Original Radio Golf Stars to Join Pinkins and Lennix for Broadway Run
By Ernio Hernandez
07 Mar 2007
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Harry Lennix and Tonya Pinkins will co-star in Radio Golf.
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Anthony Chisholm, John Earl Jelks and James A. Williams, who starred in previous stagings of Radio Golf, will join the previously announced Tonya Pinkins and Harry Lennix for the Broadway run of the late August Wilson play.
The Kenny Leon (Gem of the Ocean, A Raisin in the Sun) staging will begin previews April 20 at the Cort Theatre and officially open May 8 (one day before the Tony Awards eligibility cutoff date).
Chisholm (as Elder Joseph Barlow), Jelks (as Sterling Johnson) and Williams (as Roosevelt Hicks) starred in the Yale Repertory Theatre world premiere and subsequent Seattle, Los Angeles, Baltimore and Chicago runs. They will reprise their roles on Broadway. (Jelks did not appear with his co-stars in the Boston run due to a temporary medical condition.)
With Radio Golf, Wilson ended his ten-play cycle which chronicles the African American experience in the 20th century, decade by decade. The 1990s-set play involves real estate developers who look to tear down the home of recurring Wilson character Aunt Esther.
"Harmond Wilks (Lennix), a charming and powerful African-American politician, is running for the highest office of his career, with the loving support of his savvy wife, Mame (Pinkins)," according to show notes. "As Harmond steps into political prominence, the past is just a few steps behind him ... and gaining fast."
Chisholm has also appeared on Broadway in Wilson's Two Train's Running and opposite Jelks in Gem of the Ocean.
Lennix recently ended a Los Angeles run in the title role of Macbeth. The busy actor also currently appears in the film "Stomp the Yard" and in a recurring role on television's "24."
Pinkins earned a Tony Award for Jelly's Last Jam. The actress originated and has inhabited her title role in Caroline, or Change for Broadway, Los Angeles and London runs. Other credits for the "All My Children" regular include Merrily We Roll Along, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, The Wild Party and Play On.
Jujamcyn Theaters, Jeffrey Richards, Jerry Frankel, Margo Lion, Tamara Tunie, The Bunting Management Group, Lauren Doll, Fran Kirmser and Gordon Davidson will produce the Broadway run.
The work debuted at Yale Repertory Theatre in 2005 and has played runs at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Baltimore's CenterStage, Boston's Huntington Theatre Company and Chicago's Goodman Theatre. The last pre-Broadway stop will be at Princeton, NJ's McCarter Theatre (March 18-April 8).
The design team for Radio Golf features David Gallo (scenic), Susan Hilferty (costume), Donald Holder (lighting) and Dan Moses Schreier (sound).
Wilson's epic cycle (in order of decade which the drama is set) includes Gem of the Ocean, Joe Turner's Come and Gone, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, The Piano Lesson, Seven Guitars, Fences, Two Trains Running, Jitney, King Hedley II and Radio Golf.
All of the aforementioned works have played on Broadway with the exception of Jitney — which enjoyed Off-Broadway runs at Second Stage Theatre and Union Square Theatre — and, as of yet, Radio Golf. All the Broadway productions received Tony Award nominations for Best Play with Fences taking home the prize. Wilson also garnered the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for that work and The Piano Lesson.
Tickets to Radio Golf will be available online and by phone beginning March 11 through Telecharge.com at (212) 239-6200 and at the Cort Theatre box office starting April 2.
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