Black Swan Blues

inspired by the ballet “Swan Lake”

Music by Randy Klein

Book and Lyrics by Joan Ross Sorkin

The concept developed by Joan Ross Sorkin and Randy Klein

Black Swan Blues, is a new blues-infused musical that explores racism and white privilege in 1963 when the winds of change were beginning to blow through the South.

Set in New Orleans in the world of voodoo, love between Shep Chandler, a rich, idealistic journalist, and Ori Fontaine, a strong-willed blues singer is challenged when secrets from their tangled pasts involving race, murder, and the Ku Klux Klan are revealed.

Synopsis

Act I begins at Shep’s father’s funeral, complete with Dixieland band. Voodoo god Papa Legba intervenes and instead of making him a star in the sky, he sends Grayson Chandler’s soul below. Weeks later, still mourning, Shep’s mother Olympia insists Shep take over the family’s lucrative glass business. He refuses, defending his career as a journalist writing about civil rights, including the recent Birmingham church bombing. After Papa Legba uses voodoo to put him in the mood for love, Shep’s friends take him to The Black Swan, a blues club in the Quarter. There Shep meets Ori, the white member of The Swans, an all-girl, mixed-race singing group, taken in by Velvet, the Black club owner and a voodoo priestess. Later that night Shep and Ori secretly meet at the levee where she points to two stars, her parents Lee Ann and Jack Fontaine who died when she was a baby. With encouragement from Papa Legba, Shep and Ori fall in love. They meet again at a protest led by Ori at the museum, and Shep gets arrested for drinking from the colored fountain, though later is not booked because of his family connections. Ori is saved from arrest by Rudy, a police officer who moonlights at the club. Olympia and Velvet are not happy with the trouble from the protest. That week Shep finds Ori at the levee where Ori is painting. Shep shows her a letter inviting him to come to New York and interview at The New York Times. That night in Ori’s room they plan to run away to NYC after Shep’s birthday party. The next day a wedding photo of Velvet and Jack is found. Velvet confesses she is Ori’s real mother. Ori is livid that Velvet lied about Lee Ann. Velvet admits she wanted Ori to pass as white to have a better life. Ori insists on telling Shep she’s half-black. Velvet warns her that Shep’s family is racist. Ori plans to go to the party to find out Shep’s true feelings. At the party, as Ori’s chaperone, Velvet ignores Legba’s warning to use voodoo only for love and casts a spell on Ori, making her crass and insulting. Shep ends the party, vowing to forget Ori.

 In Act II, as the spell dissipates while Ori sleeps, Papa Legba enters Ori’s subconscious to follow her love. Ori sneaks out to make up with Shep, but he’s still upset and refuses to believe Velvet is her real mother. Ori realizes Shep is actually bigoted and runs off. Velvet has a nightmare where Legba insists she tell Ori about the spell. In a Mardi Gras parade the Chandlers appear as royalty with Grayson dressed as a KKK Grand Dragon, inducting Shep into the Klan. Ori, a dying swan, chastises Velvet for ruining her love. Velvet’s husband Jack convinces her to tell Ori about the spell. When she wakes, Velvet recounts her nightmare to Rudy who admits Grayson was a KKK Grand Dragon and financed the Birmingham church bombing. The next day Velvet discovers Ori is gone. She and the Swans go to confront Shep and Olympia at their home where Shep is ready to leave for NYC. While questioning Shep about Ori’s whereabouts, Velvet can’t keep silent about her own past any longer. She claims Grayson had his thugs murder Jack, a foreman at the Chandler glass plant, because he sired a mixed-race child, Ori. When Olympia doesn’t deny it, Shep finally understands the truth. Shep apologizes for his father’s sins and leads the search for Ori. He finds her at the levee and begs forgiveness for his own bigotry. They reconcile. Velvet admits to the spell and blesses their union. A rookie cop tracks down Shep to bring him in for implicating the police chief in a corruption scandal in his recent news article. The cop calls Velvet a “nigger woman.” There’s a scuffle and he shoots at Velvet, but Shep steps in and takes the bullet. He dies in Ori’s arms. Legba creates a new star in the sky. Velvet and Ori vow to keep fighting for justice and equality, as the company joins them.