In one of the numerous free cultural events hosted by the New York Public Library (NYPL) throughout the year, stars of the current Broadway revival of “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” — Taraji P. Henson (“The Color Purple,” “Hidden Figures”), Ruben Santiago Hudson (“Lackawanna Blues,” “Castle),” Cedric Kyles aka Cedric the Entertainer (“The Neighborhood,” “Barbershop”), Joshua Boone (“Premature”), and theater actress Abigail Onwunale (“Jaja’s African Hair Braiding”) — recently sat together on a panel hosted by Richard Ridge, lead correspondent for Broadway World, at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (formerly Mid-Manhattan Library). They discussed the play’s author, its significance, and working together on the landmark play, which originally debuted on Broadway in 1988. The event took place before a packed live audience and livestreamed on the NYPL Youtube channel.
The staunch professionalism and playful camaraderie of the cast were evident during the panel. “We pray before every show,” said Henson. “We are a family. We feed each other. We are playing. We are having a good time every night.” Added Kyles, “There is a connection with [theater] co-stars you don’t get in film.”
“Joe Turner’s Come and Gone” is the fourth play of 10 in Wilson’s so-called Pittsburgh Cycle, most set in a decade of the 20th century. All but “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” are set in the historically Black Hill District neighborhood in Pittsburgh. The play’s revival arrives at a time when the legitimacy of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) has been contested, and it is a testament to the circumstances that necessitated it. It illustrates that slavery left a legacy that has had, and continues to have, a destructive impact psychologically and economically on successive generations of many Black people despite their resilience. Its boardinghouse setting — the kind of place many Black Americans used for housing as they relocated during the Great Migration — reminds us of the ways slavery and white supremacy had a unique impact on Black Americans.
Although she wasn’t physically at the event, Debbie Allen, the play’s director, was referenced repeatedly for the depth and quality of her interactions with the actors and the material itself. Said Henson, who made her Broadway debut with this role, “Debbie picked gifted people to be on this stage. Half the battle is the casting.” She also expounded on Allen’s guiding principle for the production. “She says it has to be rooted in truth. That’s why the show is such a hit. Every night we lean into the truth.”
Said Kyles, “Because [Allen] is also a performer herself, she shows up knowing what she wants to accomplish. I’ve watched her each night respect everybody on this stage and what they wanted to offer, and that’s something that’s unique.”
Cynthia Almanzar and Yu Liu photos
Onwunale recalled having an unprecedented reaction during her audition process. “It was the first time that I walked into an audition room and I felt like somebody completely saw me,” she said “I could cry thinking about it.” Allen also, it seems, employed an experiential approach with some of the actors, asking Henson, for example, to take a baking class. “I had to learn how to make that dough and make those biscuits!” Henson said.
Kyles saw a parallel with his own life in one of the play’s themes of finding identity. Feeling he was typecast as a sitcom actor, he said, “I was searching for something different to say I’m more than that. These words are in the play — people searching and trying to find who they are.”
Steeped in themes of African spirituality, displacement, identity, and trauma, and using Black musical traditions to resist dehumanization, the panelists also discussed the enduring significance of this work.“In a time like this when our very existence as people of color is being threatened, our history is being destroyed, and the stereotypes are stronger than ever, we get August Wilson to fight all that and knock all that stuff away and say ‘look how beautiful these people are. Look at all that love, look at all that intellect, and look at all that dignity,’” said Santiago-Hudson.
Onwunale added, “August Wilson’s writing is poetic, ancestral; it’s rooted in lineage. It makes you feel alive and grounds you into something that is real.” Boone said, “I feel, in using his language, a call to the furthest stretches of time.” Kyles said, “It’s so interesting the times we live in, with people trying to dismantle who we are and how we are connected. This play shows that every character has a different journey. My character recognizes he’s African-American but he also recognizes he’s not that kind of African-American.”
For Onwunale,the play’s theme of reclaiming identity extends to the audience viewing it. “What is beautiful about going into this theater and watching this show,” she said, “is that people can find an opportunity to reclaim themselves, to show who they are, to find who they are.”
Santiago-Hudson pointed out that he and the rest of the cast felt the weight of succeeding as a predominantly Black cast in a Broadway play. “When this is gone, the question is, what’s replacing ‘Joe Turner’ next season and the next season and the next season, because this is a big hit.”
How does that change the idea of what they are going to put next in that Broadway house and the next Broadway house? “We have to come out and shine,” Santiago-Hudson said. “We’ve got to be better than everybody else.”