Angela Bassett to Join Samuel L. Jackson in Broadway Premiere of The Mountaintop

Oscar nominee Angela Bassett will return to the New York stage opposite previously announced star Samuel L. Jackson in the forthcoming Broadway production of The Mountaintop. Katori Hall’s play is set to begin performances at the Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre on September 22 and open on October 13, directed by Kenny Leon.

Winner of the 2010 Olivier Award for Best Play for its London premiere (starring David Harewood and Lorraine Burroughs), The Mountaintop is set on April 3, 1968, the night before the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (Jackson). After delivering his legendary “I've Been to the Mountaintop” speech, an exhausted Dr. King retires to his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis while a storm rages outside. When a mysterious young woman named Camae (Bassett) delivers room service, King is forced to confront his past, as well as his legacy to his people.

Bassett received an Oscar nomination for playing Tina Turner opposite Laurence Fishburne in What’s Love Got to Do With It. She has appeared on Broadway in Joe Turner's Come and Gone and off-Broadway in Macbeth (opposite Alec Baldwin), Henry IV Part I and Black Girl. Bassett and Fishburne recently co-starred in Fences at the Pasadena Playhouse, and she appeared opposite her actor husband, Courtney B. Vance, in the Guthrie Theatre’s premiere of a stage adaptation of His Girl Friday by John Guare.

On the big screen, Bassett can be seen in the current superhero movie Green Lantern and was featured in the recent hit Jumping the Broom. Her many movie credits include Boys N the Hood, Waiting to Exhale, How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Ruby’s Bucket of Blood, Music of the Heart and Notorious.

The Mountaintop will be produced on Broadway by Jean Doumanian, Sonia Friedman Productions and Ambassador Theatre Group.