
The Life (1997) - repro
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Cy Coleman, Ira Gasman, and David Newman’s 'The Life' brought an opulent, jazz-infused musical drama to the Ethel Barrymore Theatre in 1997, running for an astonishing 466 performances and capturing twelve major Tony Award nominations. Set inside the gritty, neon-lit underworld of Manhattan's Times Square district in 1980 on the immediate precipice of urban renewal, the textually raw narrative tracks Queen, an independent but economically desperate African-American prostitute who struggles to escape a tyrannical pimp to build a new life with her boyfriend. Directed by Michael Blakemore, the blockbuster original production famously starred Lillias White and Chuck Cooper in Tony-winning turns.

