She’s played a civil rights icon and a fierce warrior on film, but Adrienne Warren knew she’d come home to Broadway soon. She just had to find the show that would get her there.
“I was always looking to come back,” reveals the Tony winner, now in rehearsals for her latest Broadway project, ROOM. “I just wasn’t sure: What is the right thing, after you’ve just done your dream role?”
That dream role she’s talking about is Tina Turner, who she memorably portrayed in the biographical musical TINA – The Tina Turner Musical. After wowing audiences in Bring It On and Shuffle Along, Warren won a Tony Award last year for her powerhouse performance as the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. From there, she went on to high-profile screen work, starring as Mamie Till in the ABC series Women of the Movement and as the ferocious soldier Ode in the movie The Woman King.
Now she’s found the “right thing” to pull her back to Broadway: the daring, inventive, and unexpected stage adaptation of Emma Donoghue’s best-selling novel ROOM. “When this came across my desk, I had one of those feelings I had right before TINA,” Warren says. “It felt right.”
If you’re expecting to see Warren belting and high-kicking in another splashy, razzle-dazzle musical, you’re in for a surprise. ROOM is something much more intimate. It’s the harrowing but hopeful tale of a woman, Ma, and her young son, Jack, who have been locked away from the world but find joy in their shared love and imagination — until the two succeed in freeing themselves to embark on a halting, heartwarming journey toward healing.
Music features prominently in ROOM, but instead of glitzy showstoppers, these interludes offer moving glimpses into the emotional and imaginative lives of Ma and Jack. The music and lyrics are written by Cora Bissett, the show’s director, and Kathryn Joseph, both working with Donoghue to adapt the script from her own novel.
Warren steps into the role of Ma, the part that won Brie Larson an Oscar in the film adaptation. She leads a cast that also includes Tony nominee Ephraim Sykes (Ain’t Too Proud), and Donoghue, for one, can’t wait to see what an actor capable of filling the formidable shoes of Tina Turner does with the role of Ma. “I’m thrilled to bits we’ve managed to persuade Broadway royalty to be a part of the show,” the writer says.
For Warren, the appeal of ROOM is twofold.
“One of the main things that’s interesting to me is that it’s an opportunity to bring a show to Broadway that centers the imagination and joy of a little Black boy,” explains the performer, whose commitment to equity and diversity in the theater industry led to her cofounding role in the Tony-winning Broadway Advocacy Coalition. “To have that centered on a Broadway stage right now feels right.”
She was also drawn to the fact Ma is an extraordinary role — because she’s an ordinary woman.
“I’m normally playing a little bit of a badass, a little bit of a hero,” Warren says. “Someone who surprises everyone, or who is unbelievably resilient and unbelievably strong. What I love about ROOM is it really mirrors everyday life, in the sense of the darkness and lightness of it. Ma isn’t necessarily a hero. She’s a survivor. There’s heroism in just being able to take one foot and put it in front of the other, and sometimes that can be enough.”
ROOM takes audiences to some dark places, but as anyone who’s read the book or seen the movie knows, it finds its way to a place of light. “I hope people leave the theatre filled with hope and love,” Warren says. “I hope they hold on a little tighter to their family, their friends, and their loved ones. And I want them to feel hope that stems from self-love, and from giving themselves grace for waking up and going through another day.”
While she’s starring in ROOM, Warren will be reuniting with some loved ones of her own — all her friends and colleagues from the close-knit clan of Broadway.
“I love that Broadway is a community,” she says. “We grow together and cry together and get mad at each other. It’s a very interesting, dysfunctional family, and I love that about us.
“I have to say the Broadway fans are amazing as well,” she adds. “They are unbelievably supportive. The way they show up? They are unlike any other fans. In my own little way, I’m so excited to come home.”