Celebrity
The old and New Edition cast comes together to perform
It was all the more poignant because BET’s three-part miniseries had reintroduced the story of the group to a new generation. The New Edition Story aired in January 2017 and chronicled the rise of the Boston group from childhood performers to international R&B stars. The series looked at their success but also at the conflicts, business pressures, and personal relationships that developed along the way.
The cast also features Bryshere Y. Grey, Elijah Kelley, Luke James, Keith Powers, Algee Smith, and Woody McClain, among others. In the miniseries, they portrayed different eras of the group’s history.
On June 25, 2017, the group received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the BET Awards. But the ceremony was more than a traditional award presentation. The original group members joined them onstage, performing with the young and adult cast.
The tribute opened with the younger actors singing “Candy Girl,” one of New Edition’s first signature songs. Then the adult cast members sang selections from different periods and from different members of the group’s history. Then the original members of New Edition came out on stage themselves.
The original lineup of Ricky Bell, Michael Bivins, Ronnie DeVoe, Johnny Gill, Ralph Tresvant, and Bobby Brown sang songs such as “Mr. Telephone Man” and “Can You Stand the Rain.” The cast then joined them, visually connecting the dramatized history with the people who had actually lived it.
That was the best thing about the show.
Typically, actors portraying renowned musicians vanish when the cameras stop rolling. But here the players stood next to the musicians they had studied and impersonated for months. For those who had watched the miniseries, it was a rare behind-the-scenes feeling to see the two groups together.
The show also demonstrated that New Edition’s influence is still very much alive. Based in Boston in the late 1970s, the group went on to become one of the defining R&B/pop groups of the 1980s and beyond. The group’s members went on to have solo careers, and Bell Biv DeVoe emerged from the group as another major act.
Thus, the BET tribute operated on many levels. It celebrated the original musicians, promoted successful television miniseries, and brought classic songs to viewers who might not have experienced them when they were first released.
More important, it showed how music history passes from generation to generation. The actors were a generation’s version of the group, but the original members were the real history.
For longtime fans, the performance was a celebration of memories. For younger viewers, it was a crash course. It was also a rare opportunity for the actors themselves to share a stage with the very people whose lives they had played.
