Ma Rainey and her band return to The Goodman this spring in a major revival—and a reunion of two Chicago theater legends. Goodman Family Resident Director Chuck Smith directs August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom with Associate/Music Director Harry J. Lennix.
The highly anticipated Broadway revival of August Wilson’s seminal, Pulitzer Prize®-winning drama The Piano Lesson, and the first in more than 30 years since the play’s Main Stem premiere, is the first marquee of the 2022 / 2023 season to hit Broadway at the iconic St. James Theatre, the production’s future home, on the occasion of Mr. Wilson’s 77th Birthday today.
'The themes in this play, as in all in the Cycle, are universal. Unfortunately some of those themes and challenges are still relevant today. It is imperative that as a cast we explore and examine these themes before we even begin to tackle the language. Fortunately enough August Wilson's language succinct and inspiring. His characters are so clearly and powerfully structured that the journey for a cast to 'know' and 'find' these people. They are richly drawn,' Hemphill concluded.
As BroadwayWorld reported yeaterday, Tony Award-nominated director Nicholas Martin passed away on April 30th at the age of seventy-five. Most recently, Martin directed the critically acclaimedChristopher Durang play, Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which opened on Broadway last March. For this production, Martin was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Director and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Director. Martin also directed the Off-Broadway production of the play in 2012. BroadwayWorld remembers the legendary director below.
The Public Theater (Artistic Director Oskar Eustis; Executive Director Andrew D. Hamingson) will begin previews on Tuesday, March 3 for Tracey Scott Wilson's THE GOOD NEGRO, which will run through Sunday, April 19 with an official press opening on Monday, March 16. Directed by Liesl Tommy and presented in association with Dallas Theater Center, THE GOOD NEGRO is the first new play to transfer from the Public LAB initiative to a full main stage production at The Public.
