A Huey P. Newton Story

The most enlightening work I have ever seen on the era. I now have insight into the revolution. Never before did I even come close to understanding the dynamics of the conflict or the leader of the Black Panthers. Every american must see this to begin to understand one of the most major problems this country has. I could not peel my eyes from the screen. Unbelievable performance by Roger Smith. Spike Lee has a knack for finding these incredibly draining performances and bringing them to you in a way that makes you run the gamet of emotion as well. This as well as FREAK! by John Leguizamo, both present two VERY different performances with VERY different meanings, both pull you through a full gauntlet of emotion. Incredible works.

Do the tighten-up Make it mellow

Roger G. Smith's Huey grabs you by the throat and won't let go. A complex one-man play -- flawlessly executed -- that would challenge the talents of the Theatre's best. Ninety minutes of stunning, nonstop diversity, conflict, and maddening contradiction that made Newton one of the most notorious yet enigmatic personalities of America's tumultuous 60's. Smith is surely the actor to watch in 2002 after a performance of such magnitude. Truly hypnotic.

frenetic, eclectic, expansive vision inside the mind of Huey. this guy must be exhausted after such a performance. i'm too drained to write more but definitely watch it for the sheer spectacle that is Roger Smith.

I have never seen a performance of such rich intensity in a one man show. The actor became Huey P Newton, brought back to life, became him, alive and living as him now, not as a history of him, but actually is him. You are challenged by him, and in his interaction with the audience, you see people being moved, no shocked out of their lethargy, and back to the essence of the dream that the black power movement represented. The black power movement that I was never allowed to see. Through the filtered media, in which we are spoon fed half a dozen stories a day that fit some kind of prescription for complacency and helpless outrage designed to keep us watching but doing nothing, Huey sucked on a Kool, chain smoking them as he spits out bullets of truth like tears and laughter. You feel the tragedy of his loss, which is our loss. And its an outrage that I never got to know him. He talks about the fact that the FBI felt that it wasn't the guns that were the main problem with the black panther party, but when they started to feed the poor, that was when they were really considered to be really dangerous. That had to be stopped. this show contains a thousand of these stories, that tickle and lacerate you, they revise your history. he slaps you in your face and you are so grateful to be awake and alive. when he cries you cry for him, for you and for everyone that missed out on what was trying to be accomplished. Martin Luther King wasn't the whole story of the civil rights movement. If it were, then how come his death was followed by the mass incarceration of black people in this country, and the crack epidemic, and the implosion of the inner city and its schools. Whoever shot Huey , it wasn't a drug dealer, no you know who it was. You know. The waited, they bided their time and they took him out. WE took him out because he was right, and when he became right and true it became intolerable. In our society, the truth needs to be destroyed because the truth ushers in change, and when change comes in, and the lights go on, the people making billions and trillions off of the misery of others will do anything to prevent that change from happening. Thats why we are looking to burn oil at the moment we understand global warming. Thats why we are pretending to create democracy in Iraq. We wont tackle the real issue of finding alternative energy. We don't have the courage to create full employment and the result is that we have given our destiny over to countries like china who makes deals to provide slave labor to transnational corporation's like walmart so that we lose all our jobs in exchange for cheaper and cheaper good. Our lives are disintegrating, and our politicians are as morally bankrupt as they are expert in manipulating our fears. We have replaced our factories with prisons. Higher efficiency means cheaper goods but meaningless service jobs at MacDonald's. We are in a state of perpetual undeclared war so that there is a rationale for watching everyone. We are turning, imperceptibly, into what the soviet union was. We live in gated communities that are not unlike versions of feudalistic states back in the middle ages. soon walled cities will be back with us. 40 million people have no insurance while doctors make half a million dollars a year. hospitals are going broke but they pay their executives half a million dollars a year. we spend 63 billion dollars to fix up new Orleans but the people are still living in the dark while halliburton fixes pipes, not people. the black homeless people from that disaster cant get jobs rebuilding their city because the clean up companies will only hire illegal aliens who are dirt cheap. Huey P Newton is not dead. He lives on. He lives on every time we get outraged at what is happening here in America. Wake up, the walls are crumbling around you. Huey! Huey!We are Huey! Remember what the old African said. You is We.

I've seen Smith in a bunch of movies usually in a small yet important role and on HBO's K Street. This rendering of his live play by Lee finally showcases his tremendous range. Smith is one of those enigmatic actors you see but can't quite place -- here he stands out magically: an enigma playing an enigma. Intense!

I liked the music, it was subtle, supportive and gave great context. Seeing the berets of the audience members reminds us the icon Newton has been. It seemed to be, to a certain extent, a memorial. The use of the archival footage was effective as was Smith's choreography.

As a writer, Smith incorporated many threads of Newton's life skillfully. One thing I didn't get from the film was a cardboard cutout of Newton in one way or the other. He was neither the oversimplified "angry black man" nor the "crazed junkie." Smith's rendering of the character had so much texture: he was vulnerable, strong, defiant, needy, angry, compulsive, confident, worldly and naive. Beautifully written, expertly done. Why Smith isn't playing more leads is a real mystery. I hope he does more work like this.