We couldn’t be more thrilled to make this announcement. Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker will make his Broadway debut this spring. Known for roles in blockbuster movies like “The Butler” and “The Last King of Scotland,” Whitaker has chosen to take on the role Erie Smith in Hughie, a play by Eugene O’Neill.
Hughie is a short two-character play by Eugene O’Neill set in the lobby of a small hotel on a West Side street in midtown New York during the summer of 1928. The play is essentially a long monologue delivered by a small time hustler named Erie Smith to the hotel’s new night clerk Charlie Hughes, lamenting how Smith’s luck has gone bad since the death of Hughie, Hughes’ predecessor. The play runs about an hour.
The show is to be directed by Tony winner Michael Grandage and is set to play at a Shubert Organization theatre to be announced spring 2016. Casting for the show’s other role, a night clerk, will be announced soon. Whoever gets that role and works directly beside Whitaker is going to get the experience of a lifetime.
Forest Whitaker, primarily known as a film actor, will next appear on the big screen in the anticipated “Star Wars: Rogue One.” If you didn’t know, Whitaker directed the iconic Waiting To Exhale starring Whitney Houston, Loretta Devine, & Angela Bassett. He also studied opera at the University of Southern California and was later accepted into the school’s Drama Conservatory. This all leads us to understand why he he is an Emmy, Golden Globe, Oscar,
The play, Hughie, was last seen on Broadway in 1996 at the Circle in the Square Theatre in a production directed by and starring Al Pacino.
This Broadway season gets sweeter & sweeter. We welcome the powerhouse actor Forest Whitaker to the Broadway stage and can’t wait to bear witness to what he leaves on the stage.
Who would you like to see co-star with him as the night clerk? Sound off in the comments below!
