Wilson's Gem of the Ocean, with Rashad, to Reach Broadway Oct. 22

By Robert Simonson
July 22, 2004

Phylicia Rashad, who won the 2004 Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Play for A Raisin in the Sun, will next see Broadway as part of the cast of August Wilson's latest play Gem of the Ocean.

The play, directed by Marion McClinton, has set its Broadway dates. It will begin previews at a Jujamcyn theatre on Oct. 22 and open Nov. 11. Wilson plays have most frequently played the Walter Kerr Theatre. The Kerr is currently vacant.

Producing are Sageworks, Producers 4 and Jujamcyn Theatres.

Gem, which has already had a couple of regional productions, will next be staged in Boston at the Huntington Theatre Company, Sept. 10-Oct. 10. Rashad previously told Playbill On-Line that the show would travel to Broadway in fall 2004.

Set in 1904, the new play (the first, chronologically, of his decade plays) begins on the eve of Aunt Esther's 287th birthday. When Citizen Barlow comes to her Pittsburgh Hill District home seeking asylum, she sets him off on a spiritual journey to find a city in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. Rashad, who performed in the Los Angeles run of the play to award-winning success, reprises her role.

Rashad is the first African-American woman to win in the Tony category of Best Leading Actress in a Play.