This marks a significant milestone as the first major Broadway production of this classic play in nearly 25 years. “Our Town,” known for its timeless portrayal of life in the village of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, has achieved status as an enduring American classic with universal appeal. Thornton Wilder’s masterpiece, which first graced Broadway in 1938 to widespread acclaim, went on to receive the prestigious Pulitzer Prize, solidifying its place in the annals of American theater history.

The cast includes Jim Parsons as the “Stage Manager,” Zoey Deutch as “Emily Webb,” Katie Holmes as “Mrs. Webb,” Billy Eugene Jones as “Dr. Gibbs,” Ephraim Sykes as “George Gibbs,” Richard Thomas as “Mr. Webb,” Michelle Wilson as “Mrs. Gibbs,” Julie Halston as “Mrs. Soames,” Donald Webber Jr. as “Simon Stimpson,” and a talented ensemble consisting of Ephie Aardema, Heather Ayers, Willa Bost, Bobby Daye, Safiya Kaijya Harris, Doron JéPaul, Shyla Lefner, Anthony Michael Lopez, John McGinty, Bryonha Marie, Kevyn Morrow, Hagan Oliveras, Noah Pyzik, Sky Smith, Bill Timoney, Matthew Elijah Webb, and Nimene Sierra Wureh. The final two actors will be announced at a later date.

Previews for Our Town begin on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, with the grand opening set for Thursday, October 10, 2024, at the Barrymore Theatre for a limited engagement.

“Thornton Wilder’s Our Town – in my mind stands at the top of the Mount Rushmore of great American Theatre. I feel blessed and fortunate to have gained the trust of The Wilder estate to present this classic to another generation of theatre lovers. It’s long been a burning desire to collaborate on a Broadway production of such magnitude that speaks so beautifully and intimately to all people about our shared time on the planet.”

Kenny Leon, Tony Award winning director

The design team will include scenic design by Tony Award-winner Beowulf Boritt (New York, New York; Act One), costume design by Tony Award-nominee and Drama Desk Award- winner Dede Ayite (Jaja’s African Hair Braiding; Suzan Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog), lighting design by Tony Award-nominee Allen Lee Hughes (Suzan-Lori Parks’ Topdog/Underdog; A Soldier’s Play), sound design by Tony Award-nominee Justin Ellington (Ohio State Murders; for colored girls…), casting by Jim Carnahan, with Kate Wilson (The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window) as the dialect coach.

Speaking for the Wilder family, the playwright’s nephew, Tappan Wilder said: “Shortly before the Broadway opening of Our Town in 1938, my uncle, Thornton Wilder, described it to the press in these words: ‘You might say that it is a kind of an attempt at a complete immersion into everything about a New Hampshire village which, I hope, is gradually felt by the audience to be an allegorical representation of all life.’ In the first twenty months after the Broadway production closed, his drama about living and dying in the fictional town of Grover’s Corners, with a minimal set of tables, chairs, and a ladder, would be performed in 658 American communities—in forty- seven of the then forty-eight states — as well as in four Canadian provinces and several European countries. This universal embrace of the play has never ended. Even now, Our Town, with its message about the transcendent value of our growing up, our living, and our dying, is performed at least once every day somewhere in the world. Its ‘allegorical representation of all life’ really does unite us all. I got to know the play on an intimate level for the first time in 1955, when, as a high school freshman, I played Professor Willard on a postage-stamp-sized stage in our gymnasium. The responsibility of performing my uncle’s words left me a frightened puppy. Almost seventy years later, I am once again frightened, but not from stage fright. We live in a dangerously fractured world. It’s hard for us to recognize the experiences we all share: life, death, love. Which means that it’s a good thing that my uncle’s play is back on Broadway, with its timely reminder that we all live together in our town.”

For more information, visit OurTownBroadway.com and experience the magic of Our Town on Broadway once again.

The post Our Town Returns to Broadway with a Stellar Cast including Michelle Wilson, Ephraim Sykes, Billy Eugene Jones, & More appeared first on Broadway Black.

In 2009, Washington starred alongside Evan Ross and Victor Rasuk in Life Is Hot in Cracktown as Marybeth, a Transgender sex worker. Her performance was breathtaking. In my opinion, it was some of her best work to date. Kerry transformed into Marybeth with the help of an “authenticity coach” named Valerie Spencer, a Trans social services activist and artist. In 2004 Valerie appeared in a V-Day production of The Vagina Monologues, featuring a cast of all Trans women. Valerie helped guide Kerry to a place of total transparency and authenticity in Life Is Hot…

In 2004, Washington starred in Spike Lee’s She Hate Me as a lesbian woman who convinces her ex-fiance (Anthony Mackie), in an effort to earn money after he loses his corporate job, to impregnate her (and a company of other lesbians).

Kerry Washington is not afraid to go there, in both her work as an actor and as an activist, and that is why she absolutely deserves the Vanguard Award.

In her speech at the GLAAD Awards Kerry said, “I don’t decide to play the characters I play as a political choice. Yet the characters I play often do become political statements. Because having your story told as a woman, as a person of color, as a lesbian, as a trans person, or as any member of any disenfranchised community, is sadly often still a radical idea. There is so much power in storytelling, and there is enormous power in inclusive storytelling, in inclusive representations.”

She went on to note that, “We need more LGBT representation in the media. We need more LGBT characters and more LGBT storytelling. We need more diverse LGBT representation. And by that, I mean lots of different kinds of LGBT people living all different kinds of lives. And this is big—we need more employment of LGBT people in front of and behind the camera.”

She finished by galvanizing the audience at the Beverly Hilton, and the audience at large, with “We have to continue to be bold, and break new ground until that is just how it is — until we are no longer firsts, and exceptions, and rare and unique.” 

Kerry Washington studied at the Michael Howard Studios in New York City, and made her Broadway debut in the 2009 production of Race by David Mamet, opposite David Alan Grier (The Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, Dreamgirls, A Soldier’s Play, In Living Color), James Spader (The Blacklist, Boston Legal), and Richard Thomas (Democracy, Hamlet, Richard III).

Kerry has also appeared in productions of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues and has read numerous times at the Voices of a People’s History of the United States event.

Check out Kerry’s full Vanguard Award acceptance speech at the GLAAD Awards, below.

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