Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s off-Broadway solo show, Lackawanna Blues, has found its way to Broadway without losing its snap. Originally presented at the Public Theater in 2001, Blues is the author-star-director’s autobiographical tribute to his beloved foster mother Nanny Crosby, who maintained a boarding house of eccentric characters in the titular upstate New York town while raising him.
As he did 20 years ago, Santiago-Hudson plays all the inhabitants of Nanny’s home in a series of hilarious and touching vignettes, accompanied by Junior Mack’s tangy guitar. Gamblers, convicts, war veterans, and the irrepressible big-hearted Nanny come to vivid life.
When the show originally played, it was hailed as a salve to wounds suffered on 9/11, now the affectionate tribute heals injuries suffered during another national crisis, that of COVID.
