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Emmy, Grammy, and Six-time Tony Award winner Audra McDonald will return to Broadway this season starring in Ohio State Murders by Adrienne Kennedy, directed by Tony Award winner Kenny Leon (Fences, A Soldier’s Play). The production will be the first show to play at the newly re-named and renovated James Earl Jones Theatre (formerly the 110-year-old Cort Theatre at 138 West 48th St.) with previews beginning on Friday, November 11, 2022 and opening on Thursday, December 8, 2022 for a strictly limited engagement.
Full casting, creative team and ticket on-sale information through Telecharge will be announced at a later date. This inaugural production is proudly presented by Jeffrey Richards, Lincoln Center Theater, Rebecca Gold, Jayne Baron Sherman, Hunter Arnold, Irene Gandy, Kevin Ryan/Lisa Alexander Taylor, Marc David Levine, Concord Theatricals, The Nederlander Organization and The Shubert Organization.
“One of the finest living American playwrights…” (The New York Times), Obie Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, and a member of the Theater Hall of Fame, Adrienne Kennedy will make her Broadway debut with this production at age 91. Earlier this year, Kennedy was awarded the Gold Medal for Drama from the Academy of Arts and Letters, which is awarded to those who have achieved eminence in an entire body of work. Only four other dramatists have been awarded the Gold Medal: Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller. Ms. Kennedy has been contributing to American theater for over six decades, and is best known for her plays such as Funnyhouse of a Negro (Obie Award), June and Jean in Concert (Obie Award), and Sleep Deprivation Chamber (Obie Award) and numerous other plays and books.
“I am so thrilled. It’s only taken me 65 years to make it to Broadway!” said Kennedy.
“I’m honored and humbled to be part of Adrienne Kennedy’s long-overdue Broadway debut in the newly dedicated James Earl Jones Theatre with Kenny Leon,” said McDonald. “This timeless play has a powerful resonance and relevance today, and we can’t wait to share it with the world.”
When writer Suzanne Alexander (Audra McDonald) returns to her alma mater as a guest speaker, in which she explores the violence in her works, a dark mystery unravels. Adrienne Kennedy’s Ohio State Murders is an intriguing and unusual suspense play, as well as a social pertinent look at the destructiveness of racism in our society.
The renaming of the Cort Theatre to the James Earl Jones Theatre was announced by The Shubert Organization, Inc. in March of 2022 in recognition of Mr. Jones’s lifetime of immense contributions to Broadway and the entire artistic community. Shubert has performed extensive renovation and construction work on the 110-year-old theatre, including construction of a new, contemporary wing.
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