Newman stated that, "Whatever it was back when they did the workshop, it's totally different now ..." Coleman brought in the director Michael Blakemore, who "steered the show along a tightrope, careful not to fall into the seediness below, toward a common humanity to which audiences can relate.

Joe Layton directed and choreographed, with a cast that featured Chuck Cooper, Lillias White, and Mamie Duncan-Gibbs.

The Broadway production, directed by Michael Blakemore, opened on April 26, 1997, at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, where it closed on June 7, 1998, after 466 performances and 21 previews.

Among the large cast were Pamela Isaacs, Chuck Cooper, Bellamy Young, Lillias White, and Sam Harris, winner of the first Star Search television competition in 1984.

Directed by Ron Jones and choreographed by Jim Williams, with musical direction by Stephen Jones, the show featured Tamara Siler as Queen, Mia Fisher as Sonja, Illich Guardiola as Fleetwood, L. Jay Meyer as Lou, Johanna Beth Harris as Mary, Bob Beare as Lacy, and Jonathan McVey as JoJo.

This production was again directed by Michael Blakemore, and starred Sharon D. Clarke as Sonja and Cornell S. John as Memphis, T'Shan Williams as Queen, David Albury as Fleetwood, John Addison as Jojo, Lawrence Carmichael as Snickers, Jo Servi as Lacy, Jalisa Andrews as Chi Chi, Matthew Caputo as Oddjob, Omari Douglas as Slick, Aisha Jawando as Carmen, Thomas-Lee Kidd as Bobby/Dance Captain, Charlotte Reavey as April, Lucinda Shaw as Tracy, Johnathan Tweedie as Theodore, and Joanna Woodward as Mary.

This production significantly adapted the script and structure, changing the musical into a flashback narrated by an older Jojo, and rearranging several of the numbers, and providing more backstory to several characters.

[7][9][10] However, Ledisi's performance was highly praised, and the musical shift to more "funkadelic" arrangements of Coleman's score received mixed reception.

Jojo, an opportunistic, conniving white hustler in the thick of the action, has a bare knuckled plan for feeding his ambition ("Use What You Got").

Returning to her hotel room, Queen discovers that Fleetwood has spent half of her savings to pay off his drug debts and feed his habit.

When Fleetwood and Mary arrive, Memphis, the "biggest businessman on the block" comments on the professionalism of his trade and soon zeroes in on the newcomer ("Don't Take Much").

A smashing success, she celebrates her good fortune with Fleetwood and Jojo, who has her in mind for his "mentor" Lou, a gaudy Los Angeles producer of "motion pictures" of the triple X genre, who's looking for fresh corn-fed talent ("Easy Money").

The next morning Jojo double crosses Queen and comes to Lacy's with Memphis, who brutally flogs the terrified woman.