SUMMER CLASSICS 2026
"The best reason to revisit Carmen Jones lies in Dorothy Dandridge's electrifying performance, which saw her become the first African American to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar."
—BBC.com
Carmen Jones (1954) is a landmark musical directed by Otto Preminger, featuring an all-Black cast in a retelling of Bizet's opera Carmen. Joe (Harry Belafonte), a soldier, falls for parachute factory worker Carmen Jones (Dorothy Dandridge), leading to a tragic tale of obsession and murder, updating the original opera's setting to the American South during WWII.