Liz Lark Brown, Kayla Davion, Morgan Siobhan Green, James Jackson Jr. & More to Star in WHITE GIRL IN DANGER

Vineyard Theatre and Second Stage Theater have announced the complete cast for Michael R. Jackson's new musical, White Girl in Danger. A co-production between the two theater companies, White Girl in Danger's full cast features Liz Lark Brown, Kayla Davion, Latoya Edwards, Jennifer Fouché, Morgan Siobhan Green, Molly Hager, Vincent Jamal Hooper, James Jackson Jr., Tarra Conner Jones, Alyse Alan Louis, Lauren Marcus, and Eric William Morris. LaDonna Burns, Melessie Clark, Alexis Cofield, Shane Donovan, Jon-Michael Reese, and Natalie Walker round out the cast as understudies.

WHITE GIRL IN DANGER will be directed by Tony Award nominee Lileana Blain-Cruz (The Skin of Our Teeth) and choreographed by Raja Feather Kelly (A Strange Loop, 2ST's We're Gonna Die). Meg Zervoulis will serve as Music Director. This limited engagement begins March 14, 2023 and will officially open on April 10, 2023 at Second Stage's Off-Broadway home, the Tony Kiser Theater (305 West 43rd Street).

Tune in to the epic and viciously funny new musical White Girl in Danger from Michael R. Jackson, the Tony® Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning creator of A Strange Loop (2022 Tony Award Winner for Best Musical). It's a fever dream mashup of classic daytime and primetime soap operas, Lifetime movies, and red-hot melodrama.

The citizens of the soap opera town Allwhite face high-stakes drama and intrigue all the days of their lives. But Keesha Gibbs (Latoya Edwards) and the other Blackgrounds have been relegated to backburner stories of slavery and police violence for all of theirs. Keesha is determined to step out of the Blackground and into the center of Allwhite's juiciest stories. Can Keesha handle the Allwhite attention-especially from the Allwhite Killer on the loose? What role do the other Blackgrounds play in Keesha's Allwhite schemes? And just whose story is this anyway? Find out at White Girl in Danger.

WHITE GIRL IN DANGER was originally developed by Vineyard Theatre as part of a multi-year residency for Michael R. Jackson.

ABOUT THE CAST

Liz Lark Brown

she/her (Diane W/Barbara W/Judith W) is a founding member of The Musical Theatre Factory. She is grateful to have been there when Michael chose actors to play an outline which became today's White Girl in Danger. Most recently: Drama League Award-winning Chonburi International Hotel and Butterfly Club (Audible). Longtime member of "Joe Iconis & Family;" featured on ALBUM. Solo show Tarnished (MAC, Bistro and Nightlife Awards). @Lalabee213. lizlarkbrown.com

Kayla Davion she/her (Florence). Broadway: Tina: The Tina Turner Musical (Tina), Waitress the Musical (Dawn u/s, Ensemble), King Kong (Ann Darrow u/s, Ensemble). TV: "The Good Fight," "Power Book III: Raising Kanan." Film: Better Nate Than Ever. Kayla is also a Chita Rivera Recipient.

Latoya Edwards

(Keesha Gibbs) has appeared Off-Broadway in Superstitions (The Pool Plays); The Rolling Stone (Lincoln Center); School Girls, or, the African Mean Girls Play (MCC & Center Theatre Group); and Miss You Like Hell (The Public Theater). TV/Film: They Saw the Sun First (BAFTA winner), The Many Saints of Newark, "The Get Down," Beauty, "Law & Order: SVU," religion (u can lay your hands on me).

