Compositions - Musicals
To date, I have composed two musicals: Harlem Voices© and Harlem Voices: Revisited.
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Harlem Voices© is a 1920s-era musical that explores present-day issues of racism, LGBTQ issues, inept leadership, African-American military service in WWI, and racial profiling (among many other issues). It is about a brilliant young black vocalist who was traumatized by the Rosewood, FL massacre of her family members by the KKK. She is conflicted by falling in love with a white patron of the racially segregated club where she works in Harlem called the Black Jay Club. I wrote the “book” (play), libretto, and music... the entire creative product. The video shown below describes the main story of the piece. It should give you a good idea of the way I envision the look and feel of the musical to be. I created all the 3d modeled figures and music in the movie.
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Clicking on the button below will take you to the special website devoted totally to Harlem Voices©. There, you will learn everything there is to know about the piece (MP3 recordings, scores, about the book, interviews, etc.) and how it is progressing.
Harlem Voices: Revisited
Harlem Voices - Revisited is the second of three musicals by Clovice A. Lewis, Jr. Harlem Voices: Revisited picks the up the Harlem Voices© story eight years later on August 1, 1943 and continues until the Fall of 1976. Many of the characters from the original Harlem Voices© rejoin the cast. New characters, some historical (such as Langston Hughes, Lorraine Hansberry, and Tuskegee Airmen), are presented as they navigate their way through WWII, segregation in the North, economic and financial inequities, systemic racism, the McCarthy era, the Vietnam war, and the Civil Rights era. Where Harlem Voices© told the story from a "personal" view of their challenges, Harlem Voices: Revisited tells the story from the perspective of the characters dealing with how their lives are effected by the broader social issues of the time. Because the second musical covers a longer time period we experience the deaths of many characters from the original musical and the maturation of their children.
Another important subtheme of Harlem Voices: Revisited is how Belle's optimism and joy of life mirrors the decline of Harlem from the height of its renaissance in the early 1930s to its fall into deterioration and neglect in the 1950s.
Another important subtheme of Harlem Voices: Revisited is how Belle's optimism and joy of life mirrors the decline of Harlem from the height of its renaissance in the early 1930s to its fall into deterioration and neglect in the 1950s.
Clicking on the button below will take you to the special website devoted totally to Harlem Voices©. There, you will learn everything there is to know about the piece (MP3 recordings, scores, about the book, interviews, etc.) and how it is progressing.
