By Ben Joravsky
No matter how much he’d like to, he can’t go back to bed, he can’t miss this Sunday matinee. He’s the star of Black Ensemble Theater’s Jackie Wilson Story (My Heart Is Crying, Crying…). It’s been on an open-ended, sold-out run at the Uptown Center Hull House since last February–and the audience, mainly black women young and old, is coming to scream, cheer, and cry over him.
He nods.
“If you grow up in Gary, you’ll hear a lot about Michael Jackson, ’cause that’s where he’s from,” says Gregory. “He was a major influence on me–‘Thriller,’ ‘Beat It,’ and ‘Billie Jean.’ I listened to all of that stuff. And I heard his earlier material–the things he did before I was born–because I watched the Jacksons’ cartoon on TV.”
“If you asked me back then, I’d have told you that I was going to be a singer and a dancer somewhere, either on Broadway or Hollywood,” says Gregory. “I just didn’t know how it would happen.”
“But still, with Chester you could see he had enormous potential. It was just a question of when it would take off. You never really know the answer to that question. You don’t even know for certain that it will take off.”
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Taylor didn’t cast him–“I failed the audition,” Gregory jokes. But she didn’t forget him either. Taylor says she realized right away that he was ideal for her musical docudramas about famous African-American entertainers. “I could see Chester had talent, but he was so inexperienced as an actor,” says Taylor. “That doesn’t bother me so much, because I can teach folks to act. The kind of singing and dancing talent he has–you can’t teach that.”
