Sixteen-year-old Keyonna is “too smart, ‘too gay,’ and too lonely to fit in,” so she escape into the imagined worlds of her muse, Natalie Portman, in C.A. Johnson's world premiere play All the Natalie Portmans. The MCC production officially opened Off-Broadway February 24, directed by Kate Whoriskey (Sweat), with previews beginning February 6 in the Susan & Ronald Frankel Theater at The Robert W. Wilson MCC Theater Space.
See what critics thought of the new coming-of-age story below.
New York Stage Review (Elysa Gardner)
The New York Times (Alexis Soloski)
Theater News Online (David Cote)
Time Out New York (Melissa Rose Bernardo)
The extended run continues through March 29. Kara Young (Halfway Bitches Go Straight to Heaven) stars as Keyonna in a cast that also features Tony nominee Montego Glover (Memphis, Hamilton), Joshua Boone (Network), Elise Kibler (Mies Julie, Indian Summer), and Renika Williams (The Climb).
“All The Natalie Portmans is a love letter addressed to every queer girl struggling to actualize her dreams and every poor Black family fighting to love one another despite the onslaught,” says Johnson. “I’m delighted to work with MCC and hope audiences laugh, cry, and commune with us for weeks to come!”
The production features scenic design by Donyale Werle, costume design by Jennifer Moeller, lighting design by Stacey Derosier, sound design by Sinan Refik Zafar and casting by Telsey + Company/Williams Cantler and Destiny Lilly. The production stage manager is Alexandra Hall.
All the Natalie Portmans was developed, in part, at the 2018 Sundance Theatre Lab. Johnson is MCC Theater’s 2019-20 Tow Playwright in Residence.
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