Review Archive/September 2013
Updated September 2, 2013


THE MONKEY ON MY BACK; Ms. Debbi Morgan
An Eerily Captivating and Candid Performance!

By Jay Whipple/Trend Magazine Online™

Needless to say I have been a fan of Ms. Morgan since her small screen debut as Elizabeth Harvey (Alex Haley’s Aunt) in Alex Haley’s Roots: The Next Generation in 1979. It was her and Ms. Irene Cara – who played Bertha Palmer Haley – that stole my heart during that historic mini-series about a subject that was just plain ole taboo on television before then; slavery. I call them the “Supa Sistas” of the 1970’s. Apparently the then powers that be in Hollywood did not want to air their ancestor’s dirty laundry to the world concerning their quest for economic superiority, and the crimes against nature that they felt compelled to commit to achieve it. Ms. Morgan recaptured my heart again when she landed the role of Dr. Angela “Angie” Hubbard in the soap opera All My Children back in 1982. She and Mr. Darnell Williams – who plays Jesse Hubbard – were the first Black/African-American “super couple” with a recurring role on any soap opera. I guess before then people of color were not known for constant drama in the household. What? Hollywood recognized her by honoring her talent with a daytime Emmy Award in 1989, making her the first Black/African-American daytime actress to win that statuette.  I was at one point in time hooked on that soap while employed at the now defunct Heilig-Meyers Furniture retail stores warranty repair shop in Fayetteville, NC, back in the early 1980’s. Years later I was told to watch this new movie called Eve’s Bayou (1997) which was written and directed by a Black woman by the name of Ms. Karen “Kasi” Lemmons. I did watch and it turns out that that movie would become one of my all-time favorites along with Cooley High (1975) and Citizen Cane (1941) to name a few. I was privileged to interview one of the stars of Cooley High – Mr. Glynn Turman – during the 2011 NBTF here in Winston-Salem, NC.

Speaking of drama, Eve’s Bayou was chocked full of it from start to finish. Mr. Samuel L. Jackson was brilliant in his role as Dr. Louis Batiste, Ms. Lynn Whitfield plays his -- I will do anything to maintain my upper middle class status -- wife (Roz) to a tee; newcomers Ms. Meagan Good (Cisely Batiste) and Ms. Jurnee Smollett (Eve) rose to the occasion as competing siblings, and Jazz great Branford Marsalis (Harry) was quite impressive in his role as one of Mozelle Batiste Delacroix’s (Debbi Morgan) three husbands (Who all died). It was also nice to see a blast from the past –Ms. Diahann Carroll – still doing her thing as Elzora the soothsayer. All Black women that are privileged to play professional roles on television today should give her a cut of their salaries for breaking the ice as nurse Julia on the series Julia from 1968 to 1971. There were indeed real Black nurses in our society; however, we just did not see them on TV. The pivotal character, however, in that movie was none other than Mozelle again played by Ms. Debbi Morgan who – in my opinion – has the cutest natural dimples that I have ever seen. Most movie fans agree that she was indeed overlooked by the academy for her stellar performance in that movie. When I learned that she was coming to this year’s National Black Theatre Festival in Winston-Salem, NC, I was simply ecstatic.

Looking back on my experience it seems a bit surreal in that I was in the same space as this darling of the big and small screen for so many years now. My mind was telling me that it was all a dream; even when she casually walked right past me and onto the stage. She was given an opportunity to address the crowd concerning her upcoming one-woman show/performance the day before at the press conference on Monday July 29, 2013. She let us know right off the bat that her show was about the abuse of her late father – Mr. George Morgan, Jr. – that led her down a certain path in life. I must admit that I do not like it when we (Black men) get served in this type public forum, however, this was Debbi Morgan and I was quite interested in her side of the story. Even more interesting is the fact that she is from a small town just north of Fayetteville, NC, called Dunn, NC. I visited her hometown on business years ago to sell an ad to one of the Black-owned businesses there.

Ms. Morgan’s one-woman show started a bit delayed -- at 8:15PM-- as more and more folks seemed to seek access to her sold out performance in the very quaint venue.  Even Antonio Fargas (Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch, 1975 - 1979) strolled past my front-row center-aisle seat moments before show time. Moments later, the lights went down, the spotlight pointed to the rear of the ballroom, and I could hear her voice welcoming everybody to her show as she worked her way to the stage. She is a very petite woman and her first order of business was to set the audience straight – “My name is Debbie Morgan” she said, “Not Angie Hubbard” from the All My Children soap opera, and not “Mozelle” from Eve’s Bayou, etc… This was a good icebreaker for those in the audience that could not separate the character from the actor. She then set the tone of her show by stating that “I have been married four ‘got’damn times, I said ‘got’ and not ‘God.’” Many chuckles from the audience ensued.  Right about then I was comfortable enough to perform a detailed scan of her appearance; she wore a somewhat sleek green dress that stopped about 3” above her knees, with black laced pantyhose that were very sexy on her, and black thin strapped sandal-like shoes. She has some of the most beautiful toes I have ever seen on a woman – save one.

She then reminisced about her break out role as Elizabeth Harvey in Roots: The Next Generation, and paid homage to the late author Mr. Alex Haley (1921 – 1992). From there she morphed into the character of her Great Aunt Minnie who seemingly spoke a different dialect of the English language. Her portrayal was brilliant. She then switched her attention to her Grandfather – John Hammond Smith – who, according to her, began her ill-fated legacy of abuse as he terrorized his wife with fear. I was about five feet away from her when she walked to the end of the stage so I had a birds-eye view of even her sweat and tears. “I grew up on 5th Avenue in New York,” she stated, however, she did not go into how she ended up up there from Dunn, NC. This is where she introduced her dad (Mr. George Morgan, Jr.) to the audience and one could tell that she truly admired him – deep down inside – as his photo appeared on the large side screen. “He was a handsome man,” she said, “And this is where I inherited my trademark dimples.” Ah Ha, I thought, so they are real! Smile! She also stated that he really liked the late R&B singers Ray Charles (1930 – 2004) and Ben E. King. She then flipped the script and stated that she came to hate her father who subsequently died at a relatively young age. This is where the wheels in my head began to churn and I wondered if any of the all Black/African-American audience was doing the same? Her simple set consisted of a beige bench, a red velvet chair, an end table with a rose in a vase, mobile phone, tissue, and water. The mood of her show began to evolve into a more sinister realm as she mimicked a vicious fight between her mother and father—in the kitchen -- after he came home from work one evening. She also mimicked herself in her bedroom during all of the turmoil that was erupting.  This scene was extremely powerful as it raised the pulses of the audience into a frenzy as the sound effects grew louder and louder and she began to shed very real tears while screaming “no daddy no, I wish you would die.” Suddenly, all that drama came to a screeching halt; and it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop in the audience.  She broke that silence by disclosing that her father did die on February 15, 1965, at age 27; of leukemia. It was the same day ironically that crooner Nat King Cole died, she said.

From this point on Ms. Morgan began to recount the after-effects of her fear of her late father as they manifested themselves into her personal relationships while growing up in the South Bronx of New York. Her friend Evelyn, she said, bullied her into not liking a Puerto Rican guy by the name of Robert – who really liked her. In addition, she ended up dating a guy who was a drug dealing thug who almost got her arrested for concealing heroin in her pants during a police stop when she was just 16 years old. They finally broke up and she soon afterwards found herself playing the role of PUCK (Mischievous servant and jester) in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Catholic school she attended. Her mentor was Mr. Jim Mendenhall, she stated, as she credits him with her acting career as she was planning to go to college to be a teacher. This was the end of the first act.

The second half of her one-woman show focused on her four husbands whom she did not name the first three; rather she labeled them husband number one, two, and three. For this half of her show she sported a white semi see-through shirt with rolled-up sleeves, and the same black sexy-laced pantyhose. Husband number one (Charles Weldon, 1980 – 1984), she stated, freebased cocaine. Husband number two (Charles S. Dutton, 1989 – 1994), she said, was not very handsome but had a great personality; “He was effervescent.” It turns out, she said, he had been in prison for robbing a bank and committing manslaughter – she learned from a news magazine. He did become very famous and soon thereafter, she said, strange women started calling their home at all hours of the night. They did separate and later got back together only to divorce some time later. She did admit to an affair with a married guy she called Mr. Las Vegas while they were separated. Hubby number three (Donn Thompson, 1997 – 2000), she said, was a Jamaican photographer who cheated on her with a 16 year-old girl before forcing her into bankruptcy. She ended on a high note by introducing the audience to hubby number four (Jeffery Winston, 2009 - present) who was there in the flesh; and she claimed freedom from that "Monkey on her back." The language and subject matter of this play is very adult. Ms. Morgan proves why she was the first Black/African-American daytime actress to win any Emmy back in 1989 as Angie Hubbard on All My Children. There is never a dull moment during this two-hour splendid and candid performance. While some may question her choice of men to share her life, she is no doubt still the queen of drama on the stage, the little and big screens; and it was a noble gesture for her to come back on stage to greet her audience and pose for photos after her stella one-woman performance.

The eeriness of this play stems from the fact that there seems to be several direct correlations between Ms. Morgan’s real life and various characters from her hit movie Eve’s Bayou. For example; in real life she has been married multiple times that all (Save one) have ended in un-amicable tragedy – just like her character Mozelle Batiste Delacroix. In real life; her father abused her mother leaving her to hate him to death -- just like the character of Eve in that movie. That makes me wonder if Ms. Morgan did indeed play a role in those elements of that film. What do you think? Perhaps she will answer that question in her upcoming book due out this fall (2013).

This play was produced by the Negro Ensemble Co., Inc of NYC. Find them in CBP's Black Pages Worldwide™

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