James T. Lane is a rare bird when it comes to Broadway鈥檚 Chicago. It鈥檚 not unusual for alums to return to the long-running revival, but they tend to stick to the same roles. Lane, on the other hand, is currently back starring as maligned mechanic husband Amos just a few months after his stint as silver-tongued lawyer Billy Flynn.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a trip,鈥� he told us just days after his surprise return to the production (a case of COVID led to Lane鈥檚 start date moving up by almost a week). 鈥淚 have to almost ignore what Billy is doing because those lines are still really fresh in my head.鈥�
It鈥檚 also historic. Lane is one of just two performers in the production鈥檚 history to play both male-presenting principal roles, placing him alongside Christopher Fitzgerald. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a wonderful club to be in.鈥�
But there鈥檚 something about Lane鈥檚 casting that stands alone and remains unmatched. He may be one of two to play both roles, but he鈥檚 the one and only Black actor to join that club. And while he stands alongside several former Billys (including Cuba Gooding, Jr., Colman Domingo, Brandon Victor Dixon, James Monroe Iglehart, Usher, Obba Babatunde, Hinton Battle, Chuck Cooper, Wayne Brady, Taye Diggs, and Norm Lewis, among others), Lane stands alone when it comes to Amos. He is the only Black actor to play the role full-time at all on Broadway, and has been since he first did the part in 2009.
That alone is worth celebrating and marking, but it鈥檚 especially apt when it comes to the character of Amos Hart. Chicago, originally subtitled 鈥淎 Musical Vaudeville,鈥� unfolds as a series of vaudeville acts. When John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse set out to decide how these characters could become vaudeville acts, in many cases they turned to real historical figures. Matron 鈥淢ama鈥� Morton is very closely modeled on Sophie Tucker, Roxie on Helen Morgan, Velma on Texas Guinan, and Billy Flynn on Ted Lewis.
Amos, on the other hand, is heavily inspired by the once world-famous, but now largely forgotten, Black entertainer Bert Williams.
The connection brings extra meaning to Lane鈥檚 performance, he says. 鈥淲hat a moment that I get to live through as an artist, as a person taking up space in a new way in these past few years, that I get the honor of embodying an iconic character that was created by an African American vaudeville star.鈥�
Over a three-decade career, Williams defied bigotry and racial inequality to become one of the highest-paid entertainers in the world. He was far and away the most successful Black entertainer of his day. He notably joined the usually all-white Ziegfeld Follies for its 1910 iteration, and is thought to be the first Black actor to play a leading role on screen, in 1913鈥檚 unfortunately titled Darktown Jubilee.
But to focus on Williams鈥� talents and fame as an entertainer is to miss what most makes him an interesting figure. In the early 20th century, many Black performers were relegated to performing cruel and ridiculous stereotypes鈥攊ncluding the use of blackface makeup鈥攊nvented by white people, and primarily for white audiences. Williams performed in blackface too鈥攂ut he used it subversively to critique those stereotypes. Unlike the vast majority of his contemporaries, Williams refused to make Black people the butt of his jokes, choosing instead to find laughs in situations that anyone could relate to. Williams鈥� blackface makeup shined a spotlight on the absurdity and dehumanization of the performance practice. He forced his audiences to think about what the act of blackface actually is and why they enjoy it.
You can find one of the best examples of that in William鈥檚 signature and career-defining song which he wrote with lyricist Alex Rogers in 1905 for the Broadway musical Abyssinia. He would perform the melancholy tune with his trademark speak-sing style and dry wit, showing the plight of Black men at the time.
"When winter comes with snow and sleet
And me with hunger and cold feet
Who says, 鈥楬ere鈥檚 two bits, go and eat鈥�?
Nobody."
If you鈥檙e familiar with the songs of Chicago, you鈥檇 be excused if you thought those were extra lyrics to 鈥淢r. Cellophane.鈥�
And that鈥檚 not by accident. Just as Williams was the model for Amos, 鈥淣obody鈥� became the model for Amos鈥� tragic anthem, where the character sings of his own injustice at the hands of Roxie and Billy. And as staged by director Walter Bobbie and choreographer Ann Reinking, Amos starts the song purposefully donning white gloves, a nod to "Nobody" and the character鈥檚 connection to minstrelsy.
