The Roundabout Theatre Company’s revival of Charles Fuller’s acclaimed A Soldier’s Play has a complete cast. The Pulitzer Prize-winning play, which debuted Off-Broadway in 1981, will receive a new production directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon. Starring in the production are the previously announced duo of David Alan Grier as “Sergeant Vernon C. Waters” and Blair Underwood as “Captain Richard Davenport.” Joining them in A Soldier’s Play will be Nnamdi Asomugha as “Private First Class Melvin Peterson,” and Jerry O’Connell as “Captain Charles Taylor.” Also in the cast are McKinley Belcher III as “Private Louis Henson,” Rob Demery as “Corporal Bernard Cobb,” Jared Grimes as “Private Tony Smalls,” Billy Eugene Jones as “Private James Wilkie,” Nate Mann as “Lieutenant Byrd,” Warner Miller as “Corporal Ellis,” J. Alphonse Nicholson as “Private C. J. Memphis” and Lee Aaron Rosen as “Captain Wilcox.”
Nnamdi Asomugha, who will make his Broadway debut in A Soldier’s Play, produced and starred in the Amazon Studios film Crown Heights. recently completed production on the film Sylvie, which he stars in opposite Tessa Thompson and produces through his iAm21 Entertainment banner. Asomugha also recently finished filming a recurring role in the upcoming Quibi series “When The Street Lights Go On”. Jerry O’Connell is well-known to audiences, having starred in such films as Stand By Me, Scream 2; Can’t Hardly Wait; Jerry Maguire, Mission to Mars, Kangaroo Jack; Yours, Mine and Ours; and Man About Town. TV credits include Sliders, Scream Queens, Mistresses, The Big Bang Theory, Billions and The Mysteries of Laura.
Set to begin previews at the American Airlines Theatre on December 27, 2019, with an official opening on January 21, 2020, A Soldier’s Play is a strictly-limited limited engagement. The show, which is set in 1944, is described as follows: “A Louisiana Army base. A sergeant is murdered—and the crime, with its masterfully unfolded investigation, triggers a gripping barrage of questions about sacrifice, service, and identity in America.”
The original production of A Soldier’s Play won the NY Drama Critics’ Circle & Obie Awards for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize. The 1984 film version A Soldier’s Story – adapted by Fuller for the screen – earned Academy Award & Golden Globe nominations for Best Film & Best Screenplay. David Alan Grier has a long history with A Soldier’s Play ,having joined the NEC production in the early ‘80s and then playing “Corporal Cobb” in the film adaptation.
The design team will include Derek McLane (Sets), Dede Ayite (Costumes), Allen Lee Hughes (Lights), and Dan Moses Schreier (Sound).
Mark Robinson is the author of the two-volume encyclopedia The World of Musicals, The Disney Song Encyclopedia, and The Encyclopedia of Television Theme Songs. His latest book, Sitcommentary: The Television Comedies That Changed America, released on October 15. He maintains a theater and entertainment blog at markrobinsonwrites.com.