N’Kenge Stars in the World Premiere Musical in Ocean Township
By Alex Biese
OCEAN TOWNSHIP – N’Kenge is bringing the life and legacy of Dorothy Dandridge into the spotlight at the Jersey Shore.
A Tony, Grammy and Emmy-nominated performer, N’Kenge is the star, creator and co-director of “That’s Love!: The Dorothy Dandridge Musical,” taking the stage for its world premiere this month at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal Park. Previews begin Feb. 19, with opening night Feb. 21. The show runs through March 8.
The musical honors the story of Dandridge, a singer and actress and the first Black woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her turn in 1954’s “Carmen Jones.” Dandridge was also nominated for a Golden Globe for 1959’s “Porgy and Bess.”
“I got inspired to tell her story when I was working on ‘Motown: The Musical’ with Berry Gordy and seeing how he was very adamant about bringing Motown to Broadway and not Broadway to Motown, trying to be authentic to his story and his vision behind the making of Motown and the relationships with the artists,” N’Kenge told The Two River Times in an interview. “And I just saw so much love the audience members were bringing to ‘Motown: The Musical.’ I remember meeting people at the stage door that had seen the show 16, 17 times.”
“To see legacies of these Black artists relate to anybody” was amazing, N’Kenge said. “People were coming from all over.
N’Kenge said the experience made her realize that “there wasn’t a lot of representation of Black icons that I saw on Broadway or beyond; and Dorothy Dandridge was someone that I absolutely adored and looked up to and admired for many, many years, since I was a little girl watching her on my TV screen when they would do re-runs of ‘Carmen Jones’ and ‘Porgy and Bess’ and ‘Bright Road,’ all those movies that she did and that she was absolutely brilliant in as an actress and a singer and a dancer, and I realized that not a lot of people knew about her story.”
It’s been more than a quarter century since Halle Berry won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for her work as Dandridge in the 1999 HBO original film “Introducing Dorothy Dandridge.” And N’Kenge said that is still the point of reference for a lot of people when she brings up this musical.
Dandridge “was the biggest star in the 1950s and ’60s,” N’Kenge said. “At one point, she was getting paid the most amount in Hollywood among all actors, Black or white, and then died with like $7.42 in her bank account. And so, I wanted to find out more about her life, her journey, the fact that she was a single mom for so many years – her daughter had special needs.”
Dandridge, she said, also was “an activist, she supported Dr. King and there were a lot of events centered around raising money for the Civil Rights Movement and she was right there in the center of that. And I just thought, ‘If I’m so fascinated with her story and her life and journey, then how can the world not be?’ But I also realized that a lot of people didn’t know who she was, so it was really important for me to bring a spotlight to her legacy.”
N’Kenge said that “people would call her the Black Marilyn Monroe, and if you ask anybody right now who Marilyn Monroe is, they would know who she is. But if you ask (about) Dorothy Dandridge, who she is, some people don’t (know), so I took it upon myself to bring her life to the forefront through this musical.”
Previous iterations of “That’s Love!” were presented in concert form for two sold-out nights at Manhattan’s Carnegie Hall, followed by three lauded and sold-out performances at the New York Theatre Festival.
“That just made me realize that even if someone didn’t know the full history of Dorothy Dandridge, when they sat in that theater seat and watched the musical – whether it was 90 minutes at the New York Theatre Festival or a concert version of the music – they walked out of that theater feeling more empowered than they did when they walked in. And so, if I’m able to bring that to people when they see the show, then I know I’m doing my job well.”
“That’s Love!: The Dorothy Dandridge Musical” runs Feb. 19 through March 8 at the Axelrod Performing Arts Center, 100 Grant Ave., Deal Park in Ocean Township. For tickets and more information, visit axelrodartscenter.com.
The article originally appeared in the February 5 – 11, 2026 print edition of The Two River Times.