Though Lane briefly played Amos in 2009, it wasn鈥檛 until this time around that he was even fully aware of the role's background. Lane says learning that history gave him new purpose after initially wondering why he, as a triple threat performer, had suddenly found himself back in this wallflower-esque role.
鈥淚鈥檓 used to jumping off and twirling and doing splits, or being the song-and-dance man,鈥� says Lane, who has spent most of his time on Broadway in dance-heavy shows like A Chorus Line and Kiss Me, Kate. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what I鈥檓 known for. What is the lesson in Amos? At first, I thought the lesson was stillness. Let鈥檚 really put on this kind of character of stillness and altruism that鈥檚 Amos鈥檚 heart. But for the culture, the lesson is Mr. Bert Williams.鈥�
Lane admit he had been feeling slightly out of place, but when he discovered who Williams was and researched his legacy, suddenly he settled into the performance with a new sense of comfort and purpose. 鈥淭his is exactly where I鈥檓 supposed to be. This culturally was created with me in mind, with what I have inside of me in mind.鈥�
Lane says it also makes the character, and particularly the song 鈥淢r. Cellophane,鈥� mean more and adds nuance to his take on the role. 鈥淎s an African American man, not being seen or not feeling like I am a part of society, that all informs my relationship with Roxie. It informs my relationship in how I deal with Billy Flynn,鈥� says Lane. His Amos isn鈥檛 just adorably pathetic. He represents one more indictment on society鈥檚 worst impulses, in a musical that was built to lampoon exactly that. Chicago always satirizes the thirst for fame and the media complex built around it. Now it more clearly shows the victims of that, too. People like Amos.
鈥淚t鈥檚 profound,鈥� says Lane. 鈥淚t makes it deeper. It puts the emphasis not on the performance necessarily, but on how you鈥檙e feeling about who you are. If theatre isn鈥檛 doing that, then it鈥檚 not doing its job.鈥�
But back to those minstrel gloves.
Bringing back any trappings from the world of minstrelsy can be a loaded moment for a performer, and especially so for an artist of color. It鈥檚 something Lane has engaged with before on a larger level while in another Kander and Ebb musical, The Scottsboro Boys. Like Chicago, that musical uses an archaic and artifice-filled performance style as a satirical framing storytelling device, here telling the true story of nine young Black men who were falsely accused of raping two white women on a train in Scottsboro, Alabama in 1930. To tell that tale, Kander and Ebb, along with book writer David Thompson, reached back further than vaudeville to present the musical as a minstrel show. Most of the performance had the cast in regular period clothes, but the finale underlined the characters鈥� very real dehumanization by having them suddenly appear on stage in the traditional minstrel outfit: tuxedo, white gloves, and full blackface makeup, which they ultimately scrub off onstage in protest. To say the scene was incendiary is a monumental understatement. Much of the musical鈥檚 brief Broadway run in 2010 was accompanied by protests outside the theatre.
But Lane says it was necessary鈥攁nd sadly, as timely now as it was then. 鈥淪ome of the rhetoric that is coming out of the far right鈥檚 mouth, dehumanizing people鈥攖hat鈥檚 what blackface is to me,鈥� he says. 鈥淵ou put them all in blackface because they all look alike.鈥�
And though revisiting that painful history can be tricky, Lane says that it鈥檚 also a way to honor legacy. In the case of Chicago and Bert Williams, it celebrates the trailblazer that helped made Lane鈥檚 life and career today possible.
鈥淏ert Williams paved the way so I can stand center stage and be the Black gay man continuing the lineage of that,鈥� says Lane. 鈥淧utting on the glove is about the entertainer. It鈥檚 paying tribute, that I can put on those gloves with knowing who I am. It鈥檚 a history lesson for me, particularly walking around in this skin. It鈥檚 about honoring myself as an artist standing on the shoulders of folks like Bert Williams.鈥�
There is much work left to do for us to right the wrongs of inequity, but Lane can鈥檛 help but reflect how different it is now compares to the era of Bert Williams鈥攁nd how much the legendary performer was a part of making that so.
鈥淎t the end of the night, I leave the stage door, I go home, I pet my cats, I kiss my partner. I am living who I am fully,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 how I take this. I鈥檓 free to do all of the things while I still pay homage to Bert and his world.鈥�
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