Martin, a new musical from Tony-winning composer Charles Strouse (Bye Bye Birdie, Annie), begins performances October 19 at off-Broadway's Kraine Theatre. Presented by the Negro Ensemble Company, the limited engagement will run through October 30. The show is directed by Jeffrey B. Moss and choreographed by Barbara Siman.
The cast of Martin features Gilbert Glenn Brown, Dameka Hayes, Heather Massie, Kyle Minshew, Tony Perry, Raena White and Curtis Wiley.
Martin recounts Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s faltering journey from defiant teenager to leader of an improbable nonviolent bus boycott, which ultimately set the tone for the civil rights movement. In this new musical, Dr. King is stunned and disappointed that students from an urban high school, named after him, have little idea who he and his colleagues were in the civil rights movement. He takes them through his struggles with racism as a youth in Atlanta, his embrace of Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful means of protest, and the Montgomery bus boycott, where segregation on buses was declared illegal by the United States Supreme Court.