Jackie Wilson Story, The

What are they waiting for? The Jackie Wilson Story has been playing to sellout houses since it opened in February 2000, it quickly became the hottest ticket at the 2001 National Black Theater Festival, and every newspaper, magazine, website, radio and TV station in town has caroled the praises of Chester Gregory II's portrayal of the song stylist whose fame and the price of such has served as a cautionary tale for aspiring entertainers to this day. Gregory's replication includes fourteeen-bar fermatas and cadenzas in three-octave range, not to mention leaps, kicks, splits, spins, one-foot shuffles, backbends to-the-floor and steps they don't even have names for except to say, "that Jackie Wilson thing" (or nowadays, second-hand, "that James Brown thing," or even third-hand, "that Michael Jackson thing").

Black Ensemble Artistic Director Jackie Taylor's script paints an unvarnished but still reverent picture of Wilson, enhanced by a score featuring songs from the early days of rhythm-and-blues as Lyle Miller's Sam Cooke, Eva D's LaVern Baker and Valerie Tekosky's Etta James give Gregory a rest from time to time. The show's extended once again, but it's too good to keep to ourselves. (The tour planned for last autumn was postponed in the wake of the September upheaval).

So where are the agents, the producers, the film scouts? Do they think Gregory can sweat this kind of workout forever? Who's gonna be the first to bring this phenomenal talent to the rest of the country?