Tony Winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson Will Direct Broadway Premiere of August Wilson's Jitney

Ruben Santiago-Hudson will expand his August Wilson repertoire as part of Manhattan Theatre Club’s 2016-17 season. The Tony winner is set to direct the Broadway premiere of Jitney—the only work from the playwright’s American Century Cycle yet to play the Main Stem. Also on board for the company is the New York premiere of Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living.

August Wilson’s Jitney will begin performances at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre on December 28, with opening night scheduled for January 19, 2017. The play follows a group of unlicensed cab drivers as the city’s efforts to shut down the business threaten to drive them apart. Santiago-Hudson won a Tony for his performance in Wilson’s Seven Guitars; he also appeared in Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean on Broadway and directed his The Piano Lesson off-Broadway.

Jo Bonney, whose previous credits include The Body of an American and By the Way, Meet Vera Stark, will direct Majok’s Cost of Living. The production, in association with Williamstown Theatre Festival (where the play premieres this summer), will begin off-Broadway performances at New York City Center—Stage I on April 25, 2017; opening night is set for May 16. The play tells the intersecting stories of four people: an unemployed truck driver, his ex-wife who suffers a serious accident, a doctoral student and his caregiver.

Casting and creative teams for both productions will be announced at a later date.