‘Sing Sing’ sings out for justice, clemency, rehabilitation, humanity

Colman Domingo in 'Sing Sing.' | A24

The new 105-minute film Sing Sing is about life inside Sing Sing Correctional Facility, perhaps the most infamous maximum security prison in America, perhaps the world. It’s the infamous place where Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were executed in 1953 as “atomic spies” at the height of the McCarthyite Red Scare.

The context of the film is the prison’s Rehabilitation Through the Arts program, designed to help these incarcerated men overcome personal traumas and get in closer touch with their feelings, achieve a sense of purpose and make something beautiful and meaningful of their lives, develop personal management skills, and be of service to their fellow prisoners. The film centers around RTA’s stage company at Sing Sing, which mounts two large-scale productions each year.

The film is based on The Sing Sing Follies by John H. Richardson, and Breakin’ the Mummy’s Code by Brent Buell.

A turning point early on has the group’s acknowledged leader Divine G (played by Colman Domingo) all set to get the troupe to perform Fine Print, a new play he has written. But he is challenged by a newcomer, Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin (played by himself), who persuades the group that they should try staging more than tragedies. How about a comedy? When no one comes up with a suitable theme for one, RTA’s professional director and coach from the outside, Brent Buell (played by Paul Raci) volunteers to fabricate one that mashes up Shakespeare, the Wild West, ancient Egypt, pirates, Roman gladiators, romance, and any number of other improbable genres into a time-travel comic fantasy with songs and dance numbers. There will be major roles for each member of the cast.

Divine G (or simply G) claims to be innocent of the 1988 homicide for which he’s been sentenced and is filing, once again, for parole. His appeal to a strict, officious board is one of the film’s most moving scenes. For him, RTA is a godsend, helping him to survive the harshness of prison life, far away from his wife and children, perhaps until he dies.

Colman Domingo, 54, carries off this difficult role magisterially, as the latest in his distinguished acting history. Audiences have seen him on stage (he played Mr. Bones in the 2011 musical The Scottsboro Boys) and frequently on television. In films he’s been featured in Lincoln, Selma, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Birth of a Nation, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, The Color Purple, and inhabited the title role of Bayard Rustin in Rustin, for which, as on openly gay actor, Domingo was perfectly cast.

Aside from G and Buell, the other prisoners include some of the formerly incarcerated participants in RTA playing themselves: Sean San José, David Giraudy, Mosi Eagle, James Williams, Sean “Dino” Johnson, and others.

Throughout the film, “Divine Eye” will continue to act as G’s foil. Indeed, the course of their developing relationship is one of the ongoing themes of the film, handled with subtle nuance and power. Who will perform Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy is a sticking point.

Director Greg Kwedar co-wrote the screenplay with Clint Bentley. The film premiered in the Special Presentations program at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, and was released on July 12, 2024, in the U.S. Cinematography is by Pat Scola.

A filmgoer shortly begins to understand that Sing Sing probes maleness, resilience under duress, the oppressive conditions of prison confinement, and the ability of the arts to elicit the most elevated sentiments and gestures of humanity, all the while gently addressing the familiar subject of actors’ stage fright and performance jitters. “We’re here to be human again,” one actor says, which is convincing enough after we’ve heard lurid details of some of their backstories.

The scenography includes many shots overlooking the Hudson River at Ossining, N.Y., where the prison is located. Prisoners enjoy watching the peacefulness of the river’s flow as they ruminate about the free life beyond the prison walls and barbed wire.

Rotten Tomatoes critics gave Sing Sing overwhelmingly positive reviews, with an average rating of 8.6/10. The website’s consensus reads: “A moving celebration of art’s redemptive power, Sing Sing draws its estimable emotional resonance from a never better Colman Domingo and equally impressive ensemble players.” Amen!

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CONTRIBUTOR

Eric A. Gordon

Eric A. Gordon, People’s World Cultural Editor, wrote a biography of radical American composer Marc Blitzstein and co-authored composer Earl Robinson’s autobiography. He has received numerous awards for his People's World writing from the International Labor Communications Association. He has translated all nine books of fiction by Manuel Tiago (pseudonym for Álvaro Cunhal) from Portuguese, available from International Publishers NY.