Video: Debbie Allen Previews Broadway's JOE TURNER’S COME AND GONE
The production, starring Taraji P. Henson and Cedric “The Entertainer”, begins previews on March 30.
By: Josh Sharpe Nov. 25, 2025
Entertainment icon Debbie Allen, who is directing the forthcoming Broadway revival of Joe Turner's Come and Gone, recently visited Sherri to talk about her wide-spanning career. During the conversation, she previewed the new Broadway production and the August Wilson play shared how it came together.
"This is so exciting for me. I wish I was in rehearsal tomorrow. Denzel Washington has committed to immortalizing the work of August Wilson as films. This is called the Pittsburgh cycle, there's ten plays and he asked me to direct one of them."
The Emmy winner explained that this will follow the same strategy as The Piano Lesson, which was recently produced on Broadway before being made into a film. The show will star Taraji P. Henson and Cedric “The Entertainer,” the former of whom Allen has known since she was young. "[Taraji] was the first winner of the Allen scholarship, a scholarship that my sister and I put together to help young artists... we saw her [talent] then!"
Allen is a renowned choreographer, producer, and actress. She has choreographed the Academy Awards ceremony seven times, as well as films including “Forget Paris,” “A Jazzman's Blues” and “The Six Triple Eight.” Her producing credits include “Amistad” and “A Star for Rose" and has appeared as an actor in “Fame,” “Ragtime” and “Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling.” Her Broadway credits include Ain't Misbehavin', West Side Story, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.
Previews for Joe Turner's Come and Gone will begin on Monday, March 30, 2026, with an official opening night set for Saturday, April 25, through Sunday, July 12, only.
Cast members include Taraji P. Henson, Cedric “The Entertainer,” Joshua Boone, and Ruben Santiago-Hudson.
The design team for Joe Turner's Come and Gone features Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Tony Award winner Paul Tazewell (costume design), Tony Award winner David Gallo (scenic design), Drama Desk Award nominee Stacey Derosier (lighting design), Tony Award nominee Justin Ellington (sound design), and Academy Award, BAFTA Award, and Emmy Award winner Mia Neal (hair and wig design) with casting by Casting by ARC. Joe Turner's Come and Gone is lead produced by Brian Anthony Moreland with 101 Productions, Ltd. serving as general managers.
Set in 1911, Joe Turner's Come and Gone unfolds in a Pittsburgh boarding house run by the steadfast Seth and warm-hearted Bertha Holly. Their home offers refuge to Black travelers navigating the upheaval of the Great Migration. Among them is Herald Loomis, a man on a quest to reunite with his lost wife—and to reclaim the self he was forced to abandon during seven years of forced labor under Joe Turner.
As buried traumas surface and spiritual forces awaken, Loomis's journey becomes one of profound self-discovery. Around him, others seek connection, direction, and healing from a past marked by pain. Through poetic dialogue and vivid, deeply human characters, Wilson crafts a powerful meditation on identity, resilience, and renewal.
Joe Turner's Come and Gone is the second installment in Wilson's American Century Cycle — his groundbreaking ten-play series chronicling the African American experience in each decade of the 20th century. This long-awaited revival brings Wilson's enduring legacy back to Broadway, reaffirming the urgent, timeless relevance of his work.
