Seven Black Plays on Broadway -- A Mid-season Review
Dear All!
Some of my good friends and me had a delightful conversation about the New York theatre season thus far. West coast-based actor and 'cultural architect for community engagement' Charles Reese traveled 3,000 miles to take in the unprecedented number of plays by Black writers on Broadway. Also aboard was Jackie Jeffries, president of AUDELCO, Inc, the producer of the Annual Viv Awards that honor excellence in Black Theater.
Listen to our conversation here that originally aired on Nov 25 at 9 pm on my radio show Backstage Stories heard on on WBAI 99.5 FM and streaming at www.wbai.org.
Below are details about the seven Black plays on the Great White Way!
Best regards,
Marcia Pendelton
Pass Over
by Antoinette Chinonyee Nwandu
directed by Danya Taymor
Jon Michael Hill, Namir Smallwood, Gabriel Ebert
In PASS OVER, Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s
"powerful and provocative" (Arifa Akbar, The Guardian) new play,
Moses and Kitch talk smack, pass the time, and hope that maybe today will be
different. As they dream of their promised land, a stranger wanders into their
space and disrupts their plans. Evoking heartbreak, hope, and joy over its 95
minutes, PASS OVER crafts everyday profanities into poetic and
humorous riffs, illuminating the unquestionable human spirit of young men
looking for a way out.
Final Performance: Oct 10, 2021 | August Wilson Theatre
Ruben Santiago-Hudson's Lackawanna Blues
written, performed and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson (Artistic Advisor at
MTC)
with Junior Mack
Tony Award® winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson returns to MTC for the
Broadway debut of his brilliant solo play celebrating the strong, big-hearted
woman who raised him: Miss Rachel. In a 1950s boarding house outside Buffalo,
Nanny, as she was affectionately called, opened her doors to anyone and everyone
in need of kindness, hope, compassion, and care. Giving a tour-de-force
performance accompanied by live music written by acclaimed composer Bill Sims
Jr. and performed by Blues Hall of Fame Guitarist Junior Mack,
Santiago-Hudson embodies more than 20 vibrant characters, creating a richly
textured reminiscence that’s inspiring, uplifting, and right at home on
Broadway.
Final Performance - November 12, 2021 - The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Chicken & Biscuits
by Douglas Lyons
directed by Zhailon Levingston (youngest director in Broadway history!)
With Cleo King, Norm Lewis, Michael Urie, Alana Racquel
Bowers, Ebony Marshall-Oliver, AIGNER
MIZZELLE, Devere Issac Rogers, Natasha Yvette Williams –37 Broadway
debuts
Broadway’s dishiest family is coming together for Grandpa’s
funeral – hopefully without killing each other!
Rivaling sisters, Baneatta and Beverly, are burying their
father—but it’s the non-stop family drama that might be the death of them.
Beverly just wants to show the congregation what she’s been “blessed with.”
Baneatta’s husband tries to keep the family peace while preparing the eulogy.
Baneatta’s youngest son brings his very white, very Jewish boyfriend who is
maybe, sort of, okay definitely afraid of Baneatta. Meanwhile,
Beverly’s daughter couldn’t mind her own business if it was on a leash. But
when a family secret reveals itself at the church altar, things really go
crazy…and even Baneatta can’t deny the truth.
This show boasted over 30 Broadway debuts onstage and behind the scenes.
Final performance: November 28, 2021 - Circle in the Square Theatre
www.chickenandbiscuitsbway.com
Thoughts of a Colored Man
by Keenan Scott II
directed by Steve H. Broadnax III
With Dyllon Burnside, Bryan Terrell Clark, Da’Vinchi, Luke James, Forrest McClendon Esau Pritchett, Tristan Mack Wilds
The first time in Broadway history that a play has been written, directed, starring,
lead produced Black men
Creates a new form of theater called SLAM NARRATIVE.
