Following an experienced Black stage actress through rehearsals of a major Broadway production, Alice Childress's wry and moving look at racism, identity, and ego in the world of New York theatre opened to acclaim off-Broadway in 1955. At the forefront of both the Civil Rights and feminist movements, the prescient Trouble in Mind was announced to move to Broadway in 1957...in a production that never came to be.
Childress wrote a satire of the white theater scene at the time, poking holes in liberal banalities and the white commitment to Black equality. It will still take your breath away, making it a mandatory stop in the fall season. The strong Roundabout Theatre Company's production that opened Thursday stars LaChanze and Chuck Cooper still standing on fissures that were raw in the 1950s, from how agreeable to white authority Blacks must pretend to behave in order to work to the plea of white actors uncomfortable with too much Black boldness.
Sixty-four years late and right on time, Alice Childress' wise and stirring backstage comedy-drama Trouble in Mind is making its long-in-coming Broadway debut tonight, and to describe the play as prescient would be an understatement. Uncanny rings truer. With a star turn by LaChanze that takes a strong place in a theatrical season already formidable in its roster of performances, Trouble in Mind takes a behind-the-curtain look at the racism, coded prejudice, self-flattery, sexism and built-in bigotry that Broadway has always professed to eschew.
2021 | Broadway |
Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Chuck Cooper |
2022 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Trouble in Mind |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Awards | LaChanze |
2022 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play | Trouble In Mind |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | LaChanze |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) | Emilio Sosa |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play | Chuck Cooper |
2022 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Play (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | Trouble in Mind |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Emilio Sosa |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play | Chuck Cooper |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | LaChanze |
2022 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Trouble in Mind |
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