Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole

Not all bio-musicals are created equal. After all, Jersey Boys didn’t remotely resemble Summer: The Donna Summer Musical. And while the latter musical shares Colman Domingo as book writer with Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole, the two couldn’t be more different.

Domingo, along with Patricia McGregor (who also directs), has structured a unique way of looking not just at the man behind such classic recordings as “Mona Lisa” and “Unforgettable,” but the racism he faced during his lifetime – both professionally and personally.

Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole at the Geffen Playhouse stars as Cole is Dulé Hill (The West Wing, Suits). Hill, and co-star Daniel J. Watts (Sammy Davis, Jr.) who have been with the show since its world premiere in 2017 at People’s Light & Theatre in Malvern, Pennsylvania.

The show imagines what might have been going through Cole’s mind as he was doing his final Christmas show in front of a live audience. Special guests weave their way in and out of the play including Betty Hutton and Peggy Lee (Ruby Lewis playing both), Billy Preston (Connor Amacio Matthews) and Eartha Kitt (Gisela Adisa). But it’s the systemic racism Cole faces that is, perhaps, the most prevalent and disturbing character.

It’s an audacious way of telling a story and certainly not going to be just a retread of Cole’s most notable songs with fluff brought in to get from one song to another. Think more All That Jazz than Escape to Margaritaville (of course if that’s more your style, the Jimmy Buffett musical will be at the Dolby Theatre in 2020.)

The show runs 90 minutes with no intermission.

Go here to read our interview with Colman Domingo about Lights Out: Nat “King” Cole.

Update:  This post has been revised to correct the name of the actor playing Billy Preston.  It is Connor Amacio Matthews, not Conor.

Production photo by Jeff Lorch/Courtesy of the Geffen Playhouse