Search - Various Artists :: Topdog Underdog

While not a musical, the Broadway production of Suzan-Lori Parks's Pulitzer-winning Topdog/Underdog is drenched in music. Like the card tricks of the two small-time hustlers played by Jeffrey Wright and rapper Mos Def, the songs adeptly mix and match eras. Their year- and style-jumping adds to the play's unspecified time frame, all the while making for a sharp little snapshot of African American music over the past decades. Mos Def trying newly pilfered clothes to the tune of James Brown's "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag (Part 1)" is electrifying, while the juxtaposition of Jay Z, Muddy Waters, Wayne Shorter, Robert Johnson, and Wu-Tang Clan is provocative and exciting. Mos Def himself shows why he's one of the best MCs in contemporary hip-hop on "3-Card," while Jeffrey Wright hauntingly performs "Lincoln's Blues," a song written for the play by Parks (whose husband, Paul Oscher, used to play in Muddy Waters's band). --Elisabeth Vincentelli