The first show of the new Broadway season is the first-ever revival of a modern American classic. And as Time Out New York hails, “Welcome back, Home. You’ve been missed!”
This powerfully uplifting adventure by the late Samm-Art Williams and staged by Kenny Leon (“Broadway’s most essential director,” says The Chicago Tribune), is “beautiful, moving, and very funny (The Daily Beast).
Three actors “deliver astronomical performances” (Amsterdam News), portraying over 40 characters and capturing Broadway’s heart and soul, as they take you on a 90-minute journey with a North Carolina farmer who travels to the city and back, holding true to his faith, his spirit, and his long-lost love. “Home’s return is nothing short of a cause for celebration,” says the New York Sun.
"Welcome Back, HOME. You've been missed." -Time Out New York
“A lovely and richly poetic play. Home is emblematic of what so many of us seek from time at the theater” Chicago Tribune
“A top-notch production that serves as a fitting and heartfelt tribute to the author.” - Deadline
Samm-Art Williams was born in Burgaw, North Carolina seventy-eight years ago, and died in that same small rural town last month; he liked to tell people he was “just a country boy.” Actually, though, in between his birth and his death, Williams lived large in the big city – an actor in Hollywood movies, executive producer of the hit TV series “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air,” and a playwright who was best-known for “Home,” which was nominated for a Tony Award as Best Play after it transferred from The Negro Ensemble Company to Broadway in 1980. “Home,” a story about a son of the South who not-so-briefly loses his way, is opening tonight on Broadway in a revival directed by Kenny Leon; Williams died four days before its first preview.
Williams’ language is contagiously rhythmic, softer in the South and cynical up North, and the actors deliver dynamic performances, though they breathlessly barrel through the first few scenes. Leon, though always a casting dynamo, typically directs towards the finish line, and the play’s meandering molasses of a dramatic structure coagulates a bit. The production’s tone – especially as seen through Arnulfo Maldonado’s down-home set and Dede Ayite’s nostalgic costumes – is likewise consistent, if to a fault. No part of Cephus’ life is portrayed as having any real danger, no matter how bleak Williams’ observations about incarceration and the prospects available to Black men in this country can be.
1970 | Broadway |
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2024 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
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