'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' Shines A Light On August Wilson's Vision

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was August Wilson's first Broadway hit — and a preamble to his cycle of award-winning plays about the African-American experience across the 20th Century that included Fences and The Piano Lesson. Now Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the first of the late playwright's works to be adapted for Netflix.  Wilson was a little-known poet when the play opened at Yale Repertory Theater in the spring of 1984. Sitting in the theater, Wilson told me the story came to him one day when he was listening to a recording of Ma Rainey singing the title song.' -- Morning Edition