ABOUT THE SHOW

In Lonesome Blues, a one-man musical, the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson looks back on his life during the moments before his death in Chicago on a cold December night in 1929. Blind Lemon’s memories come to life through his music in a journey that is at once evocative, troubling, and transformative.
 
Lonesome Blues by Alan Govenar and Akin Babatundé builds on the critical acclaim of their earlier musical Blind Lemon Blues, which premiered in Paris and Geneva and was staged in Central Park and in two Off-Broadway productions at the York Theatre in New York City. In Lonesome Blues, Govenar and Babatundé probe deeper into Blind Lemon’s life, music, and psyche.

Photograph by Taylor Staniforth

Blind Lemon Jefferson was the voice of Black America at that moment.
​     ~August Wilson
         Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright

Directed by Babatundé, Lonesome Blues stars J Dontray Davis, who plays more than ten different roles, channeling the spirits of men and women alike, including Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lead Belly, Hattie Hudson, Lillian Miller, Bobbie Cadillac, and Blind Willie Johnson.
 
Born in rural East Texas in 1893, Blind Lemon Jefferson was discovered on a street corner in the Deep Ellum section of Dallas in 1925. Over the course of the next four years Blind Lemon became the biggest selling country blues singer of his generation, propelling the growth of rhythm and blues, soul, doo-wop, rap, and hip-hop.