Los Angeles, July 27 While their upcoming project derives its strength from dark subject matter, actress Taraji P. Henson is confident she and Cedric the Entertainer will find ways to elevate the experience of the viewers with humour.
The actress, 53, and the comedian, 61, are set to star in a new production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s ‘Come and Gone’, reports ‘People’ magazine.
The show will open in New York City at a to-be-determined Shubert theatre in spring 2026. Set in 1911, the play tells the story of a man who deals with the trauma of enslavement after years in captivity, and how he questions his identity, grapples with history and has a spiritual reckoning.
Despite the seriousness of the roles and the story itself, Henson said at Megan Thee Stallion's inaugural Pete & Thomas Foundation Gala in New York City told ‘People’ that she and Cedric are "gonna find some funny bits in there. I'm excited about that”.
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone is the second play in August Wilson’s acclaimed American Century Cycle, "a ten-part series of plays that showcase the African-American experience set in every decade of the 20th century”, as per the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
It was first staged on Broadway in 1988 in a production starring L. Scott Caldwell, Mel Winkler and Angela Bassett. In the latest adaptation, Henson will play Bertha Holly, the matriarch of a Pittsburgh boarding house, opposite Cedric as her husband Seth.
As per ‘People’, the revival, directed by Debbie Allen, marks the latest return to Wilson’s legendary work for producer Brian Anthony Moreland, whose recent productions have included The Piano Lesson (starring Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington) and Othello (with Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal).
Joe Turner’s Come and Gone marks a theatrical homecoming for Cedric, who previously appeared on Broadway in American Buffalo in 2008. Henson, meanwhile, will make her Broadway debut.
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