Slippin' Through the Cracks: The Bobby Rush Musical at New Stage Theatre's Jane Reid-Petty Theatre Center

This world premiere musical tells the blues journey of Grammy Award-winning living legend Bobby Rush, from a sharecropper boy sneaking into juke joints through the segregated blues scene of Chicago alongside Muddy Waters and B.B. King, to worldwide stardom. The cast features three actors playing Rush at different stages of his life: Mark Henderson, Rajeer Alford, and Jaden White, alongside Joy Brashears Amerson, Grady Champion, Nancy Cheney, Melessie Clark, Jayla Lomax, Nicholas Patrick, Quinton Powell, Chris Roebuck, Vershaune Stamps, and Joe Tomberlin. The production features a score by Bobby Rush, is conceived by Stephen Lloyd Helper, and features a book by Rush and Helper, co-directed by Helper and Matthew Johnson Harris. Blending live music with storytelling, the show traces Rush's journey through American history and the blues, grounded by a message of perseverance, resilience, and joy.