Spirited, hilarious and filled with intrigue, a new play by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins (who won a Tony Award in 2024 for Appropriate) comes to Broadway direct from Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company. The epic family drama arrives with Two-time Tony Award-winner Phylicia Rashad at the helm.
The Broadway cast features Two-time Tony Award nominee LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Harry Lennix, Jon Michael Hill, Glenn Davis, Alana Arenas, and Kara Young.
What's it all about? For decades, the influential Jasper family has been a pillar of Black American Politics: civil rights leaders, pastors and congressmen. But like all families, there are cracks and secrets just under the surface.
When the youngest son Nazareth returns home with an uninvited friend in tow, the family is forced into a reckoning with itself, its faith and the legacies of Black political power and familial duty.
Before arriving on Broadway, Purpose was commissioned by and had its World Premiere at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 2024. The production received three 2024 Equity Jeff Awards including Outstanding Production of a Play.
Purpose might surprise Jacobs-Jenkins diehards in its relatively straightforward melodramatic structure and earnest undercurrents, but the language inspires and, as one character says, “really works its way inside you.” As the weekend unravels, taking wild turns that neither Nazareth nor Aziza could have imagined, the way the Jaspers talk to each other and about themselves becomes more heartbreaking. Their terse exchanges and angry tirades are searching, almost desperate pleas for direction and mutual understanding. They sound like monologues at the end of The Comeuppance, when audiences commune with death and, in the midst of a pandemic, grapple with what it means to die. In Purpose, Jacobs-Jenkins asks us to confront what it means to live.
Time has passed Rev. Jasper by. Aged out of relevance, with the vigorous civil rights movement a thing of history, he sees his legacy in ashes, with one son a convicted felon and the other a divinity school dropout. This lion in winter retreats to the passions and pursuits of an earlier day, notably beekeeping (a dramatically interesting choice, as it turns out). Lennix is a marvel in this role, fires banked but still burning. Though he almost never raises his voice, we never question his authority, however disillusioned he’s become.
| 2025 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
| Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Performance in a Play | Kara Young |
| 2025 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Play | Branden Jacobs-Jenkins |
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | LaTanya Richardson Jackson |
| 2025 | Drama League Awards | DISTINGUISHED PERFORMANCE | Kara Young |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Direction of a Play | Phylicia Rashad |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play | LaTanya Richardson Jackson |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Performer in a Broadway Play | Kara Young |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Lead Performer in a Broadway Play | Jon Michael Hill |
| 2025 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Purpose |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Glenn Davis |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Jon Michael Hill |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play | Harry Lennix |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Kara Young |
| 2025 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | LaTanya Richardson Jackson |
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