Tiffany Renee Johnson, Jabari Khaliq, Cedric Young, Kelvin Roston Jr., David Alan Anderson, E. Faye Butler, Matt DeCaro (above), and Al'Jaleel McGhee Photo by Justin Barbin

The set, designed by Linda Buchanan, sharply and succinctly conveys the various power dynamics within the story. The design hollows out the Goodman's Albert Theatre all the way to the rafters, doing away with the proscenium to create a three-level design that situates the white characters, Irving and Sturdyvant, largely in the control booth at the top, Ma and her immediate entourage in the recording studio itself on the middle level, and the men of her band in the basement rehearsal room.

Buchanan also inserts the city into the structure of the set. Downstage right is a small wooden platform with a few wooden crates that seems intended to represent a Chicago street, and above the band room, upstage left, is a brick wall that rises all the way to the ceiling. Occasionally, characters race from the wings on to this street, and the stark shadows of the city appear on the face of the brick, but these aspects of the set are somewhat underused and the narrative purpose of the specific moments when the lighting (overall a very effective and emotionally evocative design by Jared Gooding) and sound cues (sound co-designed by Michael Bodeen and Rob Milburn) call attention to the city is not always obvious.

On the whole, however, the set design, sound, and lighting come together effectively to interweave the complex stories playing out on multiple levels, both literal and figurative. Evelyn Danner's costume design makes strong contributions to this success. Her design for Ma strikes the perfect balance between flamboyance and attention to class. Dussie Mae's look speaks to Ma's in terms of its material and color palette, but the cut has a girlishness to it that productively complicates the character's sensuality.

Similarly, Sylvester's outlandishly smart outfit reflects Ma's aspirations for her extended family and offers the actor (Jabari Khaliq in a very strong performance) opportunities to assert himself as a man and as an individual against the backdrop of this visual comedy. Danner's work for the men in the band is subtler, but effective, as Cutler and Slow Drag almost seem to be in uniform, whereas the wardrobes for Levee and Toledo convey that the two embody distinct worldviews that exist in tension with one another.

The performances are uniformly strong, though there are instances in which the intentions of directorial choices are not entirely clear. For example, E. Faye Butler is wonderfully brash, abrasive, and commanding as Ma Rainey, and her singing voice is sculpted to match this characterization. However, the performance seems weighted toward the shouty, diva-ish end of the spectrum. Obviously, these characteristics are integral to the character, but Wilson's text is seeded with moments that reveal her dedication to family and the ways in which a lifetime of exploitation by the industry and violence at the hands of society at large have created the diva. The moments that Butler finds, in particular with Sylvester, show that she is more than capable of cultivating this nuance, but Smith's direction seems inclined to deemphasize these.

One possible explanation for this may be the production's approach to the character of Dussie Mae. Tiffany Renee Johnson's performance is effectively seductive, and there's an interesting assertiveness to her take on the role that is not typical. One might read this as an attempt to bring to light the kind of formative experiences that Ma might have had as a younger woman. The possibilities inherent in this approach are intriguing, but it doesn't quite land, as the danger inherent in the dalliance between Dussie Mae and Levee is somewhat neglected.

Al'Jaleel McGhee is riveting as Levee from his first entry on to the scene. The manic excitement McGhee conveys is both electric and menacing. This not only foreshadow's the play's ending, but also establishes the complicated field of relationships within the band. McGhee's performance sets up David Alan Anderson's weary yet cantankerous performance as Cutler and affords Anderson the opportunity to be calm and lazily charismatic in his own right without compromising the believability of his eventual eruption into violence when Levee's lashing out pushes him too far.

As Slow Drag, Cedric Young effectively acts as a balancing force and the required comic relief, without ever coming across as a two-dimensional, mechanical aspect of the cast. On the contrary, in Young's hands, Slow Drag's apparent simplicity reads as being just as calculated as the splashier approaches to masculinity and Blackness that Levee and Toledo adopt.

As Toledo, Kelvin Roston Jr. offers a performance that is minutely, maddeningly, and almost completely unintentionally calculated to provoke a character like McGhee's Levee. Roston deftly handles the dialogue and manages to convey Toledo's quasi-philosophical meanderings as a believable blend of rehearsed, deep-sounding factoids and genuine, off-the-cuff contemplation of what he and his bandmates are doing, can do, and ought to be doing given the world that they inhabit as Black men.

As Sturdyvant and Irvin, respectively, Matt DeCaro and Marc Grapey capably lend the production a necessary layer of white hostility toward the artists they are eager to exploit. Both actors handle the required blend of obsequiousness, frustration, and condescension without veering into overt villainy. The end effect of these measured performances is ultimately more chilling, depressing, and relevant than anything more heightened.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom has been extended through May 3, 2026, at the Goodman Theatre, Albert Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, Chicago IL. For tickets and information, please visit GoodmanTheatre.org or call 312-443-3800.