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Tonya Pinkins: Gusto, Resilience, Perseverance
The whole concept of live theatre is constructed around robust talent in each of the essential arts of theatre: writing, acting, singing, dancing, directing, and designing: set, costume, light, and sound. If theatre artists are endowed with talent, they can potentially bring about a transformative cultural experience for the theatregoer that will linger long after the curtain falls. Over the past several decades, I have had such transformative theatrical exper-iences and the work of singer/ actress Tonya Pinkins is high on my list of artists who are capable of creating such extraordinary experiences.
Born in 1962, Pinkins grew up in Chicago, and dem-onstrated her potential and talent early on. She was doing community theatre and studying professionally even as a teenager. Although she started out by establishing herself as a captivating powerhouse singer, frequently praised for her musical talent, she gradually became well known, not just for singing, but for her range of theatrical abilities. Validation of her work and talent came early when, in 1981, at the age of nineteen, she was cast in the Stephen Sondheim Broadway musical, Merrily We Roll Along , directed by Harold Prince. That the show was a flop did not defeat Pinkins; she plowed forward with determination, gusto, resilience and perseverance.
Her gusto was evident several years after that Broadway flop with her appearance in the movie Beat Street. This 1984 film, directed by Stan Lathan, with Harry Belafonte as one of the producers, pro-vides an insider's depiction of a romantic drama in the Bronx that dramatizes the hip-hop culture, just as breakdancing, rapping, graffiti artistry, DJ-ing, and MC-ing were emerging artistic forms. Major hip-hop artists of that time are featured in the film, which starred Mary Alice, Guy Davis (son of Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee), and Rae Dawn Chong (daughter of Tommy Chong of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong), among others; Tonya Pinkins had a small role.
Small roles are not being denigrated here, because the reality is that small roles keep actors working, and can eventually lead to major roles where, ulti-mately, actors can gain more respect and recogni-tion. Actors in cameo roles frequently go on to be-come noteworthy stars. This is exactly what hap-pened with Tonya Pinkins, who eventually became embedded in the world of theatre, including Broad-way, Off-Broadway and regional theatres. Her big break was the musical Jelly's Last Jam(1992), written and directed by George C. Wolfe....(cont.)
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Nathaniel G. Nesmith earned an MFA in playwriting and a PhD in theatre from Columbia University. He writes about the arts and has published theatre-related articles in major pub-lications such as American Theatre, The Drama Review, African American Review, The Dramatist, The Black Scholar and The New York Times, among others.
Summer 2025
This article is featured in
Vol. 30, No. 2
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Tonya Pinkins as Caroline Thibodeaux in Tony Kushner's Caroline, or Change.
Tonya Pinkins as Myrna with Angela Lewis as Annie in Playwrights Horizons' production of Kirsten Greenidge's play, Milk Like Sugar.
Photo by Ari Mintz
