Original A Solider's Play Star Eugene Lee Joins Touring Production; Full Cast Announced

Attention! Casting is set for the upcoming national touring production of the Tony-winning revival of Charles Fuller's A Soldier's Play. Tony winner Kenny Leon directs the play, which will begin performances on December 8 at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, CT.

Stage and screen star Eugene Lee will play Sergeant Vernon C. Waters, the role that won David Alan Grier a Tony Award. Lee was a member of the original 1981 off-Broadway production of A Soldier's Play, in which he played the role of Corporal Bernard Cobb. He has appeared on Broadway in American Son and Gem of the Ocean and is known for his screen credits including The White Shadow, Quantum Leap, NYPD Blue, Touched by an Angel and more. 

Joining Lee and the previously announced Norm Lewis as Captain Richard Davenport will be Will Adams as Corporal Bernard Cobb, Sheldon D. Brown as Private C.J. Memphis, Malik Childs as Private Tony Smalls,  William Connell as Captain Charles Taylor, Alex Michael Givens as Corporal Ellis, Matthew Goodrich as Captain Wilcox, Chattan Mayes Johnson as Lieutenant Byrd, Branden Davon Lindsay as Private Louis Henson, Tarik Lowe as Private First-Class Melvin Peterson and Howard Overshown as Private James Wilkie.  Brandon Alvión, Ja’Quan Cole, Charles Everett and Al’Jaleel McGhee serve as understudies.

Fuller's Pulitzer Prizer-winning A Soldier’s Play is set at a Black army base in 1944 segregated Louisiana. Sergeant Waters has been murdered, and Army captain Davenport arrives at the base to investigate the crime, which might or might not involve the local KKK or even the many Black soldiers who openly desplayed their hated for the sergeant.

A Soldier’s Play features set design by Derek McLane, costume design by Dede Ayite, lighting design by Allen Lee Hughes, sound design by Dan Moses Schreier. Cristina Angeles serves as the associate director. 

The play first bowed off-Broadway at the Negro Ensemble Company in 1981 in a production that included Denzel Washington and Samuel L. Jackson. A Soldier's Play made its long-awaited Broadway debut at the American Airlines Theatre in January 2020 and received seven Tony nominations, taking home the trophy for Best Revival of a Play and Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play for Grier. Grier is also set to star in a limited series adaptation of the play titled A Soldier’s Story.