JENNIFER FOUCHÉ

(Abilene). Native Detroiter turned official New Yorker. Broadway: POTUS Or Behind Every Great Dumbass Are Seven Women Trying To Keep Him Alive, Chicago, Chicken and Biscuits, Chicago (National Tour, Japan Tour). Off-Broadway: SISTAS The Musical, (original cast), B Boy Blues. Off West End: Half Me, Half You. TV: "Wu Tang: An American Saga," "Jessica Jones," "Quantico," "Person of Interest," "SMASH," "Pinkalicious" & "Peteriffic." Film: B Boy Blues, Crown Heights, White Pickett Fence. IG: @jkfouche

Morgan Siobhan Green

she/her (Caroline). Broadway: Be More Chill. National Tours: Eurydice in Hadestown (Original Tour Company). Regional and Off-Broadway: Moby Dick (American Repertory Theatre), Between The Lines (Kansas City Rep), Folk Wandering (ART NY). TV: Zuri on "The Bold Type," "Because I'm Me" music video (The Avalanches). www.morgansiobhan.com

Molly Hager

she/her (Megan White). Original casts of Waitress on Broadway, Heathers: The Musical (New World Stages) and Duncan Sheik's Whisper House (59E59). Virginia Rider on "Five Days At Memorial" (AppleTV+).

Vincent Jamal Hooper

(Tarik Blackwell). Off-Broadway debut! Vincent Jamal Hooper has appeared in multiple companies of Hamilton - including LA, Australia, and Puerto Rico (alongside Lin-Manuel Miranda) - playing the roles of Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, George Washington, Lafayette/Jefferson, and King George III. Other favorite roles - The Youth in Passing Strange, Benny in In the Heights, and Stokely Carmichael in The Great Society. Television credits include "Chicago Med" (NBC), "Shots Fired" (FOX), and "American Crime" (ABC). IG: @_vincentjamalhooper.

James Jackson JR.

he/him (Clarence). A Strange Loop (Broadway, Off-Broadway) Obie Award-winner. NYC: Radio City Christmas Spectacular, Henri Gabler (Exigent Theatre). Solo: (Shady Sings the Blues, The Black-Ups) - Joe's Pub, Club Oberon/A.R.T., Lyric Theatre/LA, Green Room42, Feinstein's/54 Below, Post Office Cabaret/Provincetown. Nat'l Tours: Whistle Down the Wind. Regional: Dreamgirls (DASH Award), The Wild Party (SpeakEasy Stage). Co-host of Broadway-themed podcast 5 Questions with James and JAM. www.TheJamesJacksonJr.com & @JJacksonJr

Tarra Conner Jones

(Nell Gibbs) is a NYC based singer/actor/writer originally from Jacksonville, Fl. She is proud to be making her off-Broadway Debut! Some past credits include: The Color Purple, Little Shop of Horrors, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Ain't Misbehavin`, Shrek, Hairspray, Chicago the Musical, Dreamgirls, and From Birmingham To Broadway (written by Tarra).

Alyse Alan Louis

(Maegan Whitehall). Broadway: Amélie, Disaster, Mamma Mia!. Drama Desk Award nominee for Soft Power at The Public Theater (Hillary). Off-Broadway: White Girl in Danger (NYSAF); TEETH (NAMT); A New Brain (Encores Off Center); The Civilians' Pretty Filthy (Abrons). Regional: Rattlesnake Kate (The Denver Center); Soft Power (CTG and Curran); Amélie (CTG and Berkeley Rep); Fall Springs (Barrington Stage Company); The Rocky Horror Show (Bucks County Playhouse); Original Cast Recordings: Soft Power (Grammy nomination), Amélie ,Pretty Filthy, A New Brain. @alyselouis

Lauren Marcus

(Meagan Whitehead). Broadway: Be More Chill (Original Cast, Lyceum Theatre). Select credits: Sarah Silverman's The Bedwetter (The Atlantic), Fiddler On The Roof (Lyric Opera of Chicago), Little Shop of Horrors (Pittsburgh Public), The Humans (St. Louis Rep), Company (Barrington Stage). Film: tick, tick...BOOM! As a writer, Lauren was a 2021 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist and was chosen by New York Stage and Film to develop her original television pilot with their Filmmakers Workshop. She released her first full-length retro-pop album this winter.

