Entertainment One has announced that they are producing and financing a staged taping of the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical. Perfect for our current climate, the show tells the story of a small town that welcomes a large group of stranded passengers. They all take their differences and put them to the side, embracing each other as they grow to respect and understand one another. 

Stop the world- #ComeFromAway will be filmed live from the Schoenfeld Theatre! Learn more here: https://t.co/rfKeIpuKxS pic.twitter.com/YwDW3DQ4tN

— Come From Away (@wecomefromaway) February 2, 2021

Like the rest of Broadway, the show has been closed since March 2020 with the spread of Covid-19, but they hope to return to their New York house, the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, this May. The live filming will star cast members from the Broadway production and employ over 222 New York theatre industry workers. The company is currently aiming for a September 2021 release. 

The official cast has not been released, but when it is, we will let you know! In the meantime, check out their 2017 Tony Award performance: 

The post ‘Come From Away’, the next Broadway show to hit the screen! appeared first on Broadway Black.

Photo: John Russo

Omoba Aina was an Egbado princess of the Yoruba people that became orphaned after a war with a nearby kingdom. After being liberated from the slavery of her captors she met Queen Victoria. The queen then raised the young princess as her goddaughter.

Benedict Cumberbatch (“Sherlock”, “Doctor Strange”) will be joining Erivo in Producing this film and the untitled production will tell a story that not too many people are familiar with and give us a deep look into the story of a real Black princess. Cynthia has had her share of executing roles of monumental black figures, most notable being the role of Harriet Tubman. Along with getting that role came some issues that called out her alleged lack of compassion and understanding of the history and oppression of Black Americans. So her taking on yet another role of a historic black woman, that struggled with her own form of oppression is something that would understandably catch a side eye. However, I’m open to see Ms. Erivo grace us with her talent and beautiful execution that she brings to every role she plays. Interestingly enough, she does share more similarities with Omoba than she did with Harriet Tubman and I am excited to have a true story told about an educated Black princess and her journey as young royalty.

The post Cynthia Erivo to produce and star in film about the African Princess, Omoba Aina (Sarah Forbes Bonetta) appeared first on Broadway Black.

When his brother is shot, mentally disabled Langston Bellows (Gbenga Akinnagbe, The Wire) is left without a protector in Brooklyn’s housing projects. Now under the control of his abusive mother (Alfre Woodard, 12 Years A Slave) he must take his future into his own hands. Langston strives for independence from his prior life, from his mother, and from his fractured mind.

Woodard was last seen on Broadway in Regina Taylor’s Drowning Crow (the 2004 adaptation and updating of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull), opposite Anthony Mackie (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, A Behanding in Spokane), Aunjanue Ellis (Joe Turner’s Come And Gone, The Tempest), Ebony Jo-Ann (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mule Bone, The Sunshine Boys, Gem of the Ocean), Stephen McKinley Henderson (King Hedley II, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Fences, A Raisin in the Sun), and Tracie Thoms (Rent, Stick Fly). She made her professional theatre debut in 1974 at Washington, D.C.’s Arena Stage. Her breakthrough role came three years later (1977) in the off-Broadway production of Ntozake Shange’s classic for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf.

Alfre’s film and television career is vast and diverse. She won her Screen Actors Guild Award in 1995 for her work in the film version of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson.

Knucklehead screens Thursday, March 26th at the Peter Jay Sharp Building BAM Rose Cinemas. To purchase tickets and get more information, CLICK HERE.

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