In 1944, a black Sergeant is murdered on a Louisiana Army base, and one tenacious investigator must race against his white leadership to unravel the crime before they unravel him. A hair-raising drama that painfully still reverberates today, the mystery of Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning masterpiece has finally arrived on Broadway for the first time, directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon.
Still, A Soldier's Play remains as stubbornly earnest and straightforward as its title. At its end, the black soldiers-relegated mostly to playing baseball for the base, never getting to fight Hitler-receive word that they're finally shipping out. And O'Connell's Taylor realizes the error of his early ways. 'I was wrong, Davenport-about the bars-the uniform-about Negroes being in charge,' he says. 'I guess I'll have to get used to it.' It's a play set in the 1940s, written in the 1980s, optimistically looking toward a better time in American race relations. In 2020, that can't help but feel quaint.
Kenny Leon's lively, broadly staged Roundabout revival, which stars a savvy Blair Underwood and a bold-faced David Alan Grier, plays a kind of sly homage to the erotic legacy of that Oscar-nominated film, the stage being filled with a plethora of stunningly buff and good-looking guys - there are no women in the play, but there were plenty around me in the audience at the American Airlines Theatre on 42nd St.
1981 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2005 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
2020 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company's Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2022 | US Tour |
North American Tour US Tour |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | David Alan Grier |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Fight Choreography | Thomas Schall |
2020 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | A Soldier's Play |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Blair Underwood |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | David Alan Grier |
2020 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | A Soldier’s Play |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Director of a Play | Kenny Leon |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | David Alan Grier |
2020 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | A Soldier's Play |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Dede Ayite |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Kenny Leon |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Lighting Design of a Play | Allen Lee Hughes |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | David Alan Grier |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Blair Underwood |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Charles Fuller |
2020 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Derek McLane |
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