See Angela Bassett, Delroy Lindo in the Original Broadway Production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone

The latest revival of August Wilson’s Joe Turner's Come and Gone opens April 25 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre, the same theatre in which it first premiered on Broadway in 1988.

The current production, directed by Golden Globe and four-time Emmy winner Debbie Allen, stars Taraji P. Henson (Hidden Figures) as Bertha Holly and Cedric the Entertainer (The Original Kings of Comedy) as Seth Holly. The cast also includes Ruben Santiago-Hudson as Bynum Walker, Joshua Boone as Herald Loomis, Maya Boyd as Molly Cunningham, Abigail C. Onwunali as Martha Loomis, Bradley Stryker as Rutherford Selig, Tripp Taylor as Jeremy Furlow, Nimene Sierra Wureh as Mattie Campbell, Christopher Woodley and Jackson Edward David sharing the role of Reuben Scott, and Dominique Skye Turner and Savannah Commodore sharing the role of Zonia Loomis.

Joe Turner takes place in a Pittsburgh boarding house run by Seth and Bertha Holly, who provide rest and refuge for Black travelers during the Great Migration. When a mysterious man, Herald Loomis, arrives with his daughter, the energy begins to shift. Exploring themes of personal awakening, spirituality, and racial discrimination, Joe Turner follows multiple boarding house inhabitants and their journey to find their own "song"—their life's purpose.

August Wilson, widely regarded as one of America’s most accomplished playwrights, was a Tony Award and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner best known for chronicling the experiences of Black Americans through his work. In 2006, Wilson was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame. 

Joe Turner serves as the 1910s portion of Wilson’s Century Cycle, a series of 10 plays that showcase Black culture and experiences across each decade of the 20th century. Other works in The Century Cycle include Gem of the Ocean, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II, and Radio Golf. The series has also been referred to as The Pittsburgh Cycle, due to the fact that each play in the series takes place in Pittsburgh, where Wilson was born and raised, with the exception of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. 

Before making it to Broadway, Joe Turner debuted as a staged reading in 1984 at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, opening at the Yale Repertory Theatre in 1986. The original Broadway production of Joe Turner, directed by Lloyd Richards, premiered March 27, 1988 at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre. The cast featured film stars Delroy Lindo as Herald Loomis and Angela Bassett as Martha Pentecost. The show played 105 performances and was nominated for six Tony Awards. L. Scott Caldwell went home with the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance as Bertha Holly.

In 2009, Joe Turner was revived at the Belasco Theatre, in a cast that included LaTanya Richardson Jackson and Danai Gurira. This revival only ran for 69 performances, from April 16 to June 14, but still went home with two Tony wins: Best Lighting Design of a Play for Brian MacDevitt and Best Featured Actor in a Play for Roger Robinson, who played Bynum Walker.

The current revival at the Belasco marks Joe Turner's third time on Broadway, making it the most-revived play in Wilson's oeuvre; it was also reportedly Wilson's favorite. 

“This play pushes the audience’s belief, it pushes them to a spiritual experience that is very real,” Allen shared in a video interview with Playbill. “Very, very real, especially for Black people.”

“I hope they see the humanity in these people just trying to rediscover who they are,” Henson shared. “I hope people understand we all have a song to sing, we all have it in us. If you find your song and you have the will to want to sing it out loud, you'll save yourself and you'll save other people."

Flip through the original production photos of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone below.