Don Cornelius paid 'Soul Train' dancers in exposure. A new musical pays them their due

It's arguably impossible to overstate the cultural impact of "Soul Train." Throughout its 35-year run, the groundbreaking weekly series simultaneously served as a music industry launchpad for soul and R&B acts, a joyous showcase of talented dancers and their newest moves, and a trendsetting platform for all things Black fashion and style.

"'Soul Train' offered Blackness in its funkified essence," wrote Todd Boyd, a cinema and media studies professor at USC, for the L.A. Times in 1995. "The majority of the films from this era were studio-controlled