Broadway Musical Vet James Stovall Dies on September 25

Veteran Broadway musical theater actor James Stovall died on September 25 in New York City. His longtime agent could not immediately confirm the cause of death, saying only that the actor died after being hospitalized, and that Stovall had been treated in the past for a heart ailment. He was 52.

Stovall had been scheduled to appear in the York Theatre Company’s developmental lab staging of the new musical Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda: A Jazz Musical Comedy on September 23. He served as executive director of the Ministry of the Arts & Culture at the United Palace Theatre in Harlem, which had played home to Nativity: A Life Story, a production he co-wrote, produced and directed. He also provided his talent, support and expertise to the Church of God in Christ, New Song Community Church of Harlem, the Full Gospel Church of Cooksville, Maryland, The Harlem Arts Alliance, and the Actors’ Fund of America.

Stovall made his Broadway debut as a standby for three roles in Bob Fosse’s short-lived 1986 musical Big Deal and later joined the director/choreographer’s final production, the 1986 Broadway revival of Sweet Charity. His other Broadway credits included Once on This Island, The Life, Ragtime (as a replacement in the lead role of Coalhouse Walker Jr. after appearing in the L.A. and Chicago companies), The Rocky Horror Show and the 2009 Broadway revival of Finian’s Rainbow. Off-Broadway credits included Romance in Hard Times, Stars in Your Eyes and Dessa Rose. Stovall toured with Donny Osmond in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and played Marty in the 20th anniversary concert of Dreamgirls in 2001.

Born in Baltimore on May 16, 1958, Stovall began studying piano and voice as a child at the Peabody Conservatory and joined the Urban Musical Theater at age 13, where one of his first teachers was Howard University student Debbie Allen. A graduate of Morehouse College in Atlanta, where his classmates included Spike Lee and Samuel L. Jackson, Stovall got his Equity card during his sophomore year while performing at the Alliance Theater.

On a personal website built during the 2000 run of The Rocky Horror Show, Stovall wrote, “I have had some fine television and film experiences, but my soul has been taught, nurtured and tested by live theater. I am having a blessed life, and all of the credit goes to the Creator.”

Stovall is survived by his father, Rev. James Stovall Sr.; sister Donna Stovall Jefferss and nieces Micaela Morales and Domanique Jefferss