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The best kept secret in music

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"What The Critics Think of RAIN"

WHAT THE CRITICS THINK OF RAIN
Los Angeles Times "Critics Choice"


Los Angeles Times by David C. Nichols

To Be Young, Jewish and black

Irreverent hilarity spices up "Fried Chicken and Latkes," ... Rain Pryor's account of growing up black, Jewish and Richard Pryor's daughter is an effective showcase for ripe talent.

Pryor, accompanied by ace musical director Gail Johnson, starts in swinging, her opening number putting thematic new lyrics to Kander and Ebb's "Cabaret": "What's the big deal if I'm black and a Jew?/ In temple, I sing the blues. / Life is fried chicken and latke's, too:/ I'll make Shabbat for you!" This insouciance just barely prepares her audience for the ribald, bumptious scenario that ensues.

Pryor's crazy-quilt chronological trajectory illuminates her personal and professional saga with instant characterizations, musical numbers and freewheeling aphorisms that range from corny to convulsive under Tracy Silver's direction, augmented by Clinton Derriks-Carroll. Pryor's Modigliani-moppet expressions, kinetic ease, powerful singing voice comic ingenuity are invaluable assets. Conversing with the audience as her paternal grandmother (which is worth the whole enterprise), or sporting an Afro the size of Belize (designed by John Stapleton), Pryor's is wickedly funny and sharply observant, as in her uproarious send-ups of her mother and maternal grandmother. ...

Pryor's fertile material and cathartic intent fully warrant full-length expansion beyond this cabaret-style format. Given the clamor at the reviewed performance, she certainly has the audience to justify such architectural additions
- Los Angeles Times


"BackStage West"

Say loud: "I'm black, Jewish, and proud." That update of a 1960's aphorism would seem appropriate for Rain Pryor, whose cabaret-style show exhibits an impressive range of talent, from comedy and drama to singing and shaking one's groove thing. The daughter of Richard Pryor, she complains not only of the confusion of race and religious identity but also of familial antagonism. Apparently her famous father bought her a multicolored Afro wig and a Mr. Microphone while her half sister got a house and trust fund.

But la Pryor certainly got the better part of the bargain in talent genes, exhibited by her hilarious, spot -on soul sista' Yiddishkeit rap and schtick, plus facility for general mimicry that ameliorates the pain she also went through. "For years I walked around like a demon possessed poodle," Pryor claims, but to her credit she is not playing just for laughs. ... Pryor also pulls out another ace: her singing voice. It proves supple and strong, most movingly in her rendition of Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach's "God Give Me Strength" .... Pryor gets to go to the head of the class for bravado, charm, and honesty, whether she is depicting her struggle for identity in the never-ending class war in Beverly Hills or showing us her delightfully foul mouthed grandmother - Brad Scheiber


"Pryor "Reigns" at The Canon Theater"

The Canon Theater proves that “Real women have curves” and overcome life’s obstacles by making “Fried Chicken and Latke's.”
Rain Pryor (the daughter of legendary comedian Richard Pryor) has become a captivating beauty. The skinny child actress, whose frizzy hair was more prominent than her face as Tomboy T.J. Jones on the sitcom “Head of the Class,” uses that same hair as a benevolent distraction from a voluptuous body and a face that captures the loveliness for which Pablo Picasso painted his women. She is a unique beauty, in a class of her own.

On stage, Pryor has no bad side or angle. She is like a Rococo painting: Gloriously complicated eye candy. But what really makes her one-woman show “Fried Chicken and Latke's” soar, is Pryor’s vulnerability and candor. She scoops the National Enquirer with priceless stories that only the daughter of Richard Pryor could reveal. However, this is not a “Daddy Dearest” tale. This is a love song to her family and friends.

The play recalls Rain Pryor’s tumultuous life, growing up in Beverly Hills as the daughter of the famous comedian and a Jewish mother. “I was proud, but felt so guilty for it,” confesses Rain. From musician Miles Davis, playing his horn as a good-night lullaby to Hollywood Lawn (a transvestite and Andy Warhol associate), Rain had an array of baby sitters and characters parading through her life. Sometimes she felt that “everybody belonged to a club that she didn’t receive the password for.”

Although her father and mother divorced when she was six months old (and she lived with her mother), her grandmothers richly influenced Rain. Her maternal grandmother taught Rain to make potato latkes while telling her how special she was and that “Sammy Davis Jr. was famous for being black and Jewish.” Her fraternal grandmother, who gave her the recipe for fried chicken, was a brothel madam: “Remember, you come from a long line of madam's, whores and pimps on your father’s side and on your mother’s side you come from a line of biblical proportions.”

Rain is a remarkable actress and gifted singer. Her characterizations are three-dimensional. She disappears and her Jewish grandmother and Richard Pryor’s mother appear. You forget that Rain is just acting. Her characterization of Richard Pryor’s mother was so moving that a few members of the audience began communicating with her. Rain didn’t miss a beat and wonderfully improvised. Rain is her father’s daughter – a true talent! (P.S.: The lighting design by Brian Knox was superb.)
- Jerome Robinsonnn Tolucan Times


"URBAN NEW YORK"

Rain Pryor, the comedic actress best known for her roles on televisions head of the class and Rude Awakening, Has taken over at the Canon Theatre with a show that is as starkly confessional as it is rip-roaringly hilarious. Fried Chicken & Latke's, so named to signify the African American and Jewish makeup of Rains racial identity, takes audiences on the kind of journey that could only belong to one person. Imagine being born in 1969 to a White go-go dancer mother...and Richard Pryor for a Father. Ready to buy a ticket yet ?

Rain calls upon her ample skills as a story weaver, singer (a pleasant surprise), mime, mimic, comedienne and dancer to evoke the most significant people in her life and the sometimes circus-like aspect of her childhood years. Those years were spent wrestling with issues of family, the burgeoning of her own show business talents, the search for love and the search for self. Among the characters Rain brings to life are the white girl who crushed her dream of dating a cute white boy in High School, the Black girl who got her in touch with her Afrocentricity, her mother, her (many) "step monsters," her Jewish grandmother and her Black grandmother, "Mamma" (the latter clearly a major influence on her Father). The show clocks in at an hour and fifteen minutes, and you're riveted for every second. At points you won't know whether to laugh or cry, but you will be doing one of them.

Fried Chicken & Latke's took Ms. Pryor ten years to develop with the invaluable assistance of Musical Director Gail Johnson (who accompanies Pryor on stage at the piano all night). It takes courage in spades to stand before audiences night after night this autobiographically naked. The result is the kind of evening one leaves the theatre feeling someone truly dug deep to touch them with 100% truth...just like Rain's mom and dad taught her to.

- A.Scott Galloway
- Urban New York


"Frontiers Magazine"

Rain Pryor's exhilarating autobiographical vehicle "Fried Chicken and Latke's" generally avoids the cliche*s of those dime-a-dozen solo showcases that depict a troubled upbringing followed by the expected triumph over adversity. Pryor's show ignites on the sheer force of her explosive talent. She delivers comic songs and heartrending ballads, re-enacts such childhood horrors as being chased down and terrorized by racist moppets, and plays a wide assortment of characters from her life, packing a wealth of heartfelt vignettes into 70 minutes.

She's the daughter of a domineering but doting Jewish mother and the great comedian Richard Pryor, whom she describes as a loving man prone to erratic behavior, adultery, drug addiction, and other character flaws. Her story describes the years that she spent trying to figure out which ethnic or religious group she was supposed to identify with--finally realizing that she can embrace all aspects of her family heritage while forging her own unique identity. Her facility for diverse characterizations is astonishing: She eloquently inhabits the spirits of her "soul sista" best pal, her father doing a stand-up routine, and a feisty grandmother, to mention but a few. Gary Blumsacks direction and Tom Grieps musical direction are superb, while Kevin Kindlin's lighting and sets and Penny Prince's graphic design create a polished and appealing milieu. Pryors show suggests that the greatest gift she inherited from her father was his creative genius. She's clearly on the threshold of a remarkable career.

- Frontiers Magazine


Discography

RAIN PRYOR LIVE IN LONDON

Photos

Feeling a bit camera shy

Bio

The daughter of Legendary Comedic Icon the late Richard Pryor, Rain Pryor is an accomplished actress, Multiple Sclerosis Society spokesperson, award winning writer, producer, actress, and music vocalist in her own right. Collectively each performance genre reflects her eclectic mix of Judaism and Baptism by comedy, growing up in Beverly Hills as the daughter of an African American Celebrity and a Militant Jewish Mother.

She is a spirited performer who believes in creating and inspiring others to do their best and wants people to know Live simply, Honor the truth, and Follow your life's passion, Dreams can come true.

As a writer, producer and feature performer, Rain stars in the NAACP Image Award Winning One Women Show "Fried Chicken and Latkes" which is a auto- biograhical expose that chronicles her life from childhood to womanhood. On a multi-city tour at 350-2500 seat venues beginning in 2006, F C & L is a funny and poignant look at Race Relations that showcases Rains ability to bring multiple characters to life through comedic story telling, her seasoned jazz vocals and her undeniable love for her father, the late Richard Pryor.

Today Rain can be found signing autographs for her recently released and critically acclaimed 2007 book, "Jokes My Father Never Taught Me" published by Harper Collins and nominated for a 2007 NAACP Image Award for "Book of The Year."

Rain is currently on a 10 city European tour where she is playing the lead in a play about the Life of Billie Holiday

Rain has also headlined at comedy clubs across the country including the famous Comedy Store on Sunset strip.

She is a member of the Screen Actors Guild, AFTRA and Actors Equity Association.

2004-5- NAACP Theatre Award nominations, Best Female Performer Equity, Best Original Playwright Equity, Best Direction, Best Sound Design.

2005- Best Female Performer Equity at the NAACP Image Awards

2005-Recipient of the 2005 Invisible Theatre's Goldie Klein Guest Artist Award.

2004-Nominee LA's Ovation Award- Best Solo Theatrical Performance for "Fried Chicken & Latkes".

1989 - Made television debut as series regular T.J. on the hit ABC sitcom series Head of The Class. The character of T.J. was taken from one of Rain's characters that she presented to the ABC producers in her audition.

2000- Starred opposite Sherilyn Fenn and Lynn Redgrave, as Jackie, the lipstick lesbian drug addict on the Showtime Original Series "Rude Awakening."

1995-2000-Guest starred on TV Network shows such as The Division, Chicago Hope. Also appeared in numerous independent features as well as Universal Pictures release of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas and the ground breaking Melvin Van Peebles Film, Panther.

Rain has performed in the Los Angeles production of Eve Ensler's, Vagina Monologues at the Coronet Theatre, Cookin' With Gas, with the Groundlings improvisation troupe, The Who's Tommy at the La Jolla Playhouse; The staring role of Joan at the Globe Playhouse, Westside Story and Runaways, y.

Rain has appeared as a guest with Johnny Carson Jay Leno,The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Tavis Smiley, Montel Williams and The Today Show with Al Roker .

Rain asks that you join her in the fight for a cure of Multiple Sclerosis by doing something as simple as giving a donation to your local MS chapter, or participate in a walk for MS once a year. Rain believes if everyone did something towards a cure, no matter what it is, that the world could change.

She is one of a kind.