Phylicia Rashad to Return to Broadway in Skeleton Crew; MTC Sets Dates for Rest of Season

Manhattan Theatre Club has shared some exciting announcements for its 2021-2022 season. Tony winner Phylicia Rashad will return to Broadway this winter in the previously announced Broadway premiere of Tony nominee Dominique Morisseau's Skeleton Crew, directed by Tony winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson. The production will begin performances on December 21 and open on January 12, 2022 at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.

“I am thrilled that Phylicia Rashad will join the 2022 Manhattan Theatre Club Broadway production of Skeleton Crew at our Samuel J. Friedman Theatre," said MTC Artistic Director Lynne Meadow in a statement. "I have long been an admirer of her tremendous talent and am proud to have her as a member of the company of Dominique Morisseau’s brilliant and powerful playm directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, whom I announced as MTC Artistic Advisor in October 2020."

A Tony winner for her turn as Lena Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, Rashad has also appeared on Broadway in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, August: Osage County, Cymbeline, Gem of the Ocean, Jelly's Last Jam, Into the Woods, Dreamgirls, The Wiz and Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death. She has numerous directing credits, 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. She helmed the acclaimed 2018 Signature Theatre mounting of Our Lady of 121st Street and had been announced to direct Charles Randolph-Wright's Blue prior to the COVID-19 crisis. As previously reported, Rashad was appointed Dean of the Fine Arts College at Howard University.

Additional casting and the creative team for Skeleton Crew will be announced at a later date.

Dates have also been announced for the other shows in MTC’s 2020-2021 season. The postponed Broadway premiere of Paula Vogel's Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive, starring Mary-Louise Parker and David Morse, will begin performances on March 29, 2022 ahead of an opening night on April 19.

The world premiere of Joshua Harmon's Prayer For The French Republic, directed by David Cromer, is scheduled to begin performances at New York City Center – Stage I January 11, 2022 ahead of an opening night on February 1. The American premiere of Golden Shield, written by Anchuli Felicia King and directed by Obie Award winner Danya Taymor, will follow on April 26, 2022 ahead of an opening night on May 17.

These productions join the recently announced Broadway premiere of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Lackawanna Blues as well as the world premiere of Simon Stephens' Morning Sun, directed by Lila Neugebauer and starring Blair Brown, Edie Falco and Marin Ireland.