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Why Netflix’s ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ ends with a scene that’s not in the play [Los Angeles Times]
The following story contains spoilers from the movie “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” now streaming on Netflix.
The final frames of Netflix’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” adapted from two-time Pulitzer Prize winner August Wilson’s 1982 play, show a dozen or so white men performing in a recording studio. The instrumentalists appear dull and unfeeling; the singer’s delivery is dry. The trumpet solo, meant to be the song’s standout riff, feels particularly hollow, void of charisma. Yet above them the producer nods, pleased with what he hears.