The provocative new musical playing in Manhattan features songs by the Roots rapper, a book by John Ridley and choreography by Bill T. Jones.

by Dan DeLuca | The Philadelphia Inquirer

Tariq Trotter took his first meeting about making George S. Schuyler’s 1931 satiric Afrofuturist novel Black No More into a musical back in 2015.

The timing was fortuitous. Trotter sat down to talk about Schuyler’s Harlem Renaissance novel with writer John Ridley and director Scott Elliott right after seeing a brand-new show at the Public Theatre called Hamilton.

“I was never a huge fan of musicals,” says Trotter, better known to most as Black Thought of The Roots, the Philadelphia hip-hop collective and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon house band.

“Hamilton really opened my eyes, and let me know that anything and everything is possible.”

That idea is put to the test in Black No More, the off-Broadway musical onstage at Pershing Square Theatre Center in Midtown Manhattan. Tickets are available at www.thenewgroup.org.

Trotter has a starring role as Dr. Junius Crookman, a scientist with suspect motives who aims to “solve America’s race problem” by turning Black people white through a process he’s invented, “accomplished by electrical nutrition and glandular control.” If everyone was the same color, Black No More asks, would racism still exist?

The show, scheduled to run through Feb. 27, has been playing to packed, diverse houses since previews began last month, leading trade publication Showbiz411 to ask: “Does Off Broadway Have Another Hamilton?”

The show boasts a heavy-hitting creative team. Along with Ridley, an Oscar winner for 12 Years a Slave and creator of the TV anthology series American Crime, and Elliott, founder of New York theater production company The New Group, the choreographer is Bill T. Jones, Tony winner for Spring Awakening and Fela!

Trotter wrote lyrics for more than 30 new songs. And with keyboard players (James Poyser of The Roots and Anthony Tidd of The Roots’ extended family), plus music supervisor Daryl Waters, Trotter also wrote the music in an array of styles, from traditional musical theater to blues, reggae, Southern rock, country, and even a little hip-hop.

“Tariq is a wonder,” says Jones, who will bring Deep Blue Sea, his dance production with the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company, to the Presser Foundation Stage at the Mann Center on April 29 and 30.

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