Sanaa Lathan to Play the Title Role in By the Way, Meet Vera Stark

Stage and screen star Sanaa Lathan will play the title role in Second Stage Theatre's upcoming off-Broadway production of By the Way, Meet Vera Stark. The play, written by Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage and directed by Jo Bonney, begins performances April 6 and will open on May 9.

Cast as a headstrong African-American maid and budding actress in the 1930s, Lathan joins the previously announced Stephanie J. Block, Karen Olivo, Daniel Breaker, Kimberly Hébert Gregory and Kevin Isola. Additional casting will be announced shortly.

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark draws upon the screwball films of the 1930s to take a funny and irreverent look at racial stereotypes in Hollywood. It is a 70-year journey through the life of Vera Stark, including her tangled relationship with her boss, a white Hollywood star (Block) desperately grasping to hold on to her career. When circumstances collide and both women land roles in the same Southern epic, the story behind the cameras leaves Vera with a surprising and controversial legacy scholars will debate for years to come.

Lathan recently starred as Maggie the Cat in the West End revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Her previous theatre credits include a Tony-nominated turn in A Raisin In The Sun, Measure For Measure, Our Town, Por'knockers, A Movie Star Has To Star In Black and White and Twelfth Night. Her many film credits include Wonderful World, The Family That Preys, Something New, Alien vs. Predator, Out Of Time, Brown Sugar, Love and Basketball, The Best Man and the upcoming Steven Soderbergh film Contagion, opposite Matt Damon and Kate Winslet.

By the Way, Meet Vera Stark will feature scenic design by Neil Patel, lighting design by Jeff Croiter, costume design by ESosa and original music and sound design by John Gromada.