A Tennesse Williams play with an all Black cast??? Let me get this straight a Tennesse Williams "southern White play" with an all Black cast?? OK, OK, a Tennesse Willams, "white southern story", made super popular by mega White actors Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman with an all Black cast??Well it's about time!
20 years ago I performed the lead role of Brick in a landmark production of this same play. I'm Black and all the other family members were cast White. The reviews mentioned, "... he obviously got the role because he was the best actor available and in this glorious production, it shows..."
Academy Award nominee Terrence Howard ("Hustle & Flow") will make his stage and Broadway debut as Debbie Allen, makes her Broadway directorial debut of this revival of Tennessee Williams' "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof."
"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" is being presented by Front Row Productions and produced by Stephen C. Byrd, who stated, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof has been revived on Broadway four times before; this production marks the first African-American production approved by the Williams estate for the Broadway stage. This revival of Cat is not only making Broadway history, it is making American theatre and Black theatre history too!"
Cast so far are the Tony-winning trio James Earl Jones ("The Great White Hope," "Fences"),Phylicia Rashad ("A Raisin in the Sun") and Anika Noni Rose ("Caroline or Change")who will also star in Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning Southern drama about "mendacity" and greed in a Mississippi family. Howard will play the drunken jock husband Brick who rebuffs the advances of his wife, Maggie. Rose will play Brick's wife, Maggie. Rashad will play Maggie's mother-in-law, Big Mama; and Jones will play Brick's domineering father and the ailing patriarch Big Daddy.
Preview performances begin February 12. The show is set to open March 6 at New York's Broadhurst Theatre. Tickets are on sale through April 13. Tickets go on sale Dec. 29, 2007, and can be purchased at www.telecharge.com or by calling (212) 239-6200. For more information, visit www.Cat2008onBroadway.com.