Chisolm Replaces Lindo in B'way-Bound Gem

Anthony Chisolm has replaced Delroy Lindo in August Wilson's upcoming Broadway play Gem of the Ocean. Chisolm is now playing the role of Solly Two Kings in the production, which is currently in rehearsal for a pre-Broadway run at Boston's Huntington Theatre Company. Lindo left the production "due to creative differences," according to a production.

Chisholm, who was scheduled to appear in the featured role of Eli, has portrayed Solly Two Kings in earlier regional incarnations of Gem of the Ocean at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and Chicago's Goodman Theatre. His other credits include performances in the Wilson works Two Trains Running Broadway, Jitney off-Broadway and regional productions of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Fences. He has also appeared in New York in The Talented Tenth at Manhattan Theatre Club, King Lear at the Public Theater, Tracers, Ice Bridges and Black Visions. For the Huntington engagement, the role of Eli will be assumed by Eugene Lee.

Gem of the Ocean begins on the eve of the 287th birthday of Aunt Ester. Citizen Barlow, a man who in spiritual turmoil, arrives at Aunt Ester's house in Pittsburgh's District Hill and is soon set off on a spiritual journey to find the mythic City of Bones, leading him to startling discoveries and setting him on a course of duty and redemption.

In addition to Chisolm and Lee, the play stars Phylicia Rashad, Ruben Santiago-Hudson, Lisa Gay Hamilton, John Earl Jelks and Raynor Scheine.

Directed by Kenny Leon, Gem of the Ocean will play at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston from September 24 through October 30. The production will then begin previews at Broadway's Walter Kerr Theatre on November 4 in preparation for an official opening on November 11.