Directed by Tony winner Kenny Leon
(Fences, A Soldier’s Play), the production will be the first to play the newly re-named and renovated
James Earl Jones Theatre (formerly the Cort Theatre). Previews will begin November 11 prior to an official opening December 8. Additional casting and creative team members as well as ticket information will be announced at a later date.
The production will also mark the Broadway playwriting debut for 91-year-old Obie Lifetime Achievement Award winner and Theater Hall of Fame inductee Kennedy, who was awarded the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy of Arts and Letters earlier this year. Her previous plays include Funnyhouse of a Negro (Obie Award), June and Jean in Concert (Obie Award), and Sleep Deprivation Chamber, co-authored with son Adam Kennedy(Obie Award).
“I am so thrilled. It’s only taken me 65 years to make it to Broadway!” said Kennedy.
“I’m honored and humbled to be part of Adrienne Kennedy’s long-overdue Broadway debut in the newly dedicated James Earl Jones Theatre with Kenny Leon,” added McDonald. “This timeless play has a powerful resonance and relevance today, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”
In Ohio State Murders writer Suzanne Alexander (McDonald) returns to her alma mater as a guest speaker to explore the violence in her works, and a dark mystery unravels. The suspense play also offers a look at the destructiveness of racism in our society.
This isn’t the first time McDonald and Leon have tackled Kennedy’s work. A digital reading of the play previously aired as part of Broadway’s Best Shows’ Spotlight on Plays series.
Ohio State Murders debuted March 7, 1992, at the Great Lakes Theater Festival. Theatre for a New Audience premiered the play Off-Broadway at The Duke on 42nd Streetin October 2007.
McDonald and her husband, Tony nominee Will Swenson, and more Broadway favorites will be part of Playbill Travel's Broadway on the Mediterranean cruise September 7-14. Click here for details.
Next year, Carnegie Hall's house band will perform Bernstein’s “Kaddish” Symphony, unfinished works by Schubert, and the final concert of Conductor Bernard Labadie.
