Lynne Meadow (Artistic Director) and Barry Grove (Executive Producer) are pleased to announce that Tony Award–winner and five-time Emmy Award–nominee Phylicia Rashad will return to Broadway this winter in Manhattan Theatre Club’s Broadway premiere of Skeleton Crew, written by Tony Award nominee Dominique Morisseau and directed by Tony Award–winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
Skeleton Crew will begin performances Tuesday, December 21, 2021, and open Wednesday, January 12, 2022, at MTC’s Samuel J. Friedman Theatre.
Additional casting and the creative team for Skeleton Crew will be announced at a later date.
Lynne Meadow said, “I am thrilled that Phylicia Rashad will join the 2022 Manhattan Theatre Club Broadway production of Skeleton Crew at our Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. 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 play directed by Tony Award winner Ruben Santiago-Hudson, whom I announced as MTC Artistic Advisor in October 2020.”
Phylicia Rashad (Faye), an accomplished actress and stage director, became a household name when she portrayed Claire Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” a character whose enduring appeal has earned numerous awards and honors for over two decades. Her film and television credits include A Fall From Grace, Creed and Creed II, For Colored Girls, Soul, Jingle Jangle, and Black Box; “This is Us” (two Emmy nominations), “David Makes Man,” and “Empire.”
Inducted into the Theatre Hall of Fame in 2016, Ms. Rashad received Tony and Drama Desk Awards for her performance as Lena Younger in A Raisin in the Sun, the Lucille Lortel Award for her performance as Shelah in Head of Passes, and a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Aunt Ester in August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean. Ms. Rashad has directed plays by August Wilson (Gem of the Ocean, Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Joe Turner’s Come and Gone), Stephen Adly Guirgis (Our Lady of 121st Street), and Paul Oakley Stovall (Immediate Family) at prestigious regional and off-Broadway Theaters. Rashad will direct a revival of Charles Randolph Wright’s Blue in New York in 2021. She was recently appointed Dean of the Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University.
Performance dates for the remaining shows in MTC’s 2020-2021 season are also now available. As previously announced, MTC will produce:
The postponed Broadway premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning How I Learned to Drive, written by Paula Vogel and directed by Mark Brokaw, starring Tony Award–winner Mary-Louise Parker and Tony Award–nominee David Morse, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Performances will begin Tuesday, March 29, 2022 ahead of a Tuesday, April 19, 2022 opening night. How I Learned to Drive is produced with Daryl Roth and Cody Lassen in association with the Vineyard Theatre.
The world premiere of Prayer For The French Republic, written by Drama Desk Award winner Joshua Harmon and directed by Tony Award–winner David Cromer, at New York City Center – Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Performances will begin Tuesday, January 11, 2022 ahead of a Tuesday, February 1, 2022 opening night. Prayer for the French Republic is sponsored by The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation’s Theatre Visions Fund program. Special thanks to The Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust for supporting Manhattan Theatre Club. Prayer for the French Republic is a recipient of an Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and was commissioned by MTC through the Bank of America New Play Program.
The American premiere of Golden Shield, written by Anchuli Felicia King and directed by Obie Award winner Danya Taymor, at New York City Center – Stage I (131 West 55th Street). Performances will begin Tuesday, April 26, 2022, ahead of a Tuesday, May 17, 2022 opening night. Support for Golden Shield is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.
These productions join the recently announced Broadway premiere of Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s Lackawanna Blues, written, performed, and directed by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre, and the world premiere of Morning Sun, written by Tony Award–winner Simon Stephens and directed by Lila Neugebauer, starring Tony Award–winner Blair Brown, four-time Emmy Award–winner Edie Falco, and Tony Award–nominee Marin Ireland, off-Broadway at New York City Center – Stage I, to complete MTC’s 2021-2022 season.