After Delays, Black Thought Will Make His Off-Broadway Debut Next Winter

Black Thought will be starring and writing the music for the upcoming off-broadway play Black No More.

After months of delays, Black Thought will be making his debut on the stage next year. It has just been announced that Black No More, a musical written by 12 Years a Slave-screenwriter John Ridley, will make its premiere this winter, from January 11 to February 27, 2022. 

Black Thought is starring and will provide the music for the play, which is based on a 1931 satirical novel from George S. Schuyler. The play, which will be produced by the New Group, was originally announced last year and was supposed to originally premiere this month but was delayed. Now there are dates, with the big opening happening on February 8th at the Pershing Square Signature Center in New York City. 

And Black Thought is ecstatic. He recently talked to the New York Times about the play and what he has envisioned for it. 

 “I feel like this play, we might be able to break it down and use it as an education in the origins and history of Black music,” Thought said. Later on, he hints that many genres will be explored:

“I didn’t feel like I was confined; I didn’t feel like I had to stick to music of the day... I felt like we were able to tell the story, and make it in very many ways a period piece — without only writing jazz music.”

A slim but hilarious novel, Black No More tells the story of Max Disher, a New York City-based Black man who does a treatment called Black-No-More, which turns him white. He soon learns that being white isn't all he hoped it would be. 

Speaking to the Times about the book, which is considered a Harlem Renaissance classic, Black Thought said:

 “I couldn’t believe that something of this caliber of science fiction and wit and just dark humor and something with so many layers was written at the time that it was.”