OBSERVER STAFF REPORT

Acclaimed stage writer and director George C. Wolfe makes his film-directing debut with HBO Films’ “Lackawanna Blues.”

S. Epatha Merkerson (foreground) and Marcus Carl Franklin star in HBO's "Lackawanna Blues."

Adapted from Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s critically-acclaimed, off-Broadway, autobiographical one-man show of the same name, the film bursts at the seams with a bounty of colorful characters, as writer-actor Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s original Obie Ward-winning play is transformed by Wolfe into a film that explodes like a musical, filled with music, dance and sexual energy.

“Lackawanna Blues” is at once a coming-of-age story; a portrait of a golden age gone by; and an illumination of the fruits of love and charity.

On the eve of desegregation, Rachel “Nanny” Crosby is larger-than-life human miracle whose big and generous boarding home in Lackawanna, New York, is a place where drifters and dreamers, eccentrics and excessives can always find a hot meal and a new start.

Into this world comes Junior, a little boy Nanny takes in a raises as her own. Nanny’s love and the stories from her boarders’ damaged and haunted pasts irrevocably change the young boy’s life.

Halle Berry, Vincent Cirrincone, Ruben Santiago-Hudson and Shelby Stone executive produce; Nellie Nugiel produces. The screenplay is by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. HBO Films senior vice president Keri Putnam and director Sam Martin are the executives responsible for bringing the film to HBO. “Lackawanna Blues” will debut as the Centerpiece premiere at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and made its HBO debut February 12.

Other HBO playdates are as follows: March 5 (8 p.m., 4:30 p.m.) and 8 (3:30 p.m., 12 a.m.).

HBO2 playdates are as follows: February 27 (12:30 p.m., 8 p.m.).

The ensemble cast features: S. Epatha Merkerson (“Law & Order”), Marcus Carl Franklin (“Caroline, or Change”), Mos Def (HBO’s “Something the Lord Made”), Carmen Ejogo (HBO’s “Boycott”), Louis Gossett Jr. (“Jasper, Texas”), Macy Gray (“Training Day”), Hill Harper (“CSI: New York”), Terrence Howard (HBO’s “Boycott”), Ernie Hudson (HBO’s “Oz”), Delroy Lindo (“The Cider House Rules”), Rosie Perez (Oscar nominee for “Fearless”), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (the stage production of “Lackawanna Blues”), Liev Schreiber (HBO’s “RKO 281”), Henry Simmons (“NYPD Blue”), Jimmy Smits (“The West Wing”), Patricia Wettig (“Alias”), Michael Kenneth Williams (HBO’s “The Wire”), Charlayne Woodard (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”) and Jeffery Wright (Golden Globe winner for HBO’s “Angles in America”).