Film Review: The Apollo
Credit: HBO
The rich and vibrant history of the Apollo Theatre as a cultural institution extends way beyond its geographical location in Harlem or as a showcase for virtually every significant black performer in the last 85 years. The Apollo alumni list reads like the most successful kick-starter campaign in the history of contemporary black entertainment , billed as the place “where stars are born and legends are made”. It is not an exaggeration. Opened in 1934 by Sidney Cohen, as one of the first Harlem venues to welcome black audiences, it became a magnet for the legions of talented black performers. They showcased blues, soul, swing, gospel, jazz, comedy, and dance. Amateur Night at the Apollo became a hugely successful crowd-pleaser which introduced new talent to the extremely vocal audience as a jury. It was the place where Ella Fitzgerald first performed at age 17. We know how that went. So many more - Billie Holiday, Pearl Bailey, Sammy Davis, the Supremes, James Brown, Sarah Vaughn, Dionne Warwick, Jackson Five, Patty LaBelle, Bobby Short, Stevie Wonder, and Aretha Franklin all got their start at the Apollo.
Credit: HBO
In The Apollo, directed by Roger Ross Williams, archival footage of all of these legends remembering or performing is so phenomenal and creates a landscape of the social, racial and musical culture of the times. The political and economic vicissitudes of New York City can also be traced in the rise and fall and resurrection of this beloved touchstone for the resilient Harlem community. Through the 1964 riots in Harlem in response to police brutality and the rise in drug use and crime in the 1970s forced the Apollo into bankruptcy in 1977. In 1985 former Borough President, Percy Sutton bought, renovated and reopened the venue and the Apollo became the new home and launchpad for hip hop and rap music and dance. Showtime at the Apollo was a successfully syndicated television show from 1987 – 2008. In 1983 the theatre was given Landmark status and entered the National Register of Historic Places.
Credit: HBO
In spite of all of this reorganization and immense popularity among a widening demographic, it was still losing money every year. In 1991 it was purchased by the State of New York, which created the non-profit Apollo Theatre Foundation to run it. It has since been thoroughly restored and celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2010. The archives, including documents and photographs, have been assembled in a collaboration with Columbia University to create an oral history project. It feels as if the future of the Apollo is finally guaranteed. It is alive and thriving, nurturing and serving its community, the artists and the culture.
The film is brilliantly structured, opening with Ta-Nehisi Coates on the stage of the Apollo reading a rueful letter to his 15-year old son explaining to him the hard truths about racism in America from his book Between the World and Me. It is a rehearsal for a multimedia stage adaptation, starring Angela Basset and Common, set to music composed by Jason Moran.
Credit: HBO
The rehearsal process is interspersed with backstage archival clips of the myriad artists from the past as well the backstage characters who are integral in the running of the theatre and gives a full rich sense of the continuity of the Apollo as an integral element in the health of the black community and by extension, the rest of us. The film ends with scenes of the finished production of Between the World and Me as performed in 2018 with the powerful and poetic words of Coates performed to an enraptured audience. It is a beautiful and uplifting film.
