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Latanya Richardson Jackson will return to Broadway in Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’s new play Purpose.

Jackson, who has previously appeared on Broadway in the 2018 production of To Kill A Mockingbird and the 2014 revival of A Raisin in the Sun, will star alongside Kara Young, who won a Tony Award last season for her role in Purlie Victorious, Harry Lennix (The Blacklist), Jon Michael Hill (Pass Over), Glenn Davis (King James) and Alana Arenas (The Bluest Eye).

Phylicia Rashad directs the new play from Jacobs-Jenkins, who wrote last season’s Tony Award-winning revival Appropriate.

The play follows the Jasper family, which has created a powerful dynasty in Black American politics. However, when the family’s youngest son, Nazareth, comes home with an uninvited friend, the family must contend with faith, their own legacy and the cracks beneath the surface.

Purpose is scheduled to play a limited 19-week run at the Helen Hayes Theater,...

Latanya Richardson Jackson and Kara Young are among the complete cast announced today for the Broadway transfer of Steppenwolf Theatre Company’s production of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ play Purpose, directed by two-time Tony Award-winner Phylicia Rashad.

In addition to Richardson (A Raisin in the Sun) and Purlie Victorious Tony-winner Young, the cast will include Harry Lennix (TV’s The Blacklist), Jon Michael Hill (Broadway’s Pass Over), Glenn Davis (Off Broadway’s Downstate), and Alana Arenas (The Bluest Eye).

Arenas, Davis, Hill, and Lennix all appeared in the play’s acclaimed world premiere at Steppenwolf in Chicago in March 2024.

Purpose will play a limited 19-week run at the Helen Hayes Theater with previews beginning February 25, followed by an official opening on March 17. The engagement runs through July 6, 2025.

The official synopsis: “For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families,...

After bringing the vampire Damon Salvatore to life in the hit TV show The Vampire Diaries, actor Ian Somerhalder went on to star in one season of the Netflix vampire series V Wars. The short-lived series marked his final acting role, as Somerhalder retired after its cancelation to focus on other endeavors.

While at the Environmental Media Association Awards Gala in October, Somerhalder spoke with People about the life he lives now with wife Nikki Reed, who also appeared in V Wars. Somerhalder reaffirmed that he has no plans at this time to revisit his acting career, feeling like it's more than likely "in the rearview mirror" of his life. However, the former actor also teased that he'd gotten the rights back for V Wars, hinting that there could be a potential continuation that he'd be a part of. The biggest problem, as Somerhalder also explained, is that his life...

The Outer Critics Circle (Occ), the official organization of writers on New York theatre for out-of-town newspapers and national publications, today announced the nominees for the 72nd Annual Outer Critics Circle Awards, honoring the 2022-2023 Broadway and Off-Broadway season.

“New York, New York” received a major backing from this announcement, which coincides with the production’s opening night. The new musical with songs from John Kander, the late Fred Ebb and Lin-Manuel Miranda earned a whopping 12 nominations, the most of any production. “Some Like it Hot” trails just behind it with 10 nominations. The most nominated plays of the season are the Off-Broadway sensation “Downstate” and Broadway epic “Leopoldstadt,” both with six nominations apiece.

This is the first season with newly reconstructed acting categories, which have removed gender specifications, and have been expanded to separately include off-Broadway performers. In the previous configuration, actors in Broadway and off-Broadway productions competed in the same category.

Frank Galati, the Tony Award-winning director of Broadway’s The Grapes of Wrath and nominee for Ragtime, died Monday night. He was 79.

A cause of death was not immediately available.

Galati, who was an associate director at Chicago’s famed Goodman Theatre from 1986 to 2008 and a member of the Steppenwolf Theatre Company since 1985, was Oscar-nominated, along with co-writer Lawrence Kasdan, for the 1988 screenplay adaptation of Anne Tyler’s novel The Accidental Tourist.

Galati’s 1990 stage adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath won the Tony Award for Best Play; Galati also won the award that year for Best Direction. The acclaimed production, which debuted at Steppenwolf before transferring to Broadway, starred Gary Sinise, Terry Kinney, and Lois Smith in Tony-nominated performances.

“Frank had a profound impact on Steppenwolf, and all of us, over the years,” said Steppenwolf’s co-artistic directors Glenn Davis and Audrey Francis in a joint statement.