One of the most exciting parts of the 2021-22 Broadway season was the number of people who looked like me, both on stage and behind the scenes. I’ve seen the Broadway debuts of seven plays that, too often, have been in art forms that tokenize, marginalize, mislead, or outright ignore people of color.
But even when the production is shrouded in the bright lights of Broadway, it can go unnoticed. Broadway may not have many new Black playwrights this fall, but it offers old favorites with a promising cast of multi-talented Black actors who have made careers on stage as well as film and television. To do.
One of the highlights of last season was playwright Alice Childress’ long-awaited Broadway debut in the stunning comedy-drama Trouble in Mind. So what’s the best time to shine the spotlight on an even more neglected writer of color?Experimental black playwright Adrian Kennedy has his similarly belated premiere this November. increase. This is a harrowing 1992 production of the play Murders in Ohio, in which stage celebrity Audra MacDonald stars as a writer returning to her alma mater to speak out about violent imagery. in her work.
Kenny Leung’s Ohio Murders is a deadly combination of contemporary racial injustice and unrelenting racial trauma from the past, and Latania’s August Wilson’s 1987 play The Piano Richardson Jackson (cast member of the 2009 Broadway revival of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, to quote another Wilson production) with an exciting peer in the revival of The Lesson. Her husband Samuel L. Jackson, who played the role of Willie Boy in her 1987 repertoire The Piano Her Lesson at her theater, also participated in this revival and is now known as Boy Her Willie. ‘s uncle Dorker plays her role as Charles. history of the piano. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play follows two brothers who disagree over whether to sell a piano depicting their enslaved ancestors.
However, the appeal of these plays doesn’t just come down to the materials and ethnicity of the cast. This season of Black, his cast represents a tantalizing mix of newcomers and veterans from across the spectrum of theater, film, and television. So, those accustomed only to Jackson’s explosive acting style in action-packed Marvel films and brutal Quentin Tarantino films can see how the actor’s energy translates to the stage. The same goes for Jackson’s castmate, Danielle Brooks. The star of the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, who made her Broadway debut in 2015 in The Color Purple and wowed audiences in 2019’s Public Theater as the brassy Beatrice. Production of “Much Ado About Nothing”.
After all, film and television are a different ball game than theater, and actors must react to the action on stage in real time and perform with resonance that reaches the upper balconies. This will be a challenge for John David Washington (“Tenet,” “Black His Clansman”), who has just set foot in this theater and is set to make his Broadway debut in “The Piano Lesson.”
Elsewhere on Broadway this season, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II has been portrayed by Susan Lori Parks, from his charming roles in television (“Watchmen”) and film (Jordan Peele’s “Candyman” reimagined). ‘s “Top Dog/Underdog”, transitioning to Pulitzer’s revival. An award-winning film that follows the daily rituals of his two impoverished brothers, Lincoln and Booth. He will make his Broadway debut opposite Cory Hawkins, who played the charming taxi dispatcher Benny in the John Cho-directed film In the Heights. Hawkins also played Doctor He Dre in “Straight He’s Outta He’s Compton” and Macduff in Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth.” He earned a Tony Award nomination as con man Paul Poitier in John Guar’s 2017 Broadway revival of The Sixth Separation.
Most of these plays are contemporary and date from the last 30 years or so. (Unfortunately, it’s common for early work by Black artists and other artists of color to be ignored or deleted.) But the West End and Young Vic revival of “Death of a Salesman” Reimagining Arthur Miller’s beloved 1949 classic into a story about black people. A family starring Wendell Pierce, Andre De Shields, and Sharon D. Clarke, who won an Olivier Award for Best Actress for playing Linda Lohmann in the British production, last season’s ‘Caroline, Or Change’ Known statewide for her knockout performance in
So this season, expect not only a sophisticated on-stage offering (engaging, funny, tense, heartbreaking Black production), but also a range from Broadway decades ago to Hollywood stars today. It’s also geared towards black talent. Meet and create something of the moment.