Phylicia Rashad to Make Broadway Directorial Debut with Charles Randolph-Wright's Blue

Charles Randolph-Wright's acclaimed play Blue will make its long-awaited Broadway premiere in the spring of 2020, producer Brian Moreland announced today. Tony winner Phylicia Rashad, who starred in the play's 2000 world premiere at Arena Stage and 2001 off-Broadway mounting, will direct the main-stem staging, which will mark her first Broadway directing credit. The production will feature the music of Nona Hendryx, which was heard in the debut staging.

"I am happy to be directing this play that brought me so much joy," Rashad said in a statement. "It affirms the importance of theater and its power to touch the human heart."

Blue explores the complexities of identity and trust behind the carefully constructed façade of the Clarks, a socially prominent family that is struggling with the legacy and pitfalls of their own good fortune. Infused with a searing jazz and soul score, the play celebrates the love and spirit of a family coming to terms with itself.

A Tony winner for her turn as Lena Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, Rashad has accrued numerous directing credits on small stages, including productions of Gem of the Ocean at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Joe Turner's Come and Gone at the Mark Taper Forum, and Fences at both the Long Wharf Theatre and the McCarter Theatre. Most recently, she helmed the acclaimed 2018 Signature Theatre mounting of Our Lady of 121st Street.

A Broadway production schedule, as well as venue, casting and a design team are forthcoming.