first edition Softcover
1973 · Toronto/New York/London
by Van Peebles, Melvin
Toronto/New York/London: Bantam Books (R7678). Near Fine. 1973. First Edition. Softcover. [about as nice a copy as you could hope to find, tight and clean with just a tiny bit of age-toning to the edges of the text block]. Mass Market PB (B&W photographs) Van Peebles's "most explosive, award-winning play . . . in a totally unique fiction form: a novel with lyrics, a gutsy, lusty narrative of black street life that explores every aspect of ghetto agony. Peopled by junkies, whores, pimps, sweating workers and crooked cops, prisoners, lovelorn lesbians, drag queens and dreamers." The stage musical, structured as "a series of 19 politically outspoken, darkly comic, and sexually charged musical monologues" (Wikipedia), was derived from songs on several albums that Van Peebles had recorded between 1968 and 1970. First produced at Sacramento State College in 1970, it opened off-Broadway in October 1971 and later transferred to the Ambassador Theatre, a Broadway house, for a total run of 325 performances. At various times, the New York cast included Bill Duke, Albert Hall, Garrett Morris, Ossie Davis and Phylicia Rashad. A paperback original. . (Inventory #: 28605)