Central Avenue was Los Angeles' Beale Street or Bourbon Street, the heartbeat of a black ghetto which thrived from the 20s to the 50s, replete with churches, vaudeville and movie houses, restaurants, nightclubs and after-hours joints. Anchored by the famous Dunbar Hotel where the likes of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Paul Robeson and W E B DuBois stayed, Central Avenue was passed over by historians and writers until recent years. Thanks to books by Bettye Cox, Stephen Isoardi, Johnny Otis and Buddy Collette, Central Avenue has finally been paid its due. Their research and recollections have been mined by playwright Stephen Sachs and fashioned into an historical drama (laced with music) that recreates Central Avenue in its heyday, right after WW II. It was a time of change and strife, as Sachs shows. Having fought for democracy, the blacks who returned to civilian life wanted an end to the segregation which forbade them from living anywhere but in south-central L.A.
The jazz being played on The Stem (insiders' name for the Avenue) was changing too, from dixieland and swing to bebop, and the battle between the musical old and new guard was intensified by a push from the latter to integrate L.A.'s musician's union, which had always been split between white and black. Sachs' play not only attempts to deal with all those issues but with the racism embodied in L.A.'s police department, one of the most vicious and corrupt in the country (though it was whitewashed in the tv series "Dragnet," another issue touched on by Sachs).
Mixing actual characters (Chief William Parker, Jack Webb, Daryl Gates, Tom Bradley) with fictional constructs makes for an uneasy mixture in this wide ranging, episodic play, but thanks to skilful acting and directing the jumping from one plot point to another doesn't become overly distracting or annoying. Also, the use of music -- an original soundtrack spiced with such famous bop classics as Charlie Parker's "Night in Tunisia" and live vocals by the sultry Maura Gale -- gives the story an authentic feel and depth. Chet Grissom as an eager, naive young white musician and Jeris Lee Poindexter as an old-time horn man trying to cope with the forces of change and racism are the main characters, backed up by fellow musicians Damu Quarles and Anthony J. Haney.
Ryan Michaels plays a brutal cop and Clayton Landey is the militaristic, bible-spouting Chief Parker whose dedication to fascist-like white supremacy still dogs the LAPD to this day.
