Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' Pulitzer-Winning Purpose Extends Eight Weeks on Broadway

Purpose, the epic family drama by Tony Award-winning Appropriate playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, adds eight weeks to its limited Broadway engagement at the Hayes Theater. Performances will now run through August 31 beyond its originally scheduled closing date of July 6. The show began previews February 25 and opened March 17.

Directed by two-time Tony Award winner Phylicia Rashad in her Broadway directorial debut, the cast of Purpose features LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennix, Jon Michael Hill, Glenn Davis, Alana Arenas and 2024 Tony Award winner Kara Young. Arenas, Davis, Hill and Lennix reprise their performances on Broadway after having starred in the world-premiere production at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2024.

For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface. When the youngest son Nazareth returns home with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black political power and familial duty. 

Purpose is currently nominated for six Tony Awards, including Best Play, and won the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.