LA Times’ Culture Monster Theater review: ‘The Emperor’s Last Performance’ at Los Angeles Theatre Centre
An unjustly forgotten chapter in American theatrical and racial history is the raison d’être of “The Emperor’s Last Performance,” which ends its limited Los Angeles Theatre Center run on Sunday. This respectable Robey Theatre Company staging of Melvin Ishmael Johnson’s drama about the first star of Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones” merges the techniques of stage fantasia and social document. Once... Read More
A Word With the Emperor
Robey Theatre Production Kicks Off LATC Spring Season by Ryan Vaillancourt Published: Friday, March 26, 2010 4:42 PM PDT DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES – The central conflict in the Robey Theatre Company’s The Emperor’s Last Performance revolves around a racial slur, a word whose use is as controversial now as it was during the 1920s, when the world premiere is set. Against the backdrop of the Harlem Renaissance, the play centers on African-American... Read More
REVIEW: Robey Theatre Company, Scarecrow Press illuminate theatre history
Paul Robeson is well remembered today for his performance as the self-appointed monarch of a Caribbean island in Eugene O’Neill’s “The Emperor Jones.” What’s been largely forgotten is that it was the first important dramatic role for a black actor on Broadway—and that the actor who created the part was not Robeson but a man named Charles Gilpin. “The Emperor’s Last Performance” by Melvin Ishmael Johnson, now in a limited world premiere... Read More
VIDEO: A Preview of ‘The Emperor’s Last Performance’
The Emperor’s Last Performance [more info] Thursday 03/25 8pm (preview) Friday 03/26 8pm Saturday 03/27 3pm and 8pm Sunday 03/28 3pm and 7pm Friday 04/02 8pm Saturday 04/03 3pm and 8pm Sunday 04/04 3pm and 7pm LATC Theatre 4 General Admission: $30 Students: $20 Read More
