Mickey Grant People need to hear this

Mickey Grant (1929–2021) is an American actor, writer and composer

Writer, musician and performer Micki Grant died in Manhattan on August 22, 2021, at the age of 92.

In the 1970s, with the musical Don't Bother Me, I Can't Handle It, Mickey Grant became the first woman to write music and lyrics for a Broadway musical. Vinnette Carroll, who directed it, also became the first Broadway African-American female theater director.

Set in New York, the play depicts the transformative and bizarre American society of the '70s—the rise of rock 'n' roll, the mass entry of women into the labor market, and the massive environmental movement—and explores topics such as slum life, black rights, the feminist movement, and student protests.

Performed by all-black actors, Grant incorporated musical genres such as rock, jazz, funk, and blues, and innovatively added slang and hip-hop. The condensed 75 minutes, in a humorous way, sharply outline the insults and institutional disasters suffered by blacks in their daily lives, from slavery to substandard housing, are extremely socially critical.

Grant's intention was not to make a provocative musical about what was going on to black Americans, "There were a lot of angry theaters at the time, especially in the black community... But I want to deal with it with a soft fist," "I'm just writing about my community, about what I see in the news and in the streets and in churches, and people need to hear this." ”

In 1972, Clive Barnes, a New York Times critic, commented: "The most pleasant and unexpected thing was that last night at the theater, there was a burst of applause, stomping and cheering from a brand-new musical, 'Don't Disturb Me,' which was fresh, funny, and full of 'black' humor, and "it was a radical performance, but not bitter at all." As Grant himself sang 'Too Little Time for Hate'. ”

The play also received nominations for Best Musical, Best Original Score, Best Screenplay and Best Director at the Tony Awards (generally considered the highest award for American drama and musical), as well as the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album – making Grant the first female composer to win the award. In June 2021, Grant affirmed its two-fold meaning in his last interview before his death, "Broadway musicals were never done by women, and until then, some of the big names you know were men." "Don't Bother Me" was also the first time a black musical competed for the Tony Award and won it. ”

Grant said "Don't Bother Me" is meant to make musical theatergoers recognize the similarities between races, not the differences. Especially at the end of the show, she discovers that there are people in the audience who have never held the hands of people of different races before, "and all of a sudden, they hold the hand of another person... I think that's the recognition of the play. ”

Prior to his career in musicals, Grant was also a soap opera actor, playing the role of secretary to lawyer in the NBC soap opera Another World, becoming the first black soap opera actor to sign for seven consecutive years. She also serves as national chair of the Television Union's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which focuses on minority employment on television.

In 2018, Broadway rebooted Don't Bother Me. The New York Times wrote, "Revisiting Broadway acrobatics, almost half a century ago, Grant was able to leap from soap opera actress to musical theater pioneer, in part because she had her own judgment in the face of the heavy subject matter of the times." New Century audiences say it's as influential as it was in the 1970s, "with clear themes, love and dignity in the slums, the need to keep moving forward, and that still inspires us." ”