Laurence Fishburne's LIKE THEY DO IN THE MOVIES Begins Performances This Weekend at PAC NYC

The World Premiere of Like They Do in the Movies, written and performed by Laurence Fishburne, directed by Leonard Foglia, will begi performances at The Perelman Performing Arts Center on Sunday, March 10. Check out rehearsal photos HERE!

Like They Do in the Movies opens officially Thursday, March 21.  This is a limited engagement through March 31, 2024 at PAC NYC.

Tony Award® winner, Emmy Award® winner and Oscar® nominee Laurence Fishburne is both the star and the playwright of this one-man tour-de-force which he describes as “the stories and lies people have told me. And that I have told myself.”

Mr. Fishburne has captured imaginations throughout his extraordinary career with unforgettable performances on stage and screen, from Ike Turner in What’s Love Got to Do with It? (Academy Award® nomination for Best Actor), to Sterling Johnson in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running (Tony Award for Best Featured Actor), to his mind-bending turn as Morpheus in the blockbuster film series The Matrix.

Now he brings his legendary storytelling skills to PAC NYC for a World Premiere event helmed by Leonard Foglia, director of Mr. Fishburne’s acclaimed solo performance Thurgood on Broadway.

The creative team includes Neil Patel (Scenic Design), Tyler Micoleau (Lighting Design), Justin Ellington (Sound Design), Elaine J. McCarthy (Projection Design), Devin Day (Production Stage Manager).

Laurence J. Fishburne III

has achieved an impressive body of work as an actor, producer, and director. He starred in his first television show at 10 in the drama One Life to Live, and made his feature film debut at 12 in Cornbread, Earl and Me. At 15, Laurence appeared in Apocalypse Now, the first of many cult classics destined to define his long career. Fishburne’s versatile acting has won him awards in theatre, film, and television. In 1992, Fishburne won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Sterling Johnson in August Wilson’s Two Trains Running. He won his first Emmy Award in 1993 for “The Box” episode of TriBeCa and his second as producer for Miss Evers’ Boys in 1997. In 1994, Laurence received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for the Tina Turner biopic, What’s Love Got to Do with It. He was an Emmy Award nominee and an NAACP Image Award winner for his starring role in the 1997 telefilm Miss Evers’ Boys, which he also executive-produced. Laurence has been nominated 25 times for NAACP Image awards, with seven wins—most recently in 2020 for “Outstanding Performance in a Short Form Series” for #FreeRayshawn. His most recent Emmy win was also for his role in Quibi’s #FreeRayshawn.  Laurence may be best known for his role as Morpheus in the Wachowski siblings’ blockbuster The Matrix trilogy, but his many film credits include Boyz n the Hood, A Rumor of War, The Color Purple, Searching for Bobby Fischer, Higher Learning, Mystic River, and cult classics, Deep Cover and King of New York. In 2000, Fishburne founded Cinema Gypsy Productions with his longtime manager and producing partner, Helen Sugland. They have produced numerous award-winning projects including Thurgood, Five Fingers, Akeelah and the Bee, Once in the Life, Always Outnumbered, Hoodlum, and Miss Evers’ Boys. They produced the ABC-TV hit series black-ish, where Laurence starred alongside Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, as well as its current Freeform spinoff, grown-ish and ABC spinoff, mixed-ish. black-ish has received multiple Emmy nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series and Golden Globe nominations for Best Television Series–Musical or Comedy. Their latest animated series is Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur for Disney, now on its second season; the show received five Children’s and Family Emmy Awards. Up next, Laurence is an EP on a new TV series Cookies & Milk and will voice act in Sneaks.  In 2016, Fishburne starred in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and A&E’s miniseries remake of Roots. Laurence received a 2016 Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Narrator as Alex Haley for Roots. Fishburne also appeared in Passengers in December 2016.  In Madiba, a 2017 miniseries for BET Networks, Laurence portrayed Nelson Mandela. In 2017, he appeared in Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying. In 2018, he was seen in Marvel’s Ant Man and The Wasp and reprised his role as the Bowery King in John Wick: Chapter 3 in May 2019.  Fishburne was recently seen in Running with the Devil; Where’d You Go, Bernadette; Quibi’s movie in chapter #FreeRayshawn; The Ice Road; and Peacock series MacGruber.  He also recently performed The Autobiography of Malcolm X for Audible and snagged an Audie Award for “Best Male Narrator.”  From 2021–2022, Fishburne starred in American Buffalo on Broadway.  In 2023, he starred in Netflix’s The School for Good and Evil and was an executive producer of The Cave of Adullam which can be streamed on ESPN+. Laurence also resumed his role in John Wick: Chapter 4. Next, he will star in Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, new film The Astronaut, FX’s limited series Clipped, and Netflix hit series The Witcher.

Photo Credit: Joan Marcus