-off: This kind of hip-hop performance poetry has grown up with a competitive edge wherein words are like rapiers and ripostes.

In order to translate this world to Broadway, Simmons had the job of translating what is, in essence, a genre dominated by individual expression into a medium that relies more on a sense of ensemble and on unified theme. Some Broadway critics argued Simmons was only partially successful in that aim--but one could just as easily read any resistance as old-line cultural guardians (mainly an older, white crowd) reacting to an uncomfortable excursion into their territory from a new population determined to be heard.

This week, you'll have a chance to make up your own mind.