The cast features Kamal Angelo Bolden, J. Nicole Brooks, Bryan Terrell Clark, Shanésia Davis, Mark Jude Sullivan and Cynda Williams. Sets are by John Iacovelli, costumes by ESOSA, lights by Elizabeth Harper, sound by Joshua Horvath with wigs and hair by Carol F. Doran.
Here's how the comedy was billed during its 2012 Chicago run: "In the Bryant family's Hyde Park home, keeping a secret is next to impossible. When the entire clan comes together for the first time in more than five years, family secrets are exposed in a hilarious, emotional family reunion. Evy can't understand why her younger brothers are so mysterious and distant; Jesse is afraid to be true to himself and honest with his family; and no one can understand why Tony is so eager to get married. 'Modern Family' meets 'All in the Family' as these siblings try to bridge their differences with a little help from God, card games and their immediate family."
Playwright Stovall, a Chicago native, is an artistic associate at Dog and Pony and About Face Theatre in Chicago. He has served as a White House Advance Associate for the Obama administration. Immediate Family was earlier produced under the title As Much As You Can at Dog and Pony Theatre Company at New York's International Fringe Festival, and at Celebration Theatre in Los Angeles. The play received a 2009 GLAAD Media Award nomination.
The show was produced in 2012 by special arrangement with the Goodman Theatre, and in association with About Face Theatre, at the Goodman's Owen Bruner Theatre. It was not a Goodman production.
Stovall said at the time, "This play has been coming out of me for almost ten years now and I'm ecstatic to have it take another step forward in my hometown and at the Goodman especially, which in many ways, is like home to me as well. Having Phylicia Rashad on board as director is, to my mind, the perfect addition to the mix. The characters in this play are all trying to hold their heads just a little higher, to find themselves and their place in the family; and Phylicia brings discipline, dignity, and determination to everything she does." Rashad is best known as an actress. A two-time Emmy Award nominee, she played Claire Huxtable in "The Cosby Show" and later teamed up with Bill Cosby as Ruth Lucas on "Cosby." Rashad appeared on Broadway as Violet Weston in August Osage County, Big Mama in Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (also London), Aunt Ester in August Wilson's Gem of the Ocean (Tony Award nomination) and Queen Britannia in Shakespeare's Cymbeline at Lincoln Center. She received both the Drama Desk and the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for the Broadway revival of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.
Read more about the Broadway career of Rashad in the Playbill Vault.
Tickets for the Mark Taper run of Immediate Family are available by calling (213) 628-2772 or by visiting CenterTheatreGroup.org. Tickets range $25-$85. The Mark Taper Forum is located at the Music Center, 135 N. Grand Avenue in Los Angeles.
