Derrick Moore and Shawn Hamilton Photo by Lauren B. Photography

Bert Williams began his life as an entertainer with performing in minstrel shows as a teenager in the 1890s. This was a new twist on minstrel shows, having actual Black men perform along with the tradition of white men in blackface. Over the course of thirty years, Williams became one of America's biggest stars. In vaudeville, he hit the heights with long-time performing partner George Walker. Williams and Walker appeared in successful stage musicals, including In Dahomey, which in 1903 became the first show written, directed, and performed by Black artists to play on Broadway, followed by a successful run in London, including a command performance at Buckingham Palace.

After Walker suffered a stroke in 1910, Williams continued on his own, returning to vaudeville and becoming the first Black performer to appear in the Ziegfeld Follies, starting with the 1910 edition (the one in which Fanny Brice also first appeared) and in four more editions through 1919. He was also a top-selling recording artist and appeared in several silent film comedies.

Brown opens the play as Williams nears the end of his career in 1923. Williams' dresser, called Chappy (Derrick Moore), is singing his own rendition of "Nobody" in the dressing room while waiting for his boss to return from the stage. Williams (Shawn Hamilton) enters in an outlandish chicken costume, interrupting Chappy's performance and irate to have his song usurped by his employee. However, we soon observe that Chappy, who has been with Williams some 20 years, is more than an employee–he is Williams' confidante, nursemaid, and friend. Williams' admits that his anger is as much at the song itself as at Chappy. "Nobody" contributed massively to his celebrity and wealth, but the insistence of audiences that he include it in every performance wears at him. The song's downbeat, cynical message must have been demoralizing, day after day.

Williams is a dispirited man, subject to rumination about bygone pleasures, second-guessing chances he didn't take, and bitter about vile racism that dogged him despite his fame. He marinates all of those feelings with lots of alcohol, which Chappy discourages to no avail. The term Chappy uses to describe his boss is "maudlin." Chappy helps Williams' out of his costume–the chicken suit being so outrageous, the fact that he wears it to show himself to the public only adds to the maudlin affect.

From here, the show consists of Williams and Chappy reminiscing about Bert Wlliams' career, with flashback scenes that introduce us to the dapper George Walker (Dennis W. Spears) as well as Walker's wife Aida Overton Walker (Regina Maria Williams), and Williams' wife Lottie Williams (Monica E. Scott). Both women performed with their husbands, as well as having their own careers. We also meet Florenz Ziegfeld, persuading Williams to accept the challenge of appearing in the Follies, and David Belasco (John Middleton in both roles), the legendary playwright, director, and producer, who tries to persuade Williams to abandon his sad clown persona and do a serious play. Playwright Brown, who also directs the production, has Williams remain sans pants, in his boxer shorts, for the duration, including the flashback scenes, as if we are seeing the man unclothed.

The highlights of Nowhere, No Time are the musical numbers, performed with brio and style, and especially shining when the suave Mr. Spears or silky Ms. Williams are on stage. When Spears and Hamilton dish out snappy repartee in "I Don't Like That Face You Wear," you can see how Williams and Walkers' act gained a big following, though material that might have been bold, cutting, and suggestive in the 1890s, feels charming and light-hearted by today's standards. "Play that Barbershop Chord," late in the show, gives Moore, joined by Hamilton, a chance to display tap dancing finesse, with choreography by Hank Smith. The piano accompaniment by music director Justin D. Cook and percussion by Trenon Graham serve the primarily minstrelsy and ragtime melodies well.

When we finally here Williams deliver his signature "Nobody," Hamilton hits straight to the heart, conveying the despair and resignation that solidified Williams' persona as a clown weighed down by heartache. The simple refrain spells it out: "I ain't never done nothin' to Nobody. I ain't never got nothin' from Nobody, no time. And, until I get somethin' from somebody sometime, I don't intend to do nothin' for Nobody, no time."

The primary disappointment with Nobody, No Time is that, while its subject's life is fascinating and worthy of dramatization, and his legacy is of indisputable importance, the play comes most fully to life only during those musical moments. The conversations between Williams and Chappy repeat themes of the great star's descent from the heights, his heavy drinking and faltering health, his bouts with institutionalized racism, and his fear of venturing beyond the safety of playing a sad sack with his face covered in burnt-cork blackface, to make a burlesque of his racial identity. All this is very quickly revealed, leaving the play short of momentum.

In no way are the actors at fault, for they all do excellent work, with Hamilton's Bert Williams and Moore's Chappy completely winning. They flesh out their respective characters and convey the depth of a friendship, masked by difference in status, that developed between these two men. Chappy may or may not be an invention of the playwright. I have been unable to find any evidence that he existed, but if he is an invention, both the playwright and the actor have made him totally plausible, and in the context of this play, essential.

Joseph Stanley designed a beautiful set that manages to fit convincingly realistic replicas of Williams' backstage dressing room and the raised proscenium performance stage on which the flashback scenes are played, with the musicians in view on the side. Zamora S.' costume designs are historically apt and are lovely–that is, all but that chicken suit. It is amazingly crafted, with wit and artistry, but whacky is a more apt descriptor than lovely. Alice Endo's lighting design draws us between the two principal playing spaces and supports the shifts in tone throughout the play.

Nobody, No Where brings to light the achievements and contributions of a largely forgotten American cultural icon and the challenges he faced, both historic and personal. It is lifted up with strong performances and an array of musical numbers peppered with wit, style, and sass. In 1910 the great Booker T. Washington wrote about Williams, "He has done more for our race than I have. He has smiled his way into people's hearts; I have been obliged to fight my way." It is well worth spending a couple of hours in such man's company.

Nobody, No Time runs through October 25, 2025, at Illusion Theater, Center for Performing Arts, 3754 Pleasant Avenue South, Minneapolis MN. For tickets and information, please call 612-339-4944 or visit illusiontheater.org.

Playwright and Director: Carlyle Brown; Music Supervisor: Victor Zupanc; Music Director: Justin D. Cook; Scenic Design: Joseph Stanley ; Costume Design: Zamora S.; Lighting Design: Alice Endo; Properties Design: Sarah Harris; Choreographer: Hank Smith; Stage Manager: Rachel Sprinkel. Producing Directors: Bonnie Morris and Michael Robins; Associate Producer: Tree O'Halloran. Cast: Justin D. Cook (Piano), Trenon Graham (Percussion/Ventriloquist), Shawn Hamilton (Bert), John Middleton (Ziegfeld/Belasco), Derrick Moore (Chappy), Monica E. Scott (Lottie), Dennis W. Spears (George), Austene Van (understudy Aida), Regina Marie Williams (Aida).