Cuba Gooding Jr. Sets Exit Date for The Trip to Bountiful; Leon Addison Brown to Star as Ludie Watts

The Broadway journey is over for Oscar winner Cuba Gooding Jr., who will depart the Broadway production of The Trip to Bountiful on August 27. The star, who plays the role of Ludie Watts in the Broadway revival, will exit the show early due to a change in schedule for an upcoming film. His understudy, Leon Addison Brown, will succeed Gooding as Ludie beginning August 28. The Trip to Bountiful is scheduled to play a limited engagement through October 9.

Brown’s Broadway credits include Prelude to a Kiss, On the Waterfront and Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me. Off-Broadway, he has appeared in The Train Driver, Two Trains Running, The Orphans’ Home Cycle, The Alexander Plays and The Lights.

Directed by Michael Wilson, Horton Foote’s Tony-nominated revival stars Tony winner Cicely Tyson as Carrie Watts, Vanessa Williams as Jessie Mae Watts, Adepero Oduye as Thelma and Tom Wopat as Sheriff. The production, which opened April 23 at the Stephen Sondheim Theatre, tells the story of Carrie (Tyson), an elderly woman who longs to return to her hometown of Bountiful, Texas, one final time, but must battle with an overprotective son (Brown) and domineering mother-in-law (Williams).