As
the sun rises on a single day in the pulsing heart of Brooklyn, seven Black men
are about to discover the extraordinary – together. By Keenan Scott II, one of
today’s boldest new voices, THOUGHTS OF A COLORED MAN blends spoken word, slam
poetry, rhythm, and humor into a daringly universal new play. Welcome to the
vibrant inner life of being Black, proud, and thriving in the 21st century.
This richly theatrical mosaic shines brilliant
light onto these men, a tight-knit brotherhood, revealing their most triumphant
selves. Their vibrant and vulnerable experiences and feelings reverberate far
beyond the barbershops and basketball courts of their community. They reveal
the deeply human hopes, joys, sorrows, fears, and dreams of all men, all people.
Now playing at The John Golden Theatre, 252 W. 45th Street, NYC
www.thoughtsofacoloredman.com
Save up to 35% off regular ticket prices with code THWTG0603. Redeem at telechargeoffers.com | call 212.947.8844 | at the Golden Theatre Box Office.
Trouble in Mind
by Alice Childress
directed by Charles Randolph-Wright
with LaChanze, Michael Zegen, Chuck
Cooper, Danielle Campbell, Jessica Frances Dukes, Brandon Michael Hall, Simon Jones,
Alex Mickiewicz, Don Stephenson.
Follow an experienced Black stage actress through rehearsals of a major Broadway production in Alice Childress’s wry and moving look at racism, identity, and ego in the world of New York theatre. At the forefront of both the Civil Rights and feminist movements, the prescient Trouble in Mind opened to acclaim off-Broadway in 1955, and was announced to move to Broadway in 1957...in a production that never came to be.
Now playing through January 9 at Roundabout
Theatre Company
Tickets start at $39 with code TIMWTGP
www.roundabouttheatre.org
Clyde’s
by Lynn Nottage
directed by Kate Whorisky
Uzo Aduba, Ron Cephus Jones, Edmond Donovan, Reza Salazar, Kara Young
In this stirring new play from the team of two-time Pulitzer
Prize winner Lynn Nottage and director Kate Whoriskey (Ruined,
Sweat), a truck stop sandwich shop offers its formerly incarcerated kitchen
staff a shot at reclaiming their lives. Even as the shop’s callous owner tries
to keep them under her thumb, the staff members are given purpose and
permission to dream by their shared quest to create the perfect sandwich.
You’ll want a seat at the table for this funny, moving, and urgent play. It’s
an example of Nottage’s “genius for bringing politically charged themes to life
by embodying them in ordinary characters living ordinary lives” (The Wall
Street Journal).
The last 16 performances will be simulcast! Simulcast tix go on sale Dec 1
Production plays at Second Stage's Helen Hayes Theatre thru Jan 16
www.2st.com
Lynn has written the book for MJ the Musical – Previews begin Dec 6 at Neil Simon Theatre
Skeleton Crew
by Dominique Morisseau
directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Chante Adams, Joshua Boone, Brandon J. Dirden, Adesola Osakalumi, Phylicia Rashad
Performance begin Dec 21 at MTC's Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Get $49 tickets with code DETRIOT at www.telechargeoffers.com, 212.947.8844, at the Friedman Box Office
Dominique's Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations is still running at the Imperial Theatre (www.ainttooproudmusical.com) and watch for Confederates beginning February 22, 2022 at Signature Theatre directed by Stori Ayres (
Tony Award® winner and five-time Emmy Award nominee Phylicia
Rashad will return to Broadway this winter in Manhattan Theatre Club’s
Broadway premiere of Skeleton Crew, written by Tony Award® nominee Dominique
Morisseau and directed by Tony Award® winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
In 2008 Detroit, a small automotive factory is on the brink of foreclosure, and
a tight knit family of workers hangs in the balance. With uncertainty
everywhere, the line between blue collar and white collar becomes blurred, and
this working family must reckon with their personal loyalties, their instincts
for survival and their ultimate hopes for humanity. The New York Times gives
this astonishing work a Critic’s Pick and cheers, “A very fine new play…
warm-blooded, astute, deeply moral and deeply American.” And The Amsterdam
News hails it as “a prime example of how theatre imitates life… intense,
touching and funny.”
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