Alicia Keys to Produce HBO Adaptation of Lydia R. Diamond's Play Stick Fly

The troubled African-American family of Lydia R. Diamond’s Stick Fly is headed from Broadway to HBO: The network has signed on to present an hour-long adaptation of the play, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Diamond will write the script and serve as an executive producer of the drama alongside Broadway producers Alicia Keys and Nelle Nugent. No timing or casting has been announced.

After several regional productions, Stick Fly opened at Broadway’s Cort Theatre on December 8, 2011, and ran for 93 performances. The play centers on the wealthy LeVays, who gather at their summer home in Martha’s Vineyard for an uneasy reunion that includes the new girlfriends (one of them Caucasian) of the rivalrous brothers. Ruben Santiago-Hudson played the patriarch, with Mekhi Phifer and Dule Hill as his sons, Rosie Benton and Tracie Thoms as their girlfriends and Condola Rashad in a scene-stealing, Tony-nominated performance as the maid, who discovers a long-kept family secret. Kenny Leon directed a production that included original music by Keys.

Diamond’s plays include Here I Am…See Can You Handle It, Stage Black, The Gift Horse, Voyeurs de Venus, The Bluest Eye and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl.