On the heels of her Academy Award-winning, breakout performance in 12 Years a Slave, LUPITA NYONG'O stunned critics and audiences in the Public Theater's sold-out hit ECLIPSED- the "scorching and powerful" (The Guardian) new play by Zimbabwean-American playwright and actress DANAI GURIRA (star of AMC's "The Walking Dead" and co-author of In the Continuum). Now, the global star makes her Broadway debut in this "must-see" (NBC New York) production written, directed and performed entirely by female artists.
ECLIPSED is the story of five extraordinary women brought together by upheaval in their homeland of Liberia. They forge a close-knit community... one that inspires them to feats of increasingly greater strength. Directed by South African-born LIESL TOMMY (The Good Negro, Appropriate), ECLIPSED is a stirring tale of hope, humor and resilience- and the only new play by a woman on Broadway this season.
The front cover of the Playbill for the Broadway production of Eclipsed, which opened tonight, features the beautiful face of its star, Lupita Nyong'o, looking worried. The back cover, an ad for Lancôme, also features Nyong'o, smiling broadly. No doubt the back cover subsidized the front, because the chances of a play like Eclipsed getting to Broadway without a star of Nyongo's current cachet are nil. Eclipsed is about Liberian women forced into sex slavery during that country's mad civil war. And while it has moments of light-heartedness, and a wind-up that could conceivably be called hopeful (the war, after all, does end), most of the play, by Danai Gurira, is crushingly sad; what else could it be? So let us be grateful to 12 Years a Slave, the Academy Awards, and Advanced Génifique Youth Activating Serum for allowing a moving and must-see production to move and be seen.
This is an ensemble piece, not a star vehicle, but Nyong'o can't help standing out even as the girl becomes a fully fledged member of this unenviable community of war-ravaged women. Her plight is terrifying, and Nyong'o makes the tragedy achingly personal.
2015 | Off-Broadway |
Public Theatre Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
2016 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2016 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Saycon Sengbloh |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Lupita Nyong'o |
2016 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | Danai Gurira |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Play | Lupita Nyong'o |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Pascale Armand |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Zainab Jah |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play | Saycon Sengbloh |
2016 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding New Broadway Play | Danai Gurira |
2016 | The Lortels | Outstanding Costume Design | Clint Ramos |
2016 | The Lortels | Outstanding Director | Liesl Tommy |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Clint Ramos |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Liesl Tommy |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Pascale Armand |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play | Saycon Sengbloh |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play | Lupita Nyong'o |
2016 | Tony Awards | Best Play | Danai Gurira |
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