Theater / Film
Review: M Ensemble Revives A Comedy Icon With ‘Jackie Moms Mabley’
M Ensemble Company opens its 2026 season with “Jackie Moms Mabley: Live at the Apollo,” an original show by T.G. Cooper, founder of the company. The show is at the Sandrell Rivers Theatre, Miami, through Sunday, Feb. 22. (Photo by Seven Fleurimond, Studio 7 Miami)
Reviving a legend is risky business, but M Ensemble Company opens its 2026 season by stepping into the spotlight with “Jackie Moms Mabley: Live at the Apollo,” a reenactment of a 1962 comedy show by a classic American figure. The play, written by the late T.G. Cooper, founder of M Ensemble, was first performed in 1995 when M Ensemble performed it in a two-week stint in Miami Shores at the Shores Performing Arts Theatre after a run in North Miami.
Stepping into the role of Mabley is Barbie Lazaro, directed by local actor and FIU professor Melvin Huffnagle.
The company chose this production wisely: it’s a comedy providing laughs in serious times, it’s Black History Month and it profiles an iconic African-American woman.
With roots going back to Black vaudeville, also known as the Chitlin’ Circuit, Jackie “Moms” Mabley was a trailblazing, queer Black woman who inspired comedy legends like Redd Foxx, Joan Rivers, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Wanda Sykes and Whoopi Goldberg.
Barbie Lazaro as Moms Mabley in M Ensemble’s “Jackie Moms Mabley: Live at the Apollo.” (Photo by Seven Fleurimond, Studio 7 Miami)
Her “Moms” character, a toothless, poorly dressed, floppy-hat-wearing, easy-going maternal persona, allowed her to lambast audiences with racy, edgy, intense topics, such as sexuality, race and politics. And she did so with old vaudeville flair, confidence and pitch perfect timing.
She was a pro’s pro and crossed-over to mainstream white America. Mabley once famously said “there’s not a comedian in show business that hasn’t stole material from Moms.”
Lazaro, a relatively new, but on-the-rise comedian, is a Miami Beach resident. She started performing stand-up in 2023 and has played at festivals such as Edinburgh Fringe and the New York City Comedy Festival.
She makes her theatrical debut as Mabley and does so superbly. Lazaro is nuanced, confident, able to improvise well, and truly embodies the swagger of Mabley. She is worth the price of admission, has good comic timing, and delivers plenty of belly laughs.
Elijah Thomas is Moms Mabley’s (Barbie Lazaro) onstage sidekick. (Photo by Seven Fleurimond, Studio 7 Miami)
When this play works, it’s entertaining, risky, brave, shocking and completely nostalgic.
Under Huffnagle’s direction, it’s 1962 inside the Sandrell Rivers Theatre. It is the Apollo Theatre in Harlem.
And Lazaro bringing Mabley’s raunchy style to light. Cooper uses some of Mabley’s original material verbatim and it lands.
“I call myself a lucky ole lady. I got myself a cigarette lighter and a man …and both of them work”
Or crass: “My brother’s wife was so ugly he used to take her to work to keep from kissin’ her goodbye.”
Or race: “I was on my way down to Miami…I mean theyami.”
Nostalgia and homage are wonderful devices to engage an audience and “Jackie Moms Mabley: Live at the Apollo” succeeds at immersing the crowd in the comedian and her surroundings. But
Cooper’s script isn’t so much a biography of Mabley, which would bring some depth to the play, but a transcription of a Mabley performance. Jokes hit, and there’s plenty of material, but it’s not much to work with.
Huffnagle adds a few components to make the show more expansive, such as two opening acts, a piano player and a feature warm-up comedian., which helps to add a variety show element to the night.
Elijah Thomas plays the master of ceremonies in M Ensemble’s “Jackie Moms Mabley: Live at the Apollo.” (Photo by Seven Fleurimond, Studio 7 Miami)
Actor Elijah Thomas, a recent graduate of FIU’s theater department, was brought onto the production by Huffnagle. He holds his own playing the master of ceremonies, Mabley’s onstage sidekick, and his role was developed from the original script to provide more improvisation, some of which breaks the nostalgic Fourth Wall but it still isn’t enough to create a well-rounded story.
Working on a shoestring and one of the casualties of so many budget cuts, M Ensemble revives the production as its opening, no doubt, to keep things lean.
There isn’t much of a set , just a piano with the words Moms Mabley painted onto it, a red curtain, and a couple of tables onstage for audience members to sit at as if at a dinner show and three actors.
Under Melvin Huffnagle’s direction, it’s 1962 inside the Sandrell Rivers Theatre. It is the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. (Photo by Seven Fleurimond, Studio 7 Miami)
The talent is there. The history is rich. The venue is great, laughs land often, and it’san enjoyable 90 minutes at the theater. But without a dramatic spine, this revival is a tribute act rather than the full theatrical event it could have been. It would have been nice to get to know Moms a better beyond her one-liners.
WHAT: “Jackie Moms Mable: Live at the Apollo” by T.G. Cooper
WHERE: Sandrell Rivers Theatre at Audrey M. Edmonson Transit Village, 6103 NW 7th Ave., Miami.
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Through Sunday, Feb. 22.
COST: $36, general admission, $26 students and seniors
INFORMATION: 305-705-3218 or mensemble.org
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