Eric William Morris

(Matthew S/Scott M/Zack Paul Gosselar) can currently be seen in a great supporting role in the FX limited series "Fleishman Is In Trouble" opposite Jesse Eisenberg. Theatrically, he starred in Broadway's King Kong and in Richard Greenberg's The Perplexed at MTC opposite Margaret Colin. Other TV Credits: "Mindhunter," "FBI," "NCIS: New Orleans," ABC'S "Quantico," and Amazon's "I Know What You Did Last Summer."

LADONNA BURNS

(Understudy) is a New York based singer and actress, from Indianapolis. NY credits: Caroline, or Change (Caroline), Follies (Stella), Unraveled (Anna). National Tours: RENT (Seasons of Love Soloist) and Seussical (Sour Kangaroo). Regional credits include Sister Act (Sister Mary Lazarus), All Shook Up (Sylvia), Smokey Joe's Café (BJ), Ain't Misbehavin (Armelia). World Premiere of Grace at Ford's Theatre. A proud member of Broadway Inspirational Voices! Thank you to her family for their constant support, especially Chris. Thank you, Brian Keith Graziani at Hell's Kitchen Agency.

Melessie Clark

(Understudy) is thrilled to be making her off-Broadway debut! She was recently seen in the Grio Trio in the world premiere of Goddess at Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Risa in Pittsburgh Public's Two Trains Running. Other credits: PCLO's The Wizard of Oz, Grease, Rock of Ages and Pittsburgh Public Theater's Little Shop of Horrors, School Girls; Or, the African Mean Girls Play. TV/film credits: "Archive 81" on Netflix and Anything's Possible directed by Billy Porter on Amazon Prime. @melessieclark

ALEXIS COFIELD

she/her (Understudy) is a Black American artist and scholar. Off-Broadway Debut! Training: NYU Tisch BFA in Drama (Atlantic, Classical Studio, ITW in Amsterdam). Credits include: MotherF**king Girl Scouts (Wild Project), Food for the Gods (La MaMa), "Severance" (Apple TV), Grace (Director - Natalie Jasmine Harris). Workshops: The National Black Theatre, Ars Nova and a new multi genre musical based on Jane Eyre. She is eternally grateful to her friends and family. Very Special Thank You to Bohemia and Stewart. @msalexiscofield

Shane Donovan

(Understudy) Tour: South Pacific, Hinton Battle's American Variety Bang, Toddrick Hall's Cinderella Rock. Regional: Papermill Playhouse (Grease), Fulton Theatre (Kinky Boots, Treasure Island, Hunchback of Notre Dame, Sweeney Todd), The Rev (Working), Arkansas Rep (White Christmas), Walnut Street Theatre (Miss Saigon). TV/Film: "Investigation Discovery," "Welcome to Harlem." Thanks to The Mine, Telsey, Creative Team, and Mum. For Hannah and Charlie! @shanemdonovan

Jon-Michael Reese

he/him (Understudy). Second Stage/Vineyard Debut! Broadway: A Strange Loop. Regional: James Baldwin, Jimmy and Lorraine (Pillsbury), This Bitter Earth (Penumbra), Theo (Two River), Marry Me a Little (New Ohio Theatre), Nikola Tesla Drops The Beat (ATF), Man of la Mancha, To Let Go and Fall (Theatre Latté Da), Lear (Exit Pursued By Bear), My Heart is the Drum (Village Theatre, Gregory Award: Outstanding Actor). Rep: SAKS&. BFA: CMU. @theJMRavatar

Natalie Walker

(Understudy) is a performer and writer whose work has appeared in New York Magazine and Bookforum. Credits include her self-devised solo show Mad Scenes, Alice by Heart, Dogfight in concert here at Second Stage, "Search Party," "The Other Two," "BoJack Horseman." Despite Google's insistence, she is neither the Australian Natalie Walker (Beef Palace...?) nor the American musician featured on "Grey's Anatomy," unless believing that makes you like her more, in which case she is one or both of them.

ABOUT THE CREATIVE TEAM

Michael R. Jackson

(Playwright, Composer, Lyricist) is one of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people of 2022. His Pulitzer Prize and New York Drama Critics Circle winning A Strange Loop (which had its 2019 world premiere at Playwrights Horizons in association with Page 73 Productions) received 11 Tony nominations in 2022, winning Best Musical, and was called "a full-on laparoscopy of the heart, soul, and loins" as well as a "gutsy, jubilantly anguished musical with infectious melodies" by Ben Brantley for The New York Times. In The New Yorker, Vinson Cunningham wrote, "To watch this show is to enter, by some urgent, bawdy magic, an ecstatic and infinitely more colorful version of the famous surreal lithograph by M. C. Escher: the hand that lifts from the page, becoming almost real, then draws another hand, which returns the favor." Awards and associations include: a New Professional Theatre Festival Award, a Jonathan Larson Grant, a Lincoln Center Emerging Artist Award, an ASCAP Foundation Harold Adamson Award, a Whiting Award, the Helen Merrill Award for Playwriting, an Outer Critics Circle Award, a Drama Desk Award, an Obie Award, an Antonyo Award, a Fred Ebb Award, a Windham-Campbell Prize, a Dramatist Guild Fellowship and he is an alum of Page 73's Interstate 73 Writers Group.

Lileana Blain-Cruz

(Director) is a director from New York City and Miami. Recent projects include: The Skin of Our Teeth (Lincoln Center, Tony nomination); The Listeners (Opera Norway); Dreaming Zenzile (St. Louis Rep, McCarter Theatre, upcoming: NYTW / National Black Theatre); Marys Seacole (LCT3, Obie Award); Wayne Shorter and Esperanza Spalding's ...(Iphigenia) (MASS MoCA, Arts Emerson, The Kennedy Center); Hansel and Gretel (a film for Houston Grand Opera); Afrofemononomy (PSNY); Anatomy of a Suicide (Atlantic Theater Company); Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA); Girls (Yale Rep.); Faust (Opera Omaha); Fabulation, Or the Reeducation of Undine (Signature Theatre); Thunderbodies and Revolt. She Said. Revolt Again. (Soho Rep.); The House That Will Not Stand and Red Speedo (New York Theatre Workshop); Water by the Spoonful (Mark Taper Forum/CTG); Pipeline (Lincoln Center); The Death of the Last Black Man in the Whole Entire World (Signature Theatre, Obie Award); Henry IV, Part One and Much Ado About Nothing (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); The Bluest Eye (The Guthrie); War (LCT3/Lincoln Center Theater and Yale Rep.); Salome (JACK); Hollow Roots (the Under the Radar Festival at The Public Theater). She is the recipient of the Drama League's 2022 Founders Award for Excellence in Directing and is currently the resident director of Lincoln Center Theater. Lileana was named a 2021 Doris Duke Artist, a 2020 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist, and a 2018 United States Artists Fellow. She is a graduate of Princeton and received her MFA in directing from the Yale School of Drama.

Raja Feather Kelly

(Choreographer) is a choreographer and director, and the Artistic Director of the feath3r theory-a dance-theatre-media company. Kelly has created 16 evening-length premieres with the feath3r theory, most recently WEDNESDAY at New York Live Arts. He choreographed the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical A Strange Loop (Lyceum Theatre, premiered off-Broadway at Playwrights Horizon), and is also a choreographer for Off-Broadway theatre with frequent collaborators like Lileana Blain-Cruz, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, Sarah Benson, and Michael R. Jackson. Recent works include We're Gonna Die (Second Stage Theater), Macbeth In Stride (A.R.T.), On Sugarland (New York Theater Workshop), SUFFS (The Public Theater), and Lempicka (La Jolla Playhouse). He has received numerous accolades, including three Princess Grace Awards, an Obie Award, an Outer Critics Circle honor for choreography for the Pulitzer Prize-winning and Tony Award-winning musical A Strange Loop, a Randjelović/Stryker Resident Commissioned Artist at New York Live Arts, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, a Creative Capital award, a Breakout Award for choreography from the Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation (SCDF), the Solange MacArthur Award for New Choreography, Dance Magazine's Harkness Promise Award, and the SDCF Joe A. Callaway Award finalist for outstanding choreography of Fairview (Soho Rep, Berkeley Rep, TFANA, and winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama).