VIDEO: Danai Gurira Explains How She Snagged Lupita Nyong'o for Broadway-Bound ECLIPSED

On last night's TONIGHT SHOW, THE WALKING DEAD star Danai Gurira explains how she wrote her Broadway play ECLIPSED and snagged Lupita Nyong'o to star in it. Watch clips from the appearance below!

Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o made her New York stage debut this fall in the NYC premiere of Danai Gurira's new drama ECLIPSED at The Public Theater. Directed by Obie Award winner Liesl Tommy, the production began previews September 29, and opened on Wednesday, October 14. The show's run has been extended twice and will end its run on Sunday, November 29. Academy Award winner Nyong'o will reprise her role on Broadway for a strictly limited engagement. Previews are set to begin on Broadway on Tuesday, February 23 prior to an official opening night on Sunday, March 6 at the Golden Theatre (252 W. 45th Street).

This stunning, deeply moving new American play by award-winning Zimbabwean-American Playwright/Actress, Danai Gurira (co-author of In the CONTINUUM and Michonne on AMC's hit series "The Walking Dead") features Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) returning to the stage. Amid the chaos of the Liberian Civil War, the captive wives of a rebel officer band together to form a fragile community - until the balance of their lives is upset by the arrival of a new girl. Drawing on reserves of wit and compassion, Eclipsed reveals distinct women who must discover their own means of survival in this deeply felt portrait of women finding and testing their own strength in a hostile world of horrors not of their own making. South African born Liesl Tommy (Appropriate and The Public's The Good Negro) directs this magnificent story of survival and resilience.

Photo: Douglas Gorenstein/NBC