On WGCU’s podcast “Three Song Stories,” guests choose three songs that connect them to powerful memories, events and people in their lives. Each song serves as the springboard for a highly introspective and often emotional discussion of how the guest relates to the music and what was going on at the time that gives that song so much meaning years later.
This is the very premise underlying Dorothy Marcic’s Tony-nominated stage production “SISTAS: The Musical.” Laboratory Theater of Florida is mounting Southwest Florida’s premiere production of the show through Jan. 15.
SISTAS takes place in recently-departed Grandma Alice’s attic. There, sisters, Roberta, Gloria, and Simone, along with Simone’s 16-year-old daughter, Tamika, and their white sister-in-law, Heather, rummage through boxes of old papers, stacks of vinyl records, and racks of old clothes looking for an important document that Alice left for them. As they search, they also consider which song they’ll perform that evening at Alice’s memorial.
While many of the songs were beloved by Grandma Alice, it quickly becomes clear that the music that denoted Grandma Alice’s 92 years on planet Earth also marked the milestones – both the joyous and the heartbreaking – of the sisters’ richly intertwined lives.
For example, while Auntie Roberta can’t abide the awful music that’s embraced by her niece’s TikTok generation, Tamika and the sisters playfully point out that 30’s blues singer Bessie Smith was the TikTok of her day. In fact, her standard “Ain’t Nobody’s Business” evinces that same lyrical theme of freedom of choice and steadfast refusal to conform to societal norms that’s made TikTok a social phenomenon.
There ain't nothing I can do or nothing I can say
That folks don't criticize me
But I'm going to do just as I want to anyway
And don't care if they all despise me
If I should take a notion
To jump into the ocean
'T ain't nobody's business if I do, do, do, do
If I go to church on Sunday
Sing the shimmy down on Monday
Ain't nobody's business if I do, if I do
If my friend ain't got no money
And I say,
"Take all mine honey
'T ain't nobody's bizness if I do, do, do, do
If I give him my last nickel
And it leaves me in a pickle
'T ain't nobody's bizness if I do, if I do
Like many families around the country, faith plays an important role in defining who these women are and how they relate to the world at large. In this family, one sister’s lost her faith while another’s found Jesus again, leading to a spirited debate about religion’s ability to inspire people to treat each other better.
That’s a premise blues singer Billie Holiday flatly rejected in “God Bless the Child,” better known to Gen Z by the George Benson/Al Jarreau cover featuring Jill Scott.
Them that's got shall have
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own, that's got his own
Yes, the strong get smart
While the weak ones fade
Empty pockets don't ever make the grade
In the pantheon of female African American singers, The Supremes didn’t just change the way America viewed Black music and the artists who made it. With 12 number one hits on the Billboard Hot 100, they opened doors that enabled subsequent Black performers to finally emerge from the obscurity of the Chitlin’ Circuit and gain mainstream success.
On a personal level, The Supremes gave Grandma Alice and her granddaughters permission to express joy during the turbulent times of the ‘60s and ‘70s, and embrace their lifelong relationship with their hair.
Baby, baby
I'm aware of where you go
Each time you leave my door
I watch you walk down the street
Knowing your other love you'll meet
But this time before you run to her
Leaving me alone and hurt
(Think it over) After I've been good to you
(Think it over) After I've been sweet to you
Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Think it over
Think it over
Of course, sequester three single women and a boy-crazy 16-year-old in the close confines of an attic for a couple of hours and the topic of men is bound to come up.
Not surprisingly, many of the songs in Grandma Alice’s vinyl collection chronicle the profound changes that have occurred over the last nine decades that have empowered Black women to define their self-worth independent of a man and insist that their man treat them with love and commitment, as Beyoncé underscores in her hit “Single Ladies.”
Up in the club, we just broke up
I'm doing my own little thing
Decided to dip and now you wanna trip
Cause another brother noticed me
I'm up on him, he up on me
Don't pay him any attention
Just cried my tears, for three good years
Ya can't be mad at me
Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it
If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it
Don't be mad once you see that he want it
If you liked it then you shoulda put a ring on it
Or, as Aretha Franklin put it:
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Find out what it means to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
Take care, TCB, oh
(Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me)
A little respect
(Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me)
Whoa, babe
(Just a little bit) a little respect
(Just a little bit) I get tired
(Just a little bit) keep on tryin'
(Just a little bit) you're runnin' out of fools
(Just a little bit) and I ain't lyin'
(Just a little bit)
The songs on Grandma Alice’s playlist lead these women to the inescapable conclusion that to attract the love they want, they must love themselves first and, as Mary J. Blige sings, be positive about life and how good it feels to feel good.
When I'm walking past the mirror
Don't stress through the night, at a time in my life
Ain't worried about if you feel it
Got my head on straight, I got my vibe right
I ain't gonna let you kill it
See I wouldn't change my life, my life's just fine
Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, ooh!
Fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, ooh!
Just fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, fine, ooh!
See I wouldn't change my life, my life's just fine
Feels so good
In all, this production includes 40 hit songs spanning nearly a century, and while their catalog includes some of the biggest hits from the baddest African American singer/songwriters in history, there are undoubtedly other songs that mark the high and low points of the lives of each audience member. From that perspective, “SISTAS: The Musical” invites each of us to do a little year-end holiday reflection, and like the women in “SISTAS,” perhaps your journey will also lead you to a greater appreciation of the role family plays in your life.
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up everybody and sing
We are family
I got all my sisters with me
We are family
Get up everybody and sing
Everyone can see we're together
As we walk on by
(And) and we fly just like birds of a feather
I won't tell no lie
(All) all of the people around us they say
Can they be that close?
Just let me state for the record
We're giving love in a family dose
To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.
Spotlight on the Arts for WGCU is funded in part by Naomi Bloom, Jay & Toshiko Tompkins, and Julie & Phil Wade.
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