The Goodman Theatre website contains the following Content Advisory regarding Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom contains themes of racism and includes racial slurs (the N-word), strong profanity, acts of violence, intimate moments of kissing and discussions about sexual content.“

Spamalot, it is not. The N-word is not a reference to the Knights Who Say “Ni.” And you shouldn’t count the dismemberment of the Black Knight as violence, given that Eric Idle has credited Penn and Teller with creating that illusion for the musical.

Though Ma Rainey takes place in 1927 (1075 for Spamalot), August Wilson wrote it in 1982 (2004 for Idle), and today’s audiences (at least the one I was part of) still recognize its ongoing, harsh realities (as far as I know, the search also continues for the Holy Grail, though Indiana Jones may have had his hands on it for a moment).

I previously had seen the 2020 filmed version of Ma Rainey, starring Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman, in his final role. The powerful cast of the Goodman production, starring E. Faye Butler and Al ‘Jaleel McGhee, need not take a back seat to that star-laden movie.