The Greek tragedy written by a Philadelphian that saved Morgan Freeman’s career
Morgan Freeman is the rare actor whose big break came later in life.
There is often significant pressure on young actors to land breakout roles early in their careers, driven by the fear of missing future opportunities. For Freeman, however, the opposite proved true. He worked consistently on stage and did not become a major film star until later in life.
Freeman is a stage actor at heart and has been performing on Broadway since the 1960s. It was after a difficult period in which he was not getting major roles that he was offered a role in The Gospel at Colonus, an African-American musical based on the Greek tragedy Oedipus at Colonus.
“I’d been outta work for two years when I get this call from Lee Breuer,” he recalled, “I’d never heard of Lee Breuer, but we sit in my kitchen for a couple of hours while he explains his ideas. He wants to do a Greek tragedy, but not with the classical European approach. We have our own classics here in America; gospel music, for instance.” The actor said that while he was initially sceptical about Breuer’s methods, he was intrigued by the talent that he had wrangled together to be part of his ambitious show.
“Lee is sittin’ there, rattlin’ away, and he is one highly ‘lectual dude,” Freeman said, “I don’t know what hell he’s talkin’ ’bout. Who is this guy? But he’s piqued my interest, ‘specially that bit ’bout European classicism. Then I find out Clarence Fountain and the Five Blind Boys of Alabama are going to play Oedipus. Are you kidding? And these fabulous old gospel singers, they’re going to be in it, too.”
The biggest shock to Freeman in the audition wasn’t the audacity of Breuer’s pitch, but that he was being selected for the leading role. Despite over two decades of experience, he had never been considered to be a leading man, exclaiming, “‘Wow, golly, gee whiz’. I’m goin’, ‘What’s this guy doin’? He tells me, ‘I need a star to glue it all together’, and I say, ‘I’m no star’, and he says, ‘Well, I’m going to make you a star’.”
The successful run of The Gospel at Colonus, which briefly ran on Broadway in 1988, was heralded for being far more experimental than the majority of what was on American stages at the time. It also happened to coincide with Freeman’s breakthrough in features, as he landed the role of the pimp Fast Black in Street Smart. Although it was essentially a B-movie produced by the Cannon Group, Street Smart drew in tremendous praise for his performance, and ultimately earned him an Academy Award nomination for ‘Best Supporting Actor’.
The patience, stoicism, and expressiveness that Freeman showed onstage were highly beneficial when he first started appearing in films, with his follow-up major role in the controversial ‘Best Picture’ winner Driving Miss Daisy, which was based on a play that he had already starred in.
Freeman would become a full-on movie star within the next decade and develop a close working relationship with Clint Eastwood. However, he did not entirely give up his work on stage, and would eventually return to Bernard B Jacobs Theatre to appear in a version of The Country Girl in 2008.
