Direct from a smash-hit run at The Public Theater, AIN’T NO MO’ dares to ask the incendiary question, “What if the U.S. government offered Black Americans one-way plane tickets to Africa?” The answer is the high-octane new comedy from the mischievous mind of playwright Jordan E. Cooper.
Moving faster than a transatlantic jet plane, this unprecedented, unpredictable comedy speeds through the turbulent skies of being Black in today’s America.
Brilliantly blending sketch, satire, avant garde theater, and a dose of drag, AIN’T NO MO’ will leave you crying with laughter—and thinking through the tears.
So put your tray tables in the upright position. Enjoy your flight. And never look back.
On Broadway the word new is relative. According to the Tony Awards, a new play can be one that had its world premiere Off Broadway or elsewhere around the world a year, two or three ago. According to that definition, “Ain’t No Mo’” is not only the most audacious new play to open on Broadway in 2022. It is also the best new play to open on Broadway this year.
It’s a delight to have Jordan E. Cooper kick down the door of Broadway in heels and storm onstage with something as raucous as Ain’t No Mo’. The show’s whirligig satire seems to gain momentum by sending up its very environs, a series of sketches built around a recurring conceit wherein Cooper, in drag as a flight attendant named Peaches, desperately tries to coordinate the onboarding for a government-funded flight taking Black Americans back to Africa. It’s a show that’s bawdy and bold and uninterested in seeming respectable, but it’s also fascinated by respectability, the question of who might leave or stay on that flight, who might embrace their Blackness and who might try to bury it. Cooper sees you there in the audience thinking he might’ve buttoned up his ideas for the Belasco Theatre, and he cackles in defiance.
2019 | Off-Broadway |
The Public Theater World Premiere Off-Broadway |
2022 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Costume Design of a Play | Emilio Sosa |
2023 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Wig and Hair | Mia M. Neal |
2023 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Jordan E. Cooper |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Emilio Sosa |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Stevie Walker-Webb |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Jordan E. Cooper |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Crystal Lucas-Perry |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Ain't No Mo |
2023 | Tony Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Jonathan Deans |
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