Tony Winner Phylicia Rashad and Mekhi Phifer to Star in Kenny Leon-Helmed Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner

Tony winner Phylicia Rashad and Stick Fly’s Mekhi Phifer will star in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in Atlanta this summer. The production will be directed by Kenny Leon (Stick Fly, Fences) for his theater company True Colors Theatre. The play will run at Georgia State’s Rialto Center for the Arts from July 10 through July 29.

Following a life-altering romance in Hawaii, Joey Drayton brings her fiancé, Dr. John Prentice (Phifer), home to sunny San Francisco to meet her affluent parents. Their liberal persuasions are put to the test when they find out their daughter's fiancé, while an ideal choice – a handsome, wealthy, brilliant, internationally-reknown doctor from a respectable family–is African-American. The play is adapted by True Colors associate artistic director Todd Kreidler from William Rose’s Oscar-winning screenplay starring Sidney Poitier, Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn.

Rashad is best known for her Emmy-nominated role as Clair Huxtable in the long-running NBC sitcom The Cosby Show. Her Tony win for A Raisin in the Sun marked the first time an African-American actress won the award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play. Her other stage credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, August: Osage County, Into the Woods, Cymbeline, Jelly’s Last Jam, Dreamgirls and The Wiz. She is currently in Atlanta filming Kenny Leon’s TV adaptation of Steel Magnolias.

Phifer made his Broadway debut in the Leon-directed play Stick Fly. He is best known for his film and television credits, including ER, Lie to Me, O, Soul Food, 8 Mile and Carmen: A Hip Hopera.