Season Select: The Death of Chuck Brown

Posted March 31, 2025

Chuck horiz

The Death of Chuck Brown

By Gavin Dillon Lawrence

Directed by Gavin Dillon Lawrence

Fast Facts

Playing: Touchstone Theatre | June 24 - September 25
Featuring: David Alan Anderson, Nathan Barlow, Jonathan Gardner, Josh Krause
Genre: Contemporary Drama
Last Seen at APT: World (and APT) Premiere!
Go If You Liked: August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2024), The Brothers Size (2022), American Buffalo (2014)

About The Death of Chuck Brown

DC mourns the passing of the Godfather of Go-Go – a home-grown music known to few outside the capital city. But while Chuck Brown may be dead, he is not gone. His sound and rhythms permeate and define the soul of the Chocolate City, even as it’s being reimagined by the gentrification train. For the moment, though, there are still good times at Kofi’s barbershop. A space for jokes and truth and tradition; for conversations that resonate through generations. As Kofi and his teenage son, Prince, lock heads about the future of the barbershop, a battle ensues revealing the fragile yet undeniable love between a father and his son. A vibrant elegy for a community in transition, funny and rhythmic and raw. Grab a seat for this powerful world-premiere in the Touchstone.

In 2023, APT’s Winter Words series featured a line-up of three plays written or adapted by exceptionally talented members of the Core Company: Nate Burger, David Daniel and Gavin Dillon Lawrence. To close out the festivities for the year, Gavin executed a theatrical hat-trick by writing, directing and acting in the world premiere reading of his original play, then titled “The Barber and the Unnamed Prince.” It was an unforgettable night.

In his program notes, Lawrence wrote of his personal connection to the play’s setting, Washington, DC: “Growing up in Chocolate City and having the beauty of my skin reflected back to me daily; the rhythmic and melodic sounds of our voices; the smells of our foods that journeyed from West Africa to the Caribbean, to Mississippi and then to the North – all of these things created a sense of community and gave us a clear understanding of where we were and how we ended up on our journey.”


Malkia Stampley, Victor Musoni, Gavin Lawrence, Nathan Barlow, Chiké Johnson & Josh Krause at the 2023 Winter Words reading of The Barber and the Unnamed Prince. Photo by Hannah Jo Anderson.


Following the close of the outdoor season in 2024, APT held a workshop for Lawrence to further develop his play, including landing on the new title, The Death of Chuck Brown. Long after his death in 2012, Chuck Brown continues to be a cultural symbol for Washington, DC and a central part of this world-premiere production.

In the early 20th century, Washington, DC had become a hub for Black Americans, with hundreds of Black-owned businesses, schools and entertainment venues popping up in the greater U Street and Shaw neighborhoods. Musical icons Duke Ellington, Pearl Bailey and Shirley Horn all called the city home. In 1957, Washington, DC made history after it became the first large city in the United States with a majority Black population.

By the early-1970s, however, a new, distinctly DC sound became popularized by musician Charles Louis Brown, better known as Chuck Brown. Go-Go music, a funk subgenre that combines Latin beats, jazz, Blues and gospel influences, became the soundtrack of the city. Following the release of musical group Chuck Brown & the Soul Searchers’ hit “Bustin’ Loose” in 1979, the genre rose to new heights in the metropolitan DC area. Soon, other Go-Go bands like Trouble Funk, Rare Essence and Experience Unlimited found audiences with their own distinct style of Go-Go, sometimes incorporating upcoming rap and hip-hop elements into their musical stylings. One of the defining characteristics of Go-Go was the infectious beat and necessity to authentically experience it live with an audience.

Chuck Brown became the most recognizable icon of the Go-Go genre throughout the 1980s and beyond, often credited with giving the genre its name and earning the title of Godfather of Go Go. In the wake of the Civil Rights Movement, Go-Go music was a celebration of Black Washingtonians living in “Chocolate City,” immortalized in its own Go-Go classic.

Since then, Washington, DC has experienced some of the most intense gentrification in the United States. Go-Go music intersected with calls to end cultural erasure and displacement in 2019 as part of the Don’t Mute DC movement. A rallying cry for tens of thousands, Go-Go music united many life-long citizens of Washington, DC in taking steps against gentrification and preserving DC identity.

Today, Go-Go is the official music of Washington, DC, continuing to reach and inspire new generations of musicians in and outside of DMV (DC/Maryland/Virginia). The first museum dedicated to Go-Go music opened in DC in late 2024.

Returning after directing last year’s production of August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the stage is set for Gavin Dillion Lawrence to conjure the legacy and impact of yet another icon of American music.