Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope at Jubilee Theatre

Vinnette Carroll; music: Micki Grant.

Authors

• Micki Grant
• Vinnette Carroll

Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope is a musical revue with music and lyrics by Micki Grant. It was originally produced by Edward Padula.

The all-singing, all-dancing show focuses on the African American experience with songs on such topics as tenements, slumlords, ghetto life, student protests, black power, and feminism. The music is a mixture of gospel, jazz, funk, soul, calypso, and soft rock.

The show had its first staging at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. in 1971, with subsequent stagings at the Locust and Walnut Street Theatres in Philadelphia. The Broadway production, directed by Vinnette Carroll and choreographed by George Faison, opened on April 19, 1972 at the Playhouse Theatre, where it ran for two months before transferring to the Edison. It had a total run of 1065 performances. The cast included Grant, Alex Bradford, Hope Clarke, and Arnold Wilkerson. It was the first Broadway play to be directed by an African American woman. Time Magazine theatre critic T. E. Kalem praised the show, writing "This is the kind of show at which you want to blow kisses." The Los Angeles production featured Paula Kelly.