I saw him in this play in 1972! I loved it! I was 13yrs old and my dad took me to see it on Broadway! Mr. Hemsley was funny in the play! I loved him when he was on "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons." When I went to see the musical, that was the night I fell in love with Melba Moore's voice! She is my favorite female vocalist of ALL time! When she held that note while singing :"I Got Love" . .. I was like WOW . . . . all of that coming from that little woman.
We must be about the same age!! Keep livin,’ girl! I saw this play, too, at around the same time! It must’ve still been on B’way in ‘73. That’s the summer I believe I saw it. And Wiki doesn’t cite any touring companies, so I guess we were there. Helmsley was brilliant-as were, Moore, Clifton Davis or Cleavon Little (replacing Guillaume) Hopkins-the whole cast! As were the cast ‘ensembles’ of Raisin, Ain’t Misbehavin,’ Sophisticated Ladies & Bubblin’ Brown Sugar-all around the same era!! What an awful shame this performance level & welcome haven’t been produced on the Way since! Not to mention what’s happened to the price of tickets! 🌱
When my parents made me watch this as a child, I was super pissed, cuz I was a kid who wanted to do nothing my parents wanted me to do. When the show started and I saw George Jefferson and Benson....I immediately apologized (in my mind) and enjoyed the crap out of this play
WHAT! NO MORE GEORGE JEFFERSON! We lost a great one. Seeing Mr. Hemsley in the tour of "Purlie" turned me on to musical theater. In 1970 my mom brought back the “Purlie” original cast album from her NYC theater trip. I wore out that “Purlie” LP. I sang and danced along with it in my living room with the stereo on full blast. When I finally saw the touring company it was a life changer. A theater queen was born! Thanks for the memories, Sherman. And may flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
My mother and sistes went to NY to see this play and talk about it for days,when it came to Philadelphia,they took me to see it and at the end of the show as the actors came out the back door, Mr. Hemsley and Mr. Guillame both gave us their autographs,I always remember that. Oh yeah whe they (mom and sisters went to NY) my father took us to see the Halem Globetrotters. I always loved both men,very talented men. But when the show came to Philly some actress name Patty Jo played Ms Moore part.
i guess Im asking randomly but does someone know of a method to get back into an Instagram account? I somehow lost the password. I would love any help you can offer me!
@Grayson Canaan thanks so much for your reply. I got to the site thru google and I'm trying it out now. Seems to take a while so I will reply here later with my results.
TV actors often get their start on the theater stage. People know them from sitcoms but many of the Black actors have very interesting theater backgrounds that span on the international scale: Rosetta LeNoire, Clifton Davis, Jester Hairston that starred with Mr. Hemsley in the TV series 'Amen' all had theater backgrounds, just to mention a few. Denzel Washington, Viola Davis...all theater people.
