Complete casting has been announced for Paradise Square on Broadway. The production begins rehearsals today in New York City. Previews begin in four weeks on Tuesday, March 15, 2022, prior to opening night on Sunday, April 3, 2022 at Broadway's Ethel Barrymore Theatre (243 West 47th Street).
Tony Award nominee Joaquina Kalukango (Slave Play) leads the 40-member cast that also features Chilina Kennedy (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), Tony Award nominee John Dossett (Newsies, Gypsy), Sidney Dupont (Beautiful: The Carole King Musical), A.J. Shively (La Cage aux Folles, Bright Star), Nathaniel Stampley (The Gershwin's Porgy & Bess, The Color Purple), Gabrielle McClinton (Pippin, Chicago), Jacob Fishel (Fiddler on the Roof), Kevin Dennis (Canadian productions of Young Frankenstein, Assassins) and Matt Bogart (Smokey Joe's Café, Miss Saigon). Aisha Jackson (Frozen, Waitress, Beautiful: The Carole King Musical) will stand by for Ms. Kalukango.
The production also features
Garrett Coleman,
Jason Oremus, Colin Barkell,
Karen Burthwright,
Kennedy Caughell,
Dwayne Clark, Conor Coleman,
Eric Craig,
Colin Cunliffe,
Chloe Davis,
Josh Davis,
Bernard Dotson,
Jamal Christopher Douglas,
Camille Eanga-Selenge,
Sam Edgerly,
Shiloh Goodin,
Sean Jenness,
Joshua Keith,
Jay McKenzie,
Ben Michael,
Kayla Pecchioni,
Eilis Quinn,
Lee Siegel,
Erica Spyres,
Lael Van Keuren,
Sir Brock Warren,
Alan Wiggins,
Kristen Beth Williams and
Hailee Kaleem Wright.
Paradise Square has a book by
Christina Anderson (Good Goods, Inked Baby),
Craig Lucas (The Light in the Piazza, An American in Paris) and
Larry Kirwan (lead singer of
Black 47), with music by
Jason Howland (Beautiful: The
Carole King Musical), lyrics by
Nathan Tysen (Amélie) and
Masi Asare (Monsoon Wedding), and additional music by Mr. Kirwan, inspired in part by the songs of
Stephen Foster. Musical supervision, music direction and orchestrations are by Mr. Howland, with arrangements by Mr. Howland and Mr. Kirwan.
Direction is by two-time Tony Award nominee Moisés Kaufman (I Am My Own Wife, The Laramie Project), who was a 2015 National Medal of Arts recipient under
President Barack Obama. Choreography is by
Bill T. Jones, who is a two-time Tony Award winner (Spring Awakening, Fela!), 2014 National Medal of Arts recipient also under Obama, and a 2010 Kennedy Center Honoree. Musical staging is by
Alex Sanchez (Far From Heaven, NY City Center Encores!).
Paradise Square is produced by three-time Tony Award winner
Garth H. Drabinsky (Kiss of the Spider Woman (Tony Award, Best Musical), Show Boat (Tony Award, Best Revival of a Musical), Ragtime, Fosse (Tony Award, Best Musical), Parade). Mr. Drabinsky's longtime colleague, documentary filmmaker
Peter LeDonne (the Academy Award-nominated Curtain Call and Sister Rose's Passion) is co-producing.
The multi-award-winning creative team features scenic design by
Allen Moyer, costume design by
Toni-Leslie James, lighting design by
Donald Holder, sound design by
Jon Weston and projection design by
Wendall K. Harrington. Dramaturgy is by
Thulani Davis and Sydné Mahone.
ABOUT THE MUSICAL
New York City. 1863. The Civil War raged on. An extraordinary thing occurred amid the dangerous streets and crumbling tenement houses of the Five Points, the notorious 19th-century Lower Manhattan slum. For many years, Irish immigrants escaping the devastation of the Great Famine settled alongside free-born Black Americans and those who escaped slavery, arriving by means of the Underground Railroad. The Irish, relegated at that time to the lowest rung of America's social status, received a sympathetic welcome from their Black neighbors (who enjoyed only slightly better treatment in the burgeoning industrial-era city). The two communities co-existed, intermarried, raised families, and shared their cultures in this unlikeliest of neighborhoods.
The amalgamation between the communities took its most exuberant form with raucous dance contests on the floors of the neighborhood bars and dance halls. It is here in the Five Points where tap dancing was born, as Irish step dancing joyously competed with Black American Juba.
But this racial equilibrium would come to a sharp and brutal end when President Lincoln's need to institute the first Federal Draft to support the Union Army would incite the deadly NY Draft Riots of July 1863.
Within this galvanizing story of racial harmony undone by a country at war with itself, we meet the denizens of a local saloon called
Paradise Square: Nelly O'Brien (
Joaquina Kalukango), the indomitable Black woman who owns it; Annie Lewis (
Chilina Kennedy), her Irish-Catholic sister-in-law and her Black minister husband, Rev. Samuel Jacob Lewis (
Nathaniel Stampley); Willie O'Brien (
Matt Bogart), Nelly's Irish husband, who is off fighting for the Union army; Owen Duignan (
A.J. Shively), a conflicted newly arrived Irish immigrant; Washington Henry (
Sidney Dupont), a fearless freedom seeker; Frederic Tiggens (
John Dossett), an anti-abolitionist political boss, and Milton Moore (
Jacob Fishel), a penniless songwriter trying to capture it all. They have conflicting notions of what it means to be an American while living through one of the most tumultuous eras in our country's history.
The world premiere of Paradise Square was produced in January 2019 by Berkeley Repertory Theatre (Artistic Director,
Tony Taccone; Managing Director,
Susan Medak). The musical was originally conceived by Mr. Kirwan.
With visceral and nuanced staging and choreography that captures the pulsating energy when Black and Irish cultures meet, Paradise Square depicts an overlooked true-life moment when hope and possibility shone bright.
TICKET INFORMATION:
Tickets for Paradise Square are available at
Telecharge.com. Tickets for groups of 10 or more are available by calling Broadway Inbound Group Sales at (866) 302-0995 or emailing
info@broadwayinbound.com.
For the latest health and safety procedures and guidelines, visit
https://shubert.nyc/about-us/covid-19-terms-conditions.
