Fans love it. Critics don’t. After Tyler Perry, can urban theater cross over? -7

Written by Fairchick Date
Before her play, Higginsen, a former
marketing executive at Ebony
magazine, says that "people" didn't
think "black folks were coming out
to see theater." Higginsen knew
better. "The heart and soul of any
community is in their art," she says. It wasn't that the audience didn't
exist; it was that it hadn't yet been
offered anything it wanted to see. Veteran actress D'Atra Hicks, the
circuit's diva emeritus and self-titled
"Beyoncé," got her start in "Mama, I
Want to Sing!" and has since done
stints on Broadway. She considers
the circuit "black Broadway." "This is something that I looove,"
Hicks croons in her rich alto. "It's a
part of me." If Hicks — currently starring opposite
R&B throwback Ginuwine on
Bravo's "Your Husband Is Cheating
on Us" — is the genre's ambassador,
then call it brassy, bursting with
talent and yet somehow, at more than 50 years old, below the
radar.Washington post

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