Pinkins and Lennix to Star in Broadway's Radio Golf

The upcoming Broadway production of August Wilson's final play Radio Golf will star Tony Award-winner Tonya Pinkins and Harry Lennix.

Radio Golf, which is currently playing an extended run through February 18th at Chicago's Goodman Theatre, will begin previews at the Cort Theatre on April 20th and open on May 8th.  Kenny Leon (Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun) directs.

Radio Golf, which the legendary playwright completed only a few months prior to his death in 2005, will also run at New Jersey's McCarter Theatre from March 18th through April 8th prior to its Broadway run.  It was also previously seen at Boston's Huntington Theatre Company.

"Aunt Ester's house at 1839 Wylie Avenue is scheduled for demolition to make way for Bedford Hills, a slick new real estate venture designed to revive Pittsburgh's depressed Hill District--and boost Harmond Wilks' chances of becoming the city's first black mayor.  But first, the government must declare the historic neighborhood blighted, unleashing federal money for its development. All goes according to plan until a mysterious stranger, claiming ownership of the house, forces Wilks to reconsider his path to success," state Goodman notes on the show

The show includes sets by David Gallo, costumes by Susan Hilferty, lighting by Donald Holder and sound by Dan Moses Schreier.  More casting for the Broadway production will be announced.

Pinkins, who is well-known to TV audiences for her work on "All My Children," won a Tony Award for her work in Jelly's Last Jam.  Other Broadway credits include Caroline, or Change, The Wild Party, Play On! and Merrily We Roll Along.  Lennix recently starred in Macbeth in L.A.  Other theatre credits include Malcolm X at the Goodman Theatre, as well as Ma Rainey's Black Bottom in Chicago.  He has been seen on "24," and in such films as Trespass and Stomp the Yard.

Wilson, who died of liver cancer on October 2nd, 2005, is considered to have been one of the major modern playwrights.  His groundbreaking 10-play chronicle of the African-American experience in the 20th century encompassed Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II and Radio Golf, which completes the cycle.

Visit www.goodmantheatre.org for more information.

Photo of Tonya Pinkins by Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.