As a boy growing up in an upstate New York rooming house, Ruben Santiago-Hudson reigned as a prince among the paupers, philanderers, prostitutes, philosophers and psalmists of everyday life who told him he was going to grow up to be somebody.

On Jan. 8, the Tony award-winning actor opened his "Lackawanna Blues" on the main stage at New Haven's Long Wharf Theatre.

The one-man show is a celebration of more than 20 people's lives, especially Rachel Crosby's -- otherwise known as Nanny. She and her boarders nurtured, influenced, entertained and reared Santiago-Hudson when his drug-addicted mother discarded him as if he were a used syringe.

"I don't imitate; I try to embody their spirits on stage," Santiago-Hudson says about the multiple roles in his Obie-winning play.

Among other things, Santiago-Hudson seeks to capture the humanity of people who are often overlooked in our society. "It's like my duty." It's a responsibility he relishes.

"Every day I look forward to the day I can spend with my Mama [Nanny]," who died at 82 in 1990. "Where can you be that's safer?"

Santiago-Hudson finds comfort and joy in the fond memories he recounts on stage.

Still, George C. Wolfe, the producer at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, where the play had its premiere in 2001, told Santiago-Hudson not to be afraid of painful reflections.

So, while he revels in playing and remembering Nanny, during each performance he also encounters the pain his mother, Alean, caused him.

But the joyful memories far outnumber the painful ones. He calls Nanny a regal woman, "the embodiment of all the good we hope to be."

And memories of the people he observed during the 1960s and early '70s are what drive the play. Ninety percent of the action, Santiago-Hudson says, comes from what he remembers of people such as Ol' Po' Carl, the former Negro Leagues baseball player who is struggling with "roaches" (cirrhosis) of the liver:

"Yes sir, those was some good days when I was in the Negro Leagues, you see, I was a threat! I was what they called a "Eva" handed pitcher. I could pitch with Eva hand, left or right."

Besides Santiago-Hudson's funny and often poetic words, veteran bluesman Bill Sims Jr. provides original, live music to help evoke the characters, whom he says he knew in his native Ohio but "by different names." Sims sees himself as a musical Greek chorus, "a spirit up on stage."

Sims and Santiago-Hudson believe that whoever you are and wherever you have grown up, you'll see characters who will remind you of people you know. Still, with black audiences, Sims says, "you can go a little further, and they're right with you."

Sims and Santiago-Hudson got to know each other in New York, when both were performing in the play "Deep Down," the latter as a lead actor, the former providing incidental music.

For about a year, the two men, whom Sims calls "brothers with different mothers," worked on meshing the characters and their music.

Often they met in Santiago-Hudson's New York office. The actor talked about the characters and performed their lines. He also played the harmonica, as he does in part of the show.

Meanwhile, Sims -- who has led various blues groups, written songs for commercials and produced several CDs -- played the guitar.

The two men sought to use music to deepen the audiences' appreciation of characters' personalities and their places of origin. Ol' Po' Carl's music, Sims says, seeks to suggest the old man's multilayered personality and his New Orleans roots.

The collaboration has proved so seamless that some have wondered if the two improvise the entire show.

The men feed off each other and the audiences. "Sometimes," Santiago-Hudson says, Sims "can tease me with the guitar, messing with me." On other occasions, the actor makes Sims laugh with an unexpected inflection or gesture.

Still, the show is a tightly woven and exacting presentation.

For that reason, Santiago-Hudson says, he is careful to keep control of the shows when the recognizable characters and circumstances cause some black audience members to "start testifying."

"I got to let them enjoy the play, but I can't let them take the show from me."

Santiago-Hudson also seeks to control his career: "I like being my own boss. I don't sit back and wait for roles. I create them. I go get them." He is working on two new plays and a film adaptation of "Lackawanna Blues." The film will use different actors in the various roles played by Santiago-Hudson on stage. Sims will compose the music for the film as well.

Santiago-Hudson has not been impressed with what he's had to say or do in movies, such as the "Shaft" remake, and TV programs, including "Law & Order."

While he has won Tony, Obie and Outer Critics' Circle awards for his stage work, Santiago-Hudson says his talents, which also include dancing, haven't been fully exploited on television or in movies. "It's difficult. I've never taken a journey with film that took me anywhere."

For that reason, he seeks to limit his film roles to about two a year, which "helps me provide a good, stable living for my family" and "keeps my children in private schools." He and his wife, Jeanne, have 6-year-old twins, Trey and Lily, whom he calls "the boss." He also has two adult sons.

Santiago-Hudson holds a master's degree in acting from Wayne State University, but he says he became a storyteller by listening to people trying to top each other at Nanny's rooming house.

Later, Santiago-Hudson learned the dramatic crafts "by rubbing shoulders" with such playwrights and directors as Lloyd Richards (former artistic director at Yale Repertory Theater), George C. Wolfe and August Wilson. Santiago-Hudson won his Tony for his role as Canewell in Wilson's "Seven Guitars."

Santiago-Hudson says his mentors are "people who sat there and put their hands on my shoulder and told me where to go. "Those people wouldn't allow me to fail."

Neither would Nanny and her boarders.

"Lackawanna Blues" runs through Feb. 9 at Long Wharf Theatre, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven. Tickets are $15 to 47.50. Performances are at 7 p.m. Tuesdays; 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Fridays; and 4 and 8:30 p.m. on Saturdays. Information: 203-787-4282.

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