Sonny Til & The Orioles With Deborah Chessler 1948
Classic R&B Songs By Deborah Chessler
New Songs By Harrison / Berg
First production performed with Stumptown Stages in Portland, Oregon in April 2015
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2015 PAMTA
AWARD WINNER
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B E S T S C O R E​
B E S T N E W M U S I CAL​
B E S T O R C H E S T R A T I O N S
B E S T S O NG
B O O K & L Y R I C S B Y
A L A N B E R G
M U S I C & L Y R I C S B Y
M I C H A E L A L L E N H A R R I S O N
"Soul Harmony” is an original musical about the music that gave birth to rhythm and blues. In the late 1940s, an unlikely partnership between a young Jewish woman named Deborah Chessler and a dynamic black male vocal group called Sonny Til and The Orioles gave birth to a new genre of music that would ignite a generation. “Soul Harmony” reveals their rise to music nobility and the role they and their music played in challenging segregation in the American South. The Apollo Theater had a significant role in their story.
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The Orioles Crying in The Chapel soared up the charts in 1953 becoming an unforgettable #1 hit and just one piece to an unforgettable story. Their history making hit It’s Too Soon to Know written by Deborah Chessler started the whole adventure.
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Deborah, Sonny and The Orioles, Tommy Gaither, Johnny Reed, Alex Sharp and George Nelson were ahead of their time. They were trailblazers of modern music and of a larger movement that confronted a divided country. Soul Harmony not only chronicles The Orioles rise to music nobility, but reveals the role they and their music played in challenging segregation and Jim Crow, and ultimately in bringing people together all across America.
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The role of Sonny Til is played by DeSean Dooley.
DeSean is Sonny Til's Grandson and carries his
grandfathers vocal DNA.
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P H O T O S B Y P A U L F A R D I G & J E N O L S